COLUMBUS, Ohio – For about three minutes of game time Saturday, Northwestern wasn’t Northwestern. Instead of methodical and plodding, the Wildcats were fast and frenetic, creating turnovers and turning them into quick points.
And in the middle of it all was Mohamed Hachad.
The senior guard scored 15 straight points and, in doing so, single-handedly took the Cats from 11 down to within two with 5:31 left in their eventual loss at No. 12 Ohio State. Hachad jumped out ahead for easy fast-break baskets off steals. In half-court situations he told the Princeton offense to go back to New Jersey, instead driving to the hoop for almost-uncontested layups.
The easy question to ask here is: If Hachad has the ability to take over games, why doesn’t coach Bill Carmody turn him loose more often?
The answer, though, is almost as easy. Letting Hachad go crazy simply doesn’t fit Carmody’s Princeton offense, which values the passing and shooting of players like Vedran Vukusic over Hachad’s dribble-drives.
This is why, four years, 106 games, 2,752 minutes and 854 points into his career, it’s safe to say this: Mohamed Hachad simply doesn’t fit in at NU.
It’s a shame, really. The guy is so athletic, so gifted and has such an iron will that you wonder what he might have been had he chosen another school, another system.
Imagine if he had gone to Kansas, one of the programs he supposedly spurned in favor of NU. As a freshman he would have been a reserve on Roy Williams’ fun-loving, fast-paced Final Four team that fell to Syracuse in the national final. This year he’d be a rare senior on Bill Self’s inexperienced squad filled with tremendous athletes who just now are coming into their own.
For the Casablanca-born baller, it could have been the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Instead Hachad is mired in a system that sometimes makes him look lost. He’s a slasher, not a shooter (while his team-leading .544 field goal percentage may say otherwise, it mostly is a result of the amount of layups he takes). He’s more a dribbler than a precision passer, and often goes for the flashy play rather than the efficient one – sometimes he tries so hard to ignite the offense that he commits a silly turnover.
This is how the guy almost universally known as the Cats’ second-most talented player – Vukusic, who is perfect for Carmody’s offense, is NU’s best – sometimes puts up a big nothing on the scoreboard (he’s scored four or fewer points in five of his 21 contests this season). This has knocked the shoot-first guard’s scoring average to a mere 11.3 per game.
It’s also how Hachad’s been able to work himself into Carmody’s doghouse two years in a row, missing five starts this season and 10 last year.
And all the while he’s been able to provide game-changing performances like Saturday’s. Or earlier this season against Delaware State, where Hachad missed a dunk, received a shower of boos from the home crowd, then scored 11 straight points in the second half and overtime to avoid an embarrassing loss.
But he just doesn’t do it enough. The system won’t let him.
Hachad doesn’t seem upset about where he is. By all accounts he gets along well with his teammates and is having a good time in Evanston. And when asked about whether things would be different in a different system, Hachad provided a thoughtful answer.
“It’s hard to tell,” he said. “I think about it. A lot of people tell me about it. But I don’t really know, because I haven’t played at another college.”
One can only imagine if he did. My guess is both Hachad and NU probably would have been better off.
Assistant sports editor The Patrick Dorsey is a Medill junior. He can be reached at [email protected].