By Ben LarrisonThe Daily Northwestern
In the past three seasons, Northwestern finished just one game short of postseason eligibility three times.
“One game under .500 the last three years – it’s kind of unbelievable,” senior Tim Doyle said. “You turn one game around (and) you go to the NIT three straight years. Next thing you know, we’re an up and coming team.”
With freshmen making up more than one third of the roster this season, the Wildcats aren’t expected to make the postseason, a place they haven’t been since 1999.
With the loss of veterans like Vedran Vukusic, Mohamed Hachad, Michael Jenkins and Evan Seacat, the Cats need people to step up in their place. They will rely on veterans like seniors Doyle and Vince Scott and sophomore Craig Moore to fill the voids in the offense and take on leadership roles. Their first test will be Friday night, when the Cats take on Cornell at Welsh Ryan Arena.
Doyle, who averaged 8.0 points and 3.8 assists per game last season, is expected to be the centerpiece of the offense and the vocal leader for NU. Moore, a Big Ten All-Freshmen Team selection, is the only returnee to start every conference game last season. He was second on the team in 3-pointers, but Moore said he tried to expand his game over the summer.
“(I worked on) getting the ball inside and driving to the basket as much as possible,” Moore said. “And seeing what can come out of that: dishing out, trying to finish; just seeing what happens when I get in there.”
Still, any NU successes will rely on the contributions of its newcomers. The Cats are a young team this year, with seven new players including six freshmen. Two of the freshmen, Kevin Coble and Jeff Ryan, started NU’s recent scrimmage against Illinois-Chicago, and Carmody said he expects them to get significant playing time this season.
In the wake of Vukusic’s departure, two fellow Croatians have joined the NU roster: Ivan Peljusic and Nikola Baran.
Thus far, Carmody said he has been impressed with some of his freshmen, but until the season begins, there is no true indicator of what their actual contributions will be.
“It’s pretty hard to know right now,” Carmody said. “Even if the young guys do well in practice, is that the same? So you’ve got four o’clock shooters, but once you hit 7:30, it’s a little different, so we have wait and see.”
Having such a young team certainly had its impact in the first few weeks of practice, with much of the time dedicated to teaching the new players the offense. Carmody said he ended up almost completely ignoring his returnees over the first 10 sessions, focusing instead on the development of his younger players, but has since returned to practice as usual.
And while the veterans have been instrumental in bringing along the freshmen, according to Carmody, the time has come for players to focus in on their own games.
“It’s hard, because again (they’re) trying to help the younger guys, but now, a lot of guys have got to compete with them,” Carmody said. “So you can’t be ‘Captain Nice.’ You’ve got to go out there and get your nose in there and try to beat the freshmen now.”
The Cats are undeniably in a rebuilding year and many are picking them to finish near the bottom of the conference standings, but no one seems to treat them as such. According to Doyle, a “watered down” Big Ten and the talent of NU’s freshmen make the Cats a threat in any game. And many conference foes, such as Indiana’s D.J. White, know it’s never easy to play against the Princeton Offense.
“They’re always a tough matchup because of the offense they run,” White said. “Teams really hate playing them because of the backdoor passes and all that.”
Reach Ben Larrison at [email protected].
