By Patrick DorseyThe Daily Northwestern

Northwestern has a fever.

Several players can’t make shots. Others seem scared to take them. And, as seen in Saturday’s ugly 53-51 win over Penn State, the already shaky Wildcats’ offense often disappears when senior leader Tim Doyle is off the court.

Yes, NU has a fever. And the only prescription is more Coble.

Kevin Coble, that is.

It’s no secret this freshman from Phoenix might already be the best player on the team.

He leads NU in scoring and rebounding. He could find himself on the Big Ten’s All-Freshman team, alongside a certain player named Oden.

He slashes. He creates shots. He knocks down ones created for him. He rips down rebounds with authority (he had a career-high 10 of them Saturday, to go along with his 16 points) and often is tenacious on defense.

He’s far from perfect – his wiry frame hurts him inside at times, and he still makes a number of rookie mistakes.

But on a team filled with system guys, Coble looks like he could play anywhere, with anyone. If he develops just a bit, he could become better than Vedran Vukusic. And soon.

Sounds like the future is bright, right?

Well, in honor of coach Bill Carmody’s Princeton Offense, let’s slow down a bit.

Looks as though, effective as Coble can be, he can get bogged down in the plodding procedure of his coach’s system.

There are times Coble calls for the ball, only to see teammates swing it to the opposite side of the arc (often for seemingly no particular reason, other than to eat more clock). Other times he gets the ball and doesn’t even look for the shot, lest the system break down.

It’s times like these you just wish Coble would pull a Kobe – take the ball and force up a few contested, off-balance shots, Princeton Offense be damned.

You wish he would try to take over a game (and, with NU basically out of the NIT hunt, it wouldn’t make much of a difference anyway). You wish Carmody would just let Coble go crazy and take 20 shots, like he’s done only once this season (in his 23-point outing against Tennessee Tech).

It might not work all the time, but, as Doyle said Saturday, NU needs a leader for next season. And unless Carmody wants Coble to become the next Mohamed Hachad (right player, wrong system), he might need to abandon the offense that saw a number of players toss up 3’s Saturday like they were trying to win a halftime contest.

So yes, the offense clicks sometimes, and you can’t just abandon a system every time it fails.

But a few more Coble isolation plays and a few fewer clock-killing possessions could go a long way toward solidifying the freshman as a legitimate Big Ten star – and toward making the offense work long after Doyle retires (literally?) from the program.

And that might just cure the fever of seven years (and counting) without a postseason appearance.

Assistant Sports Editor Patrick Dorsey is a Medill senior. Reach him at [email protected].