Who will replace Craig Moore?
Apparently, everybody will.
“I don’t think you can replace him,” coach Bill Carmody said. “It’s going to have to come in a lot of different ways.”
Northwestern is lucky enough to return four of their five starters from the team that made the National Invitation Tournament last season.
Unfortunately, the one player who won’t be there this year is Moore. Moore broke his own school record for 3-pointers in a season last year with 110, finishing his career with 320, the fourth-highest total in Big Ten history. Moore’s potent jumper allowed NU to spread the floor as defenders learned that even giving Moore the smallest amount of space would likely result in him taking and making a 3.
Replacing Moore’s seemingly automatic 15 points per game looks like it will need to be a team effort. Nobody on the team is as proficient at catching-and-shooting as Moore was. But NU’s starting lineup will feature five players who can hit shots from beyond the arc: from 5-foot-10 point guard Juice Thompson, who led the team with a .435 3-point percentage last year, to the 6-foot-11 Luka Mirkovic, who hit four of the 10 3-pointers he attempted in his freshman year.
“Craig was always good for us to run a play when we needed it,” senior forward Kevin Coble said. “But we’ll have a more balanced attack. Everybody really improved their shooting over the summer.”
The question as to who is the best shooter on the team gets varied responses. Carmody said sophomore forward John Shurna “shoots the heck out of the ball.” Moore himself said Thompson is best on the team via his blog about his experiences playing in the Netherlands. Coble said Thompson and Shurna would take a lot of the responsibilities Moore had. Thompson brought up freshman Alex Marcotullio when asked who would replace Moore.
Marcotullio might not immediately fill Moore’s role as a shooter, but from what NU showed in its exhibition game, it looks like the 6-foot-3 freshman will be taking his spot as a point guard while letting Thompson get a breather. Although he missed all his shots in the exhibition, Marcotullio’s shooting touch supposedly has the potential to come near Moore’s.
“Alex can come in and knock down a shot,” Coble said. “If he gets a little bit more comfortable and more experience, he can be a similar guy.”
Taking Moore’s abandoned spot in the starting lineup is Drew Crawford, a 6-foot-5 freshman guard who is one of the most highly-touted recruits in school history. But Crawford’s playing style looks to be an almost polar opposite from what Moore brought. Moore could hit shots from five or six feet beyond the arc with a defender on him. Crawford airballed a wide-open 17-footer in an exhibition against Robert Morris.
Yet Crawford has dynamic athleticism, the likes of which is rarely seen in Evanston: Crawford threw down a breakaway dunk in the exhibition game. On the defensive side of the ball, Moore hustled but often wasn’t athletic enough to keep up with his man. Crawford looked to be in good form defensively against Robert Morris, blocking an opposing fadeaway, while Moore only blocked 21 shots in his entire career. And while Moore went to great efforts to avoid having to dribble the ball with his left hand, Crawford is a very adept ballhandler.
“He can get you five rebounds,” Carmody said. “Craig couldn’t get you five rebounds. He can go to the hole. Craig never went to the basket.”
However, that doesn’t mean Crawford won’t be shooting the ball.
“I’m working on trying to get to the level he was at in terms of shooting,” Crawford said. “Getting to be in the starting lineup is about work.”
But the biggest difference between the two is Moore was basically a go-to scorer. When the clock was ticking down, the ball often managed to find a way into his hands, regardless of how well he was guarded or how far away he was from the basket. Crawford will most likely be the last option as he adjusts.
“He’s a freshman starting with four veterans,” Carmody said. “He won’t have to impact the game that much, but I want him in, because I think he’s going to get better and better and better.”
Probably the biggest difference that NU will have is the team will be far more versatile. For all Moore’s virtues, he was essentially a one-dimensional player. With a bigger, more athletic two guard starting, and possibly the deepest bench NU has ever had, the Cats will have the ability to mix it up.
“Craig Moore was outstanding last year, but there were a couple of years where Northwestern didn’t give you a different look,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said at Big Ten Media Day in October. “That was their lineup, and that’s what they stayed with. Now, they can go big, they can go small, they can do all sorts of different things.”
Amidst all the talk of replacing Moore, Crawford could end up replacing somebody else at the end of the year.
“Crawford’s struggled a bit in the offense, but he knows how to play,” Coble said. “He reminds me a lot of myself freshman year.”[email protected]
