Bill Carmody’s 1-3-1 zone has its positives and negatives. In a 77-74 overtime win over Minnesota, Northwestern got its fair share of both.
“We really had no answer to solving their pressure with the 1-3-1,” Minnesota coach Tubby Smith said. “It’s been a real problem for us.”
The weakness of the zone is that it plays relatively ineffective perimeter defense-so when Carmody opened the game out of his signature defensive set, it seemed like a risky move. After all, Minnesota has its fair share of gunners: junior Blake Hoffarber leads the conference by shooting 50 percent from deep, while team scoring leader Lawrence Westbrook hits from a 41 percent rate.
Sure enough, the Golden Gophers shot hot from the start, connecting on six of their first eight attempts from downtown. Even when the Wildcats had a defender on the man beyond the arc, they weren’t getting their hands up. The Gophers also grabbed the offensive rebound after their lone two 3-point misses.
“We played poorly against Iowa a few nights back, and our first half tonight seemed like a continuation of that 40 minutes,” Carmody said. “It seemed like a lethargic game. We really couldn’t get any energy.”
But the defense that contributed to the Cats’ eight-point halftime deficit came back to save them.
“During timeouts and huddles, we kept reminding each other that we were down at their place,” junior guard Michael Thompson said. “And our 1-3-1 and energy on defense would bring us back into the game. That proved true tonight.”
While the defense is prone to giving up open looks from downtown and gives up a lot of offensive rebounds, it prevents penetration and forces turnovers, which is exactly what allowed NU to work its way back into the game.
The Cats forced the Gophers to cough the ball up nine times in the second half. Sophomore Luka Mirkovic, playing the roving, trapping center of the 1-3-1, managed four steals, including one that led to coast-to-coast fast break layup for the big man.
“We started to pick it up a little bit when we started that pressure, three-quarter court pressure,” Carmody said. “And we extended our 1-3-1, which is usually pretty far out, but we even went further with it. We made those adjustments for those shooters.”
The increased intensity on defense almost let the Cats escape regulation with a win.
“They tightened up their defense,” Smith said. “They clamped down on us, they trapped us harder, they got hands on balls, and they became more active.”
Then the 1-3-1’s bad side reared its ugly head again. Up three with half a minute left, Westbrook missed an open 3-point look, and teammate Damian Johnson came down with the board. The Cats’ defense didn’t reset quickly enough to find Hoffarber, who scored all nine of his points on open 3-pointers in the game’s final minute and overtime.
In the extra session, the Gophers was able to keep gunning from downtown, hitting 3-of-4 but it was their back-to-back turnovers with the game tied that gave NU a four-point lead they did not relinquish.[email protected]
