Bill Carmody may not coach baseball, but that doesn’t mean he can’t quote Yogi Berra.
In describing his team’s on-and-off shooting performance over the conference campaign, Carmody called on Berra’s famous axiom that baseball is “90 percent mental, and the other half is physical.”
In six losses, Northwestern (13-6, 3-5 Big Ten) shot 39.5 percent from the field. Meanwhile, in 13 victories the Cats hit 51 percent of their shots.
No player on the team encapsulates the Cats’ shooting woes better than sophomore forward Drew Crawford. In NU’s seven Big Ten contests, Crawford has been anything but consistent, either scoring less than eight or more than 16 points. Sunday was arguably Crawford’s worst performance of the season, as he went 0 for 6 from the field. After the game, Carmody told Crawford that even if he isn’t scoring, that doesn’t mean he can’t contribute.
“I told him after the game, ‘Just because you don’t shoot well doesn’t mean you can’t play well,'” Carmody said. “‘Get six or seven rebounds, steal a couple balls, get a loose ball, block a shot and then you’re not thinking, Oh, I’m 0-for-4.’ It’s hard because a lot of people identify how well they played with how well they’re shooting, but there are other things you can do, and if you do those other things then you’re a little more relaxed about your shooting.”
BOARDING UP THE BARN
NU’s streaky shooting will be doubly important tonight in Minneapolis, as second-chance opportunities are going to be few and far between. Not only do the Cats pull down the fewest offensive boards of any Big Ten team, the Gophers are the conference’s rebounding cream of the crop. Minnesota (15-4, 4-3) owns a +6.4 rebounding differential, nine boards higher than NU’s -2.4 mark.
Much of the Gophers’ success is due to junior forward Trevor Mbakwe, a junior college transfer. Mbakwe, who began his career at Marquette before transferring to Miami Dade College, boasts the best paint presence of all Big Ten big men, grabbing a league-leading 10.3 rebounds a game.
“He’s a rebounding machine,” Carmody said. “He scores around the basket. They run a few plays for him, but for the most part he plays really hard. He’s big, strong and athletic and he just goes after it.”
The Cats’ defense has struggled with stopping opposing offenses from cleaning the glass, and in NU’s last two conference losses, Wisconsin and Michigan State combined for 19 offensive boards.
“A lot of times when a shot would go up we would turn our heads to the basket and see if the ball is going to bounce our way,” junior center Luka Mirkovic said. “We’ve got to turn around and put our bodies on the other guys.”
Carmody agreed that with rebounding, the problem may be physical rather than mental.
“I don’t know what to say,” he said. “It’s a real basic thing. You’ve got to keep your body in front of your guy, and when the shot goes up, you’ve got to box him out. It’s going to be extremely physical (tonight).”
ALL ABOUT THE HOFF
The Gophers shot the Cats out of the Barn in NU’s last two visits to Williams Arena, connecting on 51 and 48 percent of their attempts from the field in 2009 and 2010, respectively. To make matters worse, in both contests Minnesota caught fire from beyond the arc. Two years ago the Gophers recorded seven threes on 16 tries in a 72-45 blowout. Last year Blake Hoffarber nailed a trio of long balls in a two-and-a-half minute span, helping Minnesota hold off a furious NU comeback.
Hoffarber’s three-point percentage may be down this year, but he’s still just as dangerous. Purdue discovered exactly how lethal the senior guard can be when he went 4-for-6 from downtown two weeks ago in an upset of the then-No.8 Boilermakers .
For Carmody’s Cats, pressuring the senior guard will be key.
“Wherever he’s at we have to know where’s he’s at,” senior guard Michael Thompson said. “Whether we’re in our matchup zone or our 1-3-1, when he catches it we have to be right there on him.”
