Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

45° Evanston, IL
Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Schecker: NU earns a moral win against Ohio State

Northwestern’s clash with No. 1 Ohio State on Saturday night is the first and last time I will qualify a Wildcat loss as a moral victory.

I tend to agree with Pat Fitzgerald, who has said numerous times, including after the TicketyCity Bowl loss on Jan. 1, there are no moral victories for the NU football program.

The same should apply to Bill Carmody’s team, but Saturday evening is an exception.

Had you told me before tip-off the Buckeyes would clinch the win on a Jared Sullinger free throw with 3.5 seconds remaining, I would have looked at you and laughed. Pretty much everyone on this campus predicted, at minimum, a 25-point defeat.

Even though their most prolific scorer, junior forward John Shurna, sat on the bench because of a concussion, the Cats were still Drew Crawford’s half-court desperation shot away from spoiling the Buckeyes’ undefeated season.

That final play was eerily reminiscent of Butler’s Gordon Hayward’s last-second attempt to upset Duke in last year’s NCAA Tournament Final.

“Obviously we would like to walk away with a victory, but we played them tough and it came down to the last play of the game,” senior forward Mike Capocci said after the 58-57 loss. “We’ll walk away with it with what we can, and we’ll come back ready to play next week.”

What the Cats can take away with from Saturday is that they have found a new game plan to challenge their Big Ten foes.

Michael Thompson had multiple open looks from the 3-point line with the shot clock winding down during the second half. Had Thompson knocked down one more, Carmody’s strategy of burning at least 20-25 seconds during each offensive possession could have propelled the Cats to college basketball’s upset of the year.

Instead of trying to run the score into the 80s next Saturday against Illinois, the Cats should implement the same approach of running down the shot clock. Killing time in every possession not only limits the opponent’s number of opportunities to score, it also wears down the other team by forcing them to play defense for an extended period of time.

Additionally, if having a legitimate shot to upset the top team in the land isn’t a confidence builder, than I don’t know what qualifies as one.

After a demoralizing blowout home loss to Wisconsin and another loss at Minnesota where Shurna was shoved into the basket’s safeguard, NU showed the resilience and effort that’s been lacking too often this season.

Unfortunately, the Cats cannot carry any of Saturday’s momentum into a mid-week Big Ten match. For the first time during conference play, the Cats get a full week’s break in between games.

But that’s also a plus because Shurna will have more time to recover from his concussion.

The moral victory against the Buckeyes provided the Cats with a new efficient game plan and a confidence boost that could propel them to play better down the stretch and, hopefully, reach the postseason.

Well, at least the NIT.

Justin Schecker is a Medill junior. He can be reached at [email protected].

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Schecker: NU earns a moral win against Ohio State