Men’s Basketball

When Rutgers called a timeout 3 minutes into Saturday’s contest, the game was effectively over. Northwestern only led by 6, but back-to-back turnovers prompted by a full-court press foretold the Wildcats’ eventual 98-59 victory.

Off the turnovers — the first an errant pass that sailed out of bounds and the second a desperation heave intercepted by junior forward Sanjay Lumpkin — the Cats scored twice, with sophomore guard Bryant McIntosh’s 3-pointer off the steal eliciting the Scarlet Knights’ timeout.

“The press really took them out of what they wanted to do,” McIntosh said. “It’s hard to run a Princeton offense when you only have about 18 seconds to … find a shot. Because we were able to press them and run the shot clock down that way, it really helped our defense.”

Overall, Rutgers committed 12 turnovers, with guards Mike Williams and Bishop Daniels logging three apiece.

That the Scarlet Knights, already a Big Ten bottom-feeder, were without their best player in freshman point guard Corey Sanders deserves a share of blame for their inability to control the ball. But NU also played a sound defensive game, even if it was magnified tenfold by Rutgers’ own flaws.

And the forced turnovers led to offensive production. NU scored 23 points — nearly a quarter of their total output — off Rutgers’ mistakes, giving it another boost in the lopsided contest.

“We knew, watching film, we were going to zone this team,” coach Chris Collins said. “Just the way they played, it set itself up to play our matchup (zone), and we felt really good about that. So I didn’t want to just start this game by running back and sitting in a zone. … More than anything, I wanted to use (the press) to juice our guys up.”

On the heels of a loss to Michigan in which the Cats’ strong defense nearly awarded them the win, the sound defensive performance is promising, especially with the Big Ten Tournament looming.

NU’s matchup zone defense has crumbled against many of the Big Ten’s top teams, and while Rutgers is hardly the quintessential conference opponent, Collins can rest easy knowing that his team’s defense is in a rhythm heading into the tournament.

And, if nothing else, he now has a full-court press in his back pocket to utilize in dire situations.

“I thought it was really effective for this game,” Collins said. “And it’s something we have if we want to be able to use it.”

Email: garrettjochnau2019@u.northwestern.edu
Twitter: @GarrettJochnau