After playing less than five minutes in the first half of a Wednesday night exhibition game against Illinois State, junior center Arrinten Page heard a clear message from his head coach: Warm up hard at halftime. You’re needed on the court.
Page, who was pegged with his first foul call just 48 seconds into the contest, racked up three by the time the first half had concluded. When he hit the floor after intermission, it took him only 19 seconds to be called with a fourth.
Navigating large portions of the game with his lone big man relegated to the bench, coach Chris Collins made use of the opportunity to hone his substitution strategy, something he said he’s still learning as his team begins to operate with a deeper rotation.
But despite his group’s dominant performance, which allowed it to triumph over the Redbirds 100-65, Collins admitted that playing the bulk of the game without a true center on the floor was not ideal.
“We need him,” Collins said, referring to Page. “It’s not a secret: we need his size, we need his talent. He can block shots, he protects our basket, he can catch lobs.”
For the 13th-year program architect, Page’s “silly early fouls” were spurred, in part, by a lack of high-minute experience. Collins acknowledged that his starting center averaged about 10 minutes per game at each of his previous schools, USC and Cincinnati.
But now that he’s in Evanston, Collins intends to rely on him more heavily than ever before.
“He’s a big part of what we’re doing,” Collins said. “Hopefully we can learn from this and make sure he doesn’t play 10 minutes the next game, because we really need him out there for 20-plus.”
Despite being on the court for only a quarter of the contest, Page made his presence felt when he came back in at the second half’s midway point, ending the day as NU’s second-leading scorer with 16 points.
In less than 50 seconds of game time, just before the under-8 timeout, he erupted for a dunk, a 3-pointer and two made-foul shots, showing off his ability to score on multiple levels in addition to his crucial defensive participation.
Aside from Page’s personal trouble early on, Collins said cutting down the number of foul calls across the entire team will be a point of emphasis headed into the regular season. After racking up 19 calls in their first exhibition game against Iowa State on Sunday, the ’Cats fouled 28 times against Illinois State.
On a night with an abundance of whistles, the visitors recorded 27 fouls of their own, giving each squad a chance to test its consistency at the charity stripe.
“We can’t just let teams parade to the free throw line, that’s gonna be a recipe for disaster,” Collins said.
With his 6-foot-11 center off the floor, Collins experimented with different lineups, occassionally placing senior forward Nick Martinelli on the floor with four guards.
At first, the small-ball combinations struggled, getting beat in the paint on a handful of first-half possessions. But as several players found their spark for the first time this season, once the ’Cats managed to build a multi-possession lead, they never lost it.
Both teams struggled to produce offensively early on, as each group just barely reached double-digit scoring by the first half’s midway point.
With Illinois State up 15-13 and 10:40 left to go before halftime, junior guard Jayden Reid’s foul shot boinked off the backboard, and he hustled after it to re-establish possession. From there, he navigated traffic in front of the basket and was fouled again on the way to the rim. This time, though, he converted from the line.
After the Redbirds airballed a 3-pointer, NU’s point guard had the ball in his hands inside the arc once again, but momentarily lost his dribble. Diving to the floor, Reid quickly redirected the ball to sophomore guard Angelo Ciaravino, who knocked down another basket.
Then, it was sophomore guard K.J. Windham’s turn.
Bouncing back from a shortened showing due to early foul trouble against Iowa State just four days prior, Windham cashed in on the chance to bring his team some scoring momentum the moment he hit the floor Wednesday.
Forty-three seconds after checking in for the first time, Windham drained a pull-up 3-point jumper. Easy money.
By that point, early hiccups with smaller combinations on the court had dissipated, and Collins’ group rode its lead all the way to the bank, building it handily in the process.
“This is a testament to our culture of guys who don’t really care what position they’re playing,” Martinelli said postgame. “They just care that they’re out there and get to carry on a tradition.”
Asked about how he thinks a deeper rotation and more breathing room will impact his game, Martinelli said he’d be willing to play 50 or 60 minutes in any position, as long as his team needs him.
Following a blowout win over their final exhibition foe, the ’Cats will hope to carry their winning momentum into their season-opener against Mercyhurst on Monday.
“I think that’s just part of being in this culture,” Martinelli said. “It’s just doing whatever you can, whatever it takes to win and whatever it takes to have your brother’s back.”
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