Hoopraker

It’s six years too late, but in the black hole that is Northwestern’s basketball program that’s usually the time it takes for nothing to change. This is a program that in over a century of basketball has never been to the NCAA tournament and has only three NIT appearances, the most recent being in 1999. Not that many give a mortarboard one way or the other. Expectations are subterranean in Evanston. Bill Carmody has benefited from being on a campus where professors have higher status than basketball coaches.

People who care about basketball at Northwestern, however, and there are a few of these clinical cases (often heard muttering into coats outside Welsh-Ryan about “missed layups” and the lack of a single reliable jumpshooter on a team that runs a perimeter based system), think there’s more reasons the program can do better than excuses why it can’t. Big Ten basketball in the conference’s best media outlet. Peerless, free education and alumni connections that virtually guarantee a plum post-graduate job. Great campus, great college town. A chance to play early and often. And for the Chicago high schooler, all these things plus proximity. If you can’t close this sales pitch you just aren’t trying hard enough.

Aye, there’s the rub. Jeremy Nash and Sterling Williams notwitsthanding, there’s plenty of indications in the past six years that Carmody hadn’t been making enough effort recruiting Chicago. I’m not sure why a guy would fly to Zagreb in lieu of driving a few minutes to see a Chicago ballplayer or develop a relationship with some local coaches. I’ve heard the root vegetables are mighty fresh and I can’t complain about Vedran Vukisic, but Croatia’s been a low yield strategy for Carmody.

Contrary to the apologists and excuse makers, there are more than a few kids in Chicagoland who can play Big Ten basketball the Carmody way and have good enough grades for Northwestern. There are plenty of Jeff Ryans out there. It’s just a matter of beating down doors, showing up at the right gyms early and often, and talking to the coaches, especially at schools where academics aren’t a dirty word (e.g. Whitney Young, Morgan Park Academy, Chicago Catholic league, suburbs at large). The kids who want run and gun basketball and a fancy arena wouldn’t get into Northwestern anyway.

For whatever reason, Carmody and his lieutenants have started to recruit the backyard in earnest. Maybe it was just a matter of hiring the right kind of personality for the job. All indications suggest Tavaras Hardy is bringing a great deal of enthusiasm and doggedness to the task, see evidence here and here. And Bill Carmody, himself, is starting to increase his face time in Chicagoland gyms. He also paid a recent visit to New Trier’s home court to watch 6′9″ junior Michael Dunigan of Farragut.

Now it’s time to close some deals. Luke Fabrizius of John Hersey High (class of 2008, 6’8”, shooter), Matt Roth of downstate Washington (2008, dubbed the best shooter in Illinois), and Geoff McCammon of Conant (2007, 6’4”, dead-eye shooter) are but a few examples of ideal fits. Fabrizius has a freshman teammate by the name of Ben Brust who is already developing a reputation as one of the area’s best shooters. Dunigan and Iman Shumpert, an Oak Park-River Forest guard, are also on Northwestern’s radar. Hoopraker can’t vouch for the latter two, but these are the caliber of players Carmody and staff need to get involved with early in the process.

And it isn’t merely about volume from Chicago. It’s getting the right Chicago kid for the Northwestern system. Jeff Ryan and some of the abovementioned are good fits. Several of his recent local recruits are less so. It remains to be seen whether his two hometown catches from the class of 2007, Michael Thompson of Lincoln Park and Mike Capocci of Glenbard East, are the right stuff. They are well regarded in many precincts, but do they have the kind of skill sets that will thrive in the Princeton offense? Proof will come next November. For Carmody’s sake, he needs them to be immediate impact players in the Ryan, Kevin Coble mold.

Suffice to say, there has to be a smart recruiting philosophy to compliment the recruiting effort. Shooting seems to be an obvious prerequisite and one that is sorely missing on his current and past rosters. Rebounding and increased strength and physicality in the frontcourt is in dire need. Gritty, confident players who relish battle and can finish around the rim. Everyone and anyone who can do even a modest imitation of Kevin Coble. None of this is exotic or out of reach for Northwestern.

If Carmody can start to close on the right kids, the single digit losses at home become wins. And with kids who have fight and better shooting ability, the Cats can start to think about adding to the program’s anemic postseason appearances.

Posted by DJ Elsass on Monday, February 5th, 2007 at 8:15 pm.