With pristine textbooks and tidy off-campus apartments replete with clean laundry, the college basketball season commenced last Autumn amidst optimism for three recent bottom dwellers of the Big Ten. Unfortunately, as we enter the final week of the Big Ten season, much has changed for Northwestern, Minnesota and Penn State, teams with a collective 6 wins and 37 losses in Conference. With little to play for other than pride for their respective programs, these teams can pour cold water on three of their bretheren that cannot afford one more loss: Iowa, Purdue and Indiana.
Tonight in Happy Valley
Entering this season, Penn State looked like an NCAA team in waiting. Coming off an NIT tournament bid and with everyone of importance back, including all conference players Geary Claxton and Jamelle Cornley, this should have been the year the Nittany Lions made noise. Expectations are tricky and in a season that can only be described as a major disappointment, all’s quiet and no noise in State College.
But in tonight’s game against a desperate Iowa 16-12 team, here’s a game Ed DeChellis and Penn State can win. Despite mounting losses, the Nittany Lions continue to play hard, evidenced by tough and competitive loses to Ohio State. Since beating Northwestern on January 3, Penn State has rattled off 13 bitter defeats in a row. They’re due, long overdue, for a win. In a self-serving yet accurate comment, Thad Matta observed that Penn State was the best bad team he’s coached against. Claxton and Cornley are too good to be this bad. With Iowa and Indiana left on the schedule, neither should overlook Penn State and if they do, they’ll lose.
Gophers Mackey Attack
On the heels of an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2006 and with Dan Coleman, Spencer Tollackson and Jamal Abu-Shamala coming back, and Lawrence McKenzie coming in, Dan Monson looked prepared to make a repeat appearance in the NCAAs. He didn’t make it out of December. In Monson’s stead, Jim Molinari has taken over the reigns with the authority and conviction of someone who believes in Minnesota basketball. But since beating Purdue in the Big Ten opener on January 3 in the Barn and despite playing hard every night, they’ve lost to everybody but Northwestern and Penn State.
Minnesota plays Purdue in West Lafayette, where the Boilers play like champions. With this being the next to last dance in Mackey for Carl Landry and David Teague (who seems to have been around as long as the Illini’s Andy Kauffman), this is certainly one game Purdue can’t and won’t overlook. Painter may want to give the schedule maker a bear hug and a Christmas card. After Minnesota, Purdue finishes up the regular season with Northwestern. If they win out, Purdue is 20-10 going into the Conference Tournament in Chicago. In the unlikely event they coast tonight and lose to Minnesota tonight, it’s over for Matt Painter.
Hoosiers in Welsh-Ryan
Welsh-Ryan in a notorious arena in the Big Ten, where visiting teams tend to lose themselves and play down to their competition. If Indiana is to survive its February funk, Kelvin Sampson better not overlook the Kittens. Northwestern’s zone packs the post, gets in passing lanes and creates turnovers. To counter the zone, IU can certainly shoot jump shots but they don’t play or shoot well on the road. A loss here, while unlikely, would be devastating to IU with Penn State coming to Bloomington on Saturday.
Expectations for Northwestern are ambiguous depending upon who you ask. Seasoned fans see an opportunity within Bill Carmody’s system to create a program in the mold of Air Force and Georgetown. The most important expectations, however, are those of Carmody, which remain unclear. Carmody needs to answer whether Northwestern should be satisfied as a doormat in the Big Ten. At this point in his tenure, Northwestern is unable to compete in the Big Ten, which is not only pathetic, it’s unnecessary. Recruiting Chicagoland is critical to Caromdy’s ultimate success or failure. As in year’s past, the flatline development of promising players, this season sophomore Craig Moore, is disconcerting. The bright spot, the very bright spot, is freshman Kevin Coble, who’s averaging 13.3 ppg and 5.2 rebounds.
The most pressing and immediate concern in Evanston is not solely whether Northwestern is wining, but how they are losing. There is a small margin for error in Carmody’s system and the Wildcats make too many errors: missed layups, missed free throws, blown rebounds. And for a team dependent on shooting, this team cannot shoot. And if you can’t shoot you’d better be able to rebound and Northwestern doesn’t do that well either. In fact, Northwestern is the worst team in the conference on both accounts. The result: the only Conference wins for the Wildcats this season were against co-cellar dwellers Minnesota and Penn State.
