Charleston Classic: Northwestern Wildcats, 69, Tulsa Golden Hurricane, 65, Postgame thread

by Rodger Sherman on Nov 18, 2011 4:37 PM CST in 2011-12 Northwestern Wildcats Basketball

WE GOIN TO THE SHIP WHAT WE GOIN TO THE SHIP WHAT WE GOIN TO THE SHIP

The Charleston Classic championship game, that is, where we'll play either Seton Hall or St. Joseph's. (consider this thread a de facto open thread for that game.)

NU never pulled away against Tulsa, but I don't believe they ever trailed in the second half. John Shurna didn't superman for the second straight day - he had a pretty unimpressive 15 points on 16 attempts - but Drew Crawford followed up on his 17-point second half to lead Northwestern to its third win in as many tries. Crawford went 5-for-8 from deep and finished the game with 28.

Northwestern has issues - let's not talk about the center position, please please please let's not talk about the center position - but they're doing what it takes to get the job done and have a chance to bring home some meaningless hardware on Sunday.

Get into football thought for the next 24 hours, but be excited about basketball.

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nice win

whats most impressed me in these two games is NU holding it together down the stretch in Thompson’s absence, they haven’t panicked and taken dumb shots or done the annoying thing in years past where they dont even try to score until the shot clock is under ten, instead they’ve withstood runs and closed out the games strong.

as you said, there are still a lot of flaws, but its early and there’s lots of room for improvement, and we’re still undefeated.

by Loretta8 on Nov 18, 2011 5:59 PM CST reply actions

^this

has to continue in big ten play. We’re going to lose some bad games, but we need to take advantage of every opportunity to win the games that we’re close in down the stretch.

by wcgrad on Nov 18, 2011 6:07 PM CST up reply actions

Anyone?

I have to do this thing called “work”, so didn’t see game… How has the guard play been without Michael?

by nugraddad on Nov 18, 2011 7:00 PM CST reply actions

Sobolewski has done a good job. Drew Crawford looks poised to breakout.

All things considered: He’s hit a few big shots, and other than the first half of LSU, not created too many turnovers. He’s shown some smarts against the pressed, using timeouts and not dribbling into trouble.

JerShon Cobb looks like he’s recovering nicely. He’s been coming in off the bench, but he’s shown some flashes of athleticism

Drew Crawford has been playing with a lot of confidence over the last 60 game minutes, 17pts in yesterdays 2nd half followed by 27 more today. He’s showing ability to hit the stepback shots from deep, but also can get to the rack when he’s isolated. Thus far he’s looked a lot more aggressive, than last year.

Guard play has been a real strength. The game might be on replay on ESPN3 if you want to browse some of the highlights

by wcgrad on Nov 18, 2011 7:27 PM CST up reply actions

Seton Hall is up next

They don’t look like they have a big size advantage on paper, but I think NU will struggle to contain Jordan Theodore. Theodore might be experienced enough to break down the 1-3-1, but they aren’t a good 3 pt shooting team. Herb Pope could do some damage against our defense.

If Shurna and Crawford continue to play off each other as they played in the first two games, I think we’ll be successful

by wcgrad on Nov 18, 2011 7:39 PM CST reply actions