Northwestern Wildcats 74, Illinois Fighting Illini 70, Postgame Thread
Boosh, y'all. Behind some spectacular performances, Northwestern earned the season split with Illinois and won its first game in Assembly Hall since 1999, yes, 1999, 1999. NU went small for most of the game against Meyers Leonard but Reggie Hearn's 16 first half points and John Shurna's take over/the break's over performance in the second half, NU pulled out the win.
This is somewhat big. Northwestern only had one good win thus far - MSU - and well, I think we were all tired of games where Northwestern played decently well and ended up losing by one or two points. And NU missed its first five free throws, so it seemed like one of those. Glopknar was probably going to beat one of his close family members into a coma if it happened again. So this feels good.
Also, Meyers Leonard is still so hatable and we all hate him. Luckily, John Shurna. And we're 2-0 in black uniforms!
Enjoy the Super Bowl
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Wow.
Congrats on getting a Big Ten win, getting a road win, winning at an arena that Carmody has never won at, beating in-state rival, winning a revenge game, and beating a team that NU could and should beat.
But, as I said earlier, here we go with raised expectations. I’m sure Palm will have NU as a 10 seed now, and Glockner/Lunardi will have NU back in.
At 4-6, NU is back on the radar, and guess what, we know what happens then. Sorry to be so pessimistic after a win, but I need to see NU beat Iowa at home with some pressure to start buying in on this team.
Also, did NU beat a team on the road that shot 54% with NU shooting 53% from FT line, remarkable?!?!
by NU Alumni - Class of 2002 on Feb 5, 2012 4:10 PM CST reply actions
with you on this.
this doesn’t put NU in the tourney, but it was a necessary step.
by Rodger Sherman on Feb 5, 2012 4:16 PM CST up reply actions
other weird stats
we outrebounded them 24-22, i have no idea how they only had 22.. guess there just weren’t a lot of missed shots, and marcotulio had 7 rebounds by himself
they also made more 3’s than us
love how shurna just decided he was tired of losing these games and took over, but did it by attacking the basket instead of chucking up threes
can’t wait for iowa!
Feels good.
But yes, there is much work left.
I hope they can just keep building confidence, as well as get some guys back. Huge game for Reg-Gie.
www.massivecreativity.com
Biggest positive, by far
Was how Shurna willed this. He looked confident, angry and determined. Today, he became the senior star he should be.
by SeattleCat on Feb 5, 2012 4:29 PM CST via iPhone app reply actions
I love the "Run-TMC" lineup
But, Shurna’s gonna wear down the stretch if he keeps getting banged at the 5. (Purdue is doing the same thing with Hummel, right?)
We won with 6 guys and we won on the road. I can’t imagine us more undermanned (knocking on wood, of course) If we can get Cobb and Luka back, that’s gotta help, right? I know its easy to take shots at Luka, but at least he can give us 12 minutes so that Shurna doesn’t have to get his ass kicked in the pivot.
On the other hand, I don’t understand Illinois. Tyler Griffey, Nana Egwu, et al. Why in the name of all that is holy, did Weber not use his depth?
www.massivecreativity.com
Egwu in particular
He killed us in stretches in Evanston.
"King Kong ain't got nothin' on ME!"
www.massivecreativity.com
Curletti
I’m really impressed with the way that he played today. Against a center like Leonard, he just stood him up and waited for help or forced him to work for any kind of shot. He made a good use of his time on the court and wasn’t a liability. Kudos to the coaching staff for drawing up a game plan that limited Leonard in any way.
The inexplicably bad free throws were…well…awful. But the defense was really impressive.
One of my friends
Said that Curletti was nice enough to get him and his friend tix behind the bench for the Creighton game. I respect that and can’t fault him for what he can’t do. That said, he had a great possession where he forced a Leonard miss AND grabbed the rebound.
Also, according to the ESPN Box Score, Curletti’s 1 pt outscored the Illini bench! Is there another team that would plan more players at 40 min than us? LOL /weberfail
cue the northwestern B1G REVENGE tour
Illinois the first victim. IoA upcoming bc they are IoA. Illinois for beating us at home, Michigan for their stupid OT win. OSU bc they are OSU. Minny bc we sucked in the barn. PSU because Talor battle. Enjoy the ride mofos.
by wcgrad on Feb 5, 2012 7:51 PM CST via iPhone app reply actions 4 recs
Forgot Georgia Boiler in this
Screw Purdue because of Robbie Hummel and his indomitable work ethic/ability to come back from catastrophic injuries. Sure Purdue fans love him, but I don’t have too.
Go NU and Shurna, break Purdue’s hearts on the road.
PS GB, thanks for your kind words after beating us, very classy, but it still sucks to lose.
carmody is an idiot
“Actually, he told me in timeouts to give him the ball. I sort of ignored him for a few games.”
why would you ignore shurna the past couple games…????
Yeah seriously,
strongest evidence that we need a new coach.
I wonder if Crawford/Shurna went to FBC in practice and said, “Hey coach, let’s introduce some pic and rolls with us into the offense just to mess with the opposing D!”
And FBC responded,
“You can’t outsmart the princeton offense. All who have tried, have failed, I don’t care if you two are the best pure scorers that NU has had. It’s because of my system, not because people tried to get you the ball!”
/snarksnark
carmodys been known to troll his press conferences
especially after wins
its more than likely he was joking around
Carmody, sense of humor?
No way! Well consider me trolled.
by wcgrad on Feb 6, 2012 11:23 AM CST via iPhone app up reply actions
yeah
i’d agree with this. I’m generally against inspecting coaches statements as reasons they are good/bad, especially Carmody.
by Rodger Sherman on Feb 6, 2012 12:20 PM CST up reply actions
Hatable?!?!
That’s an understatement. Have you ever seen a worse case of punch-me face? What a complete douche.
Has there ever been a player with more attitude who has done so little? He jaws with the refs. He poses every time he does the slightest thing. And somebody needs to tell him that a blocked shot has the same effect on the game whether you simply tap it away or wind up and try to block it as Reggie Hearn slips under you for a reverse layup.
I hope he goes pro. a) I won’t have to watch him anymore. b) I hope he pulls some of those antics in the first week of camp and gets clocked.
by Sec.112 on Feb 5, 2012 10:17 PM CST reply actions 4 recs
HDC
Huge Douche Canoe! (took two sentences to figure out to whom you were referring, but I agree!)
Note: Revenge Tour and HDC are registered trademarks of Casual Hoya and have been reproduced without permission. But I don’t care. I just want to see a certain Illini center punched in the face (in a game no less) and NU in the sweet sixteen.
i realized
leonard is easily the most “should’ve gone to Duke” player in the B1G since Chris Kramer
by Rodger Sherman on Feb 6, 2012 3:26 AM CST up reply actions 6 recs
this is possibly
my single favorite reply ive ever seen on SOP
by JerseyShore@NU on Feb 6, 2012 12:25 PM CST up reply actions
Good topic for the summer
All-Should’ve Gone to Duke team.
I have the coach … well, besides the obvious.
Something I think derserves more recognition...
The Cats picked up their seventh team foul at the 10:57 mark, committed just two fouls for the rest of the game, and just one over the last 8:56. (Illinois went 3-4 on those subsequent FTs.) In a tight, back-and-forth game, the increased discipline on defense was huge, not allowing Illinois more trips to the line.
Very true
but I’ll note that I spent much of that time wincing as Marcotullio kept giving his little hand-checks at the top of the 1-3-1 zone. It’s a small miracle we didn’t get called for something ticky-tack up there.
But yes, very true, especially given the fact that Illinois tried to get the ball in to Leonard or attack the basket—credit to Curletti and Shurna for keeping it clean enough in the post.

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