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Official 2009-2010 NCAA Basketball Thread


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QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 30, 2009 -> 09:40 PM)
If Illinois starts to understand that Tisdale is an offensive juggernaut, they'd be contenders and he'd win player if the year in the big ten

 

Not sure about Player of the Year but he is a tough match up for any Big ten team and should always touch the ball on offense.

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QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Dec 30, 2009 -> 10:04 PM)
And Tisdale's 5th foul is complete bulls***. Shocking that a crew with Burr and Hightower is incompetent.

Nice blinders.

 

NU playing in a high scoring game, not something I expected them to have a shot at tonight.

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QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Dec 30, 2009 -> 11:15 PM)
Frustrating loss, they just took too many stupid, contested shots in the second half. Illinois played a lot better down the stretch, NU had no answer for them inside.

 

NU is better than I expected and Illinois just didn't play defense in the first half, bad combination. NW really needed to not go to Mirkovic (Sp?) he was horrid.

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QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 30, 2009 -> 10:14 PM)
Northwestern make a 3 in the last 10 minutes of game time? If they can't play interior defense, they're not making the tournament.

That may be the case, but that's how the loss of Coble hurts them. Now Thompson looks hurt, it would be typical for him to be injured as well.

 

Still, it was in Illinois and went to OT despite Tisdale's monster game. It's hard to be too discouraged from a Northwestern standpoint.

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QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Dec 30, 2009 -> 10:16 PM)
NU is better than I expected and Illinois just didn't play defense in the first half, bad combination. NW really needed to not go to Mirkovic (Sp?) he was horrid.

 

He was one of the major culprits of stupid shots, yes. I don't know why he ever takes anything but uncontested shots. Nash had a bunch of ridiculous 3-point attempts as well and he's not a terribly good shooter. Shurna and Thompson need to be the ones taking tough shots.

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QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Dec 30, 2009 -> 10:16 PM)
NU is better than I expected and Illinois just didn't play defense in the first half, bad combination.

I think a lot of people who haven't seen them play will think that. I missed most of tonight's game, but they play half court basketball extremely well and their athleticism isn't as far behind as it has been.

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QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 30, 2009 -> 10:14 PM)
Northwestern make a 3 in the last 10 minutes of game time? If they can't play interior defense, they're not making the tournament.

 

They've played much better interior D. Harangody went 7-19 against them and did a lot of his damage when the game was already over and they held Brackins to 6-16 as well, both in wins. Tisdale is just a bad matchup, he can just shoot those jump hooks over their post men all day and Davis is too athletic for them.

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QUOTE (danman31 @ Dec 30, 2009 -> 10:20 PM)
I think a lot of people who haven't seen them play will think that. I missed most of tonight's game, but they play half court basketball extremely well and their athleticism isn't as far behind as it has been.

 

Unfortunately they still have some athleticism problems inside. Nash and Crawford are very solid on the wings and Shurna is a nice swing guy, but Mirkovic and Rowley are pretty awkward and Shurna isn't bulky enough to pick up the slack. I'm actually a bit more worried about that on the offensive side, they need one of those guys to chip in a few buckets inside to reduce the droughts a bit.

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QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Dec 30, 2009 -> 10:28 PM)
Unfortunately they still have some athleticism problems inside. Nash and Crawford are very solid on the wings and Shurna is a nice swing guy, but Mirkovic and Rowley are pretty awkward and Shurna isn't bulky enough to pick up the slack. I'm actually a bit more worried about that on the offensive side, they need one of those guys to chip in a few buckets inside to reduce the droughts a bit.

Is there any consensus or general feeling on Crawford among NU fans as far as ability and potential go? Haven't gotten to see him play much in college after watching a vast majority of all of his high school games.

 

I was at the game tonight and he didn't look great, but he played a decent game. I always thought he had a load of potential and could eventually be NUs best player over the next few years.

Edited by WHarris1
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Crawford has more athleticism than NU has had in a player in a while. He's been a pleasant surprise, though a lot of people thought he was going to be a solid player with good upside. I'm impressed with how quickly he has made an impact. He isn't great, but for a freshman he has been better than expected and should continue to develop. He's already gotten notably better since the start of the year.

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QUOTE (danman31 @ Dec 31, 2009 -> 04:03 AM)
Crawford has more athleticism than NU has had in a player in a while. He's been a pleasant surprise, though a lot of people thought he was going to be a solid player with good upside. I'm impressed with how quickly he has made an impact. He isn't great, but for a freshman he has been better than expected and should continue to develop. He's already gotten notably better since the start of the year.

 

From an Illini fan's perspective he's about equal to Brandon Paul right now. Both good athletes that are streaky shooters. Paul has more upside, but I think if he can play 4 years and continue to improve the pro's might be calling. That put back of his was the best play of the game.

 

Very impressed with NU. They're an offensive machine. The question is what happens when they don't hit their 3's. Last night they could have easily won by 15 or lost by 15 depending on if their shots were falling. Is that going to be a year long thing? Or has there been enough evidence this year that they're one of, if not the best, shooting team in the nation. And to think these guys are missing their best two players. Pretty impressive.

 

As for Illinois, still not enough passion and desire. It came out in overtime, but more often than not that's a game they're going to lose. They basically play in spurts - 5 minutes of crap, 5 minutes of excellent, repeat. McCamey was no where to be found tonight, Davis continues to show that he's not serious enough about basketball to be a dominant player (despite the fact that statistically he had a good game), and the freshman continued to play like freshman (though at least they hit big shots, get big steals, etc to offset the bad mistakes). Also I thought Cole played some good D and also hit a couple of big shots. He had two pretty crucial turnovers though. I stand by my statement that if Illinois makes the effort to run the entire offense through Tisdale, they'd be a better team and he'd run away with the player of the year. He's unstoppable if he gets the ball in the paint. Just too many offensive moves. More importantly though, he'll open up the floor for everyone else.

 

All in all a solid win over a solid team. I don't know that this will help their tourney resume, but a loss certainly would have been bad.

Edited by Jenksismybitch
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QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 31, 2009 -> 08:51 AM)
Very impressed with NU. They're an offensive machine. The question is what happens when they don't hit their 3's. Last night they could have easily won by 15 or lost by 15 depending on if their shots were falling. Is that going to be a year long thing? Or has there been enough evidence this year that they're one of, if not the best, shooting team in the nation. And to think these guys are missing their best two players. Pretty impressive.

 

Who's the other one, Ryan? He was going to be a forward off the bench that frankly hasn't shown much of anything in his career. Thompson and Shurna were easily #1 and #2 after Coble got hurt, and then probably Crawford on raw talent or Mirkovic on the hopes that he built on some flashes of solid play last year (he hasn't thus far).

 

They definitely have an array of dangerous perimeter shooters, but they're going to need to find a way to get some buckets inside against better competition. The best candidate appears to be Shurna, he can make some shots inside but floats out around the arch more than I would like (I don't have a problem with 2 or 3 attempted 3's, but he's attempted 6 or more in half of their games and he's not a consistent threat). He's shooting 55% from inside the arc and well under 30% from behind the arc, he really needs to take it inside more since so far it doesn't look like Mirkovic or Rowley are going to help offensively this year.

 

To continue on the Crawford thing, he's got the potential to be NU's best player, though it would take a lot for it to happen soon with Coble hopefully back next year and Thompson and Shurna playing very well. He has shown flashes of dominance where he'll bury several 3's in a row, make a drive and finish to the hoop that a typical NU player has no hope of completing or rising up and making an explosive dunk or block like that late put-back jam last night. He has long stretches where he doesn't do much offensively though, he's still trying to find his place in the offense. He generally gets his points on relatively few attempts and is shooting 51.7% from the floor, which is virtually unheard of from an NU wing (I think Jitim Young might have done it as a senior or Mohamed Hachad). On raw talent, he's probably the best player they've had since I started following NU back in the Evan Eschmeyer days.

Edited by ZoomSlowik
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