B1G Game 7: Gophers visit Northwestern (1-19-25

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Ignatius L Hoops

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The Unanswered Question​



Joe Mckeown, in his 17th season as Northwestern head coach, is coming off a 4-14 Big Ten campaign. That’s a notable drop for a team that captured a B1G title with a 16-2 record in 2019-20. It has led to the annual question from Janelpick: “this has to be McKeown’s last season, right?”

What we do know is that in addition to poor play on the court, McKeown dealt with some health issues off the court causing him to miss six games last season. Associate head coach Tangela Smith moved to the big chair in McKeown’s absence. This season, McKeown is noticeably less demonstrative; but remains capable of his signature arm swinging expressions of disbelief at referee’s calls.

We should also note, Jim Phillips, the AD who convinced McKeown to make the move from George Washington to Northwestern departed Evanston in 2021 to become commissioner of the ACC. And as far as I can tell, this is the final year of Mckeown’s most recent extension.

On the negative side of the ledger, the Wildcats are 0-5 in the B1G heading into Sunday’s game with the Gophers. The Wildcats lost to: @Michigan 54-60, Washington 71-90, Oregon 65-85, @ Ohio State 62-92 and Indiana 64-68. It coulda been better: Northwestern lost late leads against Michigan and Indiana. Or it coulda been worse; Northwestern postponed a trip to LA because of the fires.

Speaking of which, Global Warming appears to have claimed McKeown’s famed “Blizzard” defense. It was last seen melting down in an early season loss to Lehigh 68-85. Warming skeptics say this is more a result of a lack of players named Burton and Deary than climate change. Views differ.

This season’s ‘Cats feature some impact transfers trying to turn the program around. The starters with Big Ten stats.

Kyla Jones is a 5’9” graduate guard “All Ivy” transfer from Brown. Jones averages 11 points and 2.8 rebounds in 23.6 minutes. She scored 14 against Michigan.

Carleigh Walsh is a 6’3” senior forward who averages 11.2 points and 3 rebounds in 20 minutes. The fixture in Northwestern’s starting lineup netted 12 against Michigan and 15 against Oregon.

Taylor Williams is a 6’2” graduate forward averages 9.5 points and 8.8 rebounds in 28.3 minutes. The Michigan transfer had 15 points and 13 rebounds versus Indiana.

Caroline Lau is a 5’9” junior guard averaging 5.2 points and 4.2 rebounds in 27.2 minutes. Lau had 15 points and 6 rebounds against Washington. Unfortunately, Lau had 0 points and 4 turnovers in 22 minutes versus Indiana.

Casey Harter is a 5’11” sophomore guard averaging 4.8 points and 2.2 rebounds in 34.4 minutes.

The notable bench players:

Melannie Daley is a 5’11” senior guard averaging 12.4 points and 1.8 rebounds in 28.2 minutes. The team’s leading scorer is heating up with 17 points against both Oregon and Indiana.

Grace Sullivan is a 6’4” junior forward transfer from Bucknell averaging 7 points and 4.2 rebounds in 22.8 minutes. She scored 13 against Ohio State.

Like Janelpick, Northwestern remains a team searching for clues.
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Northwestern will be well rested. They did not to travel out west for their games against UCLA and USC so they last played on January 8th.
 
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IMO, there are 13 BIG teams vying for maybe 9 or 10 NCAA tourney spots. Four teams are likely locks for the tourney (UCLA, USC, MD, OSU). Indiana is looking good and may be the 5th best team in the BIG. For the remaining NCAA hopefuls, wins against the bottom 5 teams are imperative. Bottom 5 teams are Purdue, Rutgers, WI, PSU and...Northwestern. Gophers can't afford a slip. Road or home, rested or not, the Gophers need to beat Northwestern...and I feel comfortable that they will. Gophers play good D, don't turn it over much. That should be enough to beat the Wildcats.
 


One more related note tothe above post: I've now seen quite a bit of all the BIG teams this year and I'm thinking that both WI and Rutgers have enough talent to jump up and beat one of these NCAA contenders. It will be interesting to see which teams fall out of NCAA tourney contention before the BIG tourney. I'm thinking maybe Washington and Iowa?
 


tripledouble said:
One more related note tothe above post: I've now seen quite a bit of all the BIG teams this year and I'm thinking that both WI and Rutgers have enough talent to jump up and beat one of these NCAA contenders. It will be interesting to see which teams fall out of NCAA tourney contention before the BIG tourney. I'm thinking maybe Washington and Iowa?
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If you have seen quite a bit of all the BIG teams keep posting. I need the info, thanks.
 

tripledouble said:
One more related note tothe above post: I've now seen quite a bit of all the BIG teams this year and I'm thinking that both WI and Rutgers have enough talent to jump up and beat one of these NCAA contenders. It will be interesting to see which teams fall out of NCAA tourney contention before the BIG tourney. I'm thinking maybe Washington and Iowa?
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I agree about Iowa as their margin for error is narrowing quickly. They have their next two on the road at ORE & WASH after having lost 4 straight going to 2-5 in the B1G. If they slip up with these two road games and as they have yet to play UCLA, USC or OSU, their chances could start slipping away quickly.
 



99Gopher said:
I agree about Iowa as their margin for error is narrowing quickly. They have their next two on the road at ORE & WASH after having lost 4 straight going to 2-5 in the B1G. If they slip up with these two road games and as they have yet to play UCLA, USC or OSU, their chances could start slipping away quickly.
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Most recent Creme bracketology has Iowa as a play-in team.
 


On this 2 game road swing, Gophers forgot to pack their defense. Hope they find it soon.
 

This is why no one takes this team seriously, played a great game against Maryland just coming up a little short and now struggling against one of the bottom teams in the Big Ten. They need to get their shit together and close this out. FFS
 



Very pathetic defensive performance, this team is not built to go score to score with an opponent. Looks like a very passive effort on the D. Also having a difficult time passing into our posts. Hoping coach P can get this turned around second half.
 

Need to step up perimeter D as all their 20% shooters can’t miss today and figure out Sullivan who is dominating the paint
 

Interesting that the decision to go or not to go to LA during the fires didn’t seem to have an impact on today’s performances. Both beat-down Penn State and rested but rusty Northwestern are playing well today.
 




What the living f**k???
Lose this one and welcome back to the NIT, girls.
 

My fears prior to this game are being fulfilled so far. Hopefully they can find a way to overcome an 11 pt deficit to win. But the interior play is killing us.
 


just a joke.. they avg 66 points a game.. and somehow today they know how to shoot and play defense.. what a joke..
 

Hart, Stewart and Heyer all took a bad time to have horrible games.
 


If you're going to lose games you shouldn't, then find one to win you shouldn't.
 


Seems like one of those days you need to avoid, but difficult. Penn State shocks Ohio State and now NW not missing anything here. Ugh. Not sure if they have been on the road the whole time since Maryland or went back and forth, but either way, just seems like we are lacking the energy.

I would insert Johnson to look to insert some instant offense to see if can get anything going.
 

Down by 16 to a turdsack of a team. I'm turning the radio off. Fucking unacceptable.
 


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