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Posted: Friday October 25, 2002 1:50 PM Updated: Thursday October 31, 2002 4:23 PM Northwestern Wildcats
The following preview is provided by Blue Ribbon. For the most thorough preview available of the upcoming season, order the 2002-03 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, on sale now at 1-800-775-2518. Team Preview | Blue Ribbon Analysis
Time was, a Big Ten team could expect a laugher when it saw "at Northwestern" on its schedule. It might as well have said "bye," as poorly as the Wildcats protected their home court. But last year, Bill Carmody's club served notice that times are changing in Evanston. In 2001-02, the Wildcats were 10-3 at home, their best mark in 47 years, and their 5-3 record in Big Ten home games was their best since 1968. Suddenly, "home court advantage" was no longer just a punch line at Northwestern. "I think the big difference was having guys who were a little older," Carmody said. "We said we were going to protect our home court. The year before the goal was just survival. Now, the question is, can we do a little more on the road while maintaining that home record and not backsliding a bit because of the guys we lost?" Those guys include forward Travarus Hardy, a four-year starter and the team's leading rebounder at 6.4 per game last year, and Collier Drayton, a three-year starter at point guard.
"Hardy was our leading rebounder -- just about our only rebounder," Carmody said. "He scored, he was a leader and a four-year starter. He was a tough guy to handle for a lot of teams. And even though Drayton didn't score much (4.0 ppg last year), he's a tough nut and a competitor -- a prototypical Big Ten tough guy. "We lose some maturity and certainly a lot of toughness," Carmody continued. "We sort of relied on those guys for the intangibles that coaches talk about." But the future isn't hopeless any more, thanks to Carmody, who has turned around a team that won just five games the year before he arrived on campus. The former Princeton coach has the best two-year record of any Northwestern coach in the last 40-plus years, and a quick look at last year's statistics reveals a couple of reasons for his success. Last year the Wildcats led the Big Ten and finished fifth in the nation in scoring defense, allowing just 59.1 points per game, as Carmody's defense of choice, the match-up zone, helped hold opponents to a 40.9 percent field goal percentage. The 'Cats also played better team basketball -- their assist-to-field goal ratio of .680 was fourth best in the country. And they took care of the ball, reversing their turnover differential from a plus 83 to a minus 23. Carmody was most impressed with his team's willingness to battle through the tough times and keep Big Ten opponents on the run. "When I got here we really weren't very competitive, but now I think we're pretty competitive in the conference," Carmody said. "The only goal that we have is to try and get better, and that is something that is hard to measure sometimes. Sometimes it's measured in wins, sometimes in your overall play. I think we've had a good first couple of years; now we just want to keep improving." Leading the charge this year will be 6-foot-5 senior forward Winston Blake (13.6 ppg, 4.2 rpg), the Wildcats' leading scorer last year. He's a two-year starter who is second on Northwestern's career list in three pointers with 169. He hit double figures in scoring 24 times and led the team in scoring in 12 of those games, earning an honorable mention all-Big Ten pick by the conference coaches in the process. Still, his coach would like to see a bit more from Blake in his senior season. "I thought he really improved last year in driving to the basket, and he clearly has always been a good catch-and-shoot guy," Carmody said. "We need him to be a more consistent rebounder this year. Also, when he drives to the basket he just needs to become a better finisher." Blake represented Northwestern on the Big Ten's summer 2002 European tour and scored 5.2 points per game while shooting just 36.7 percent in the five games. The third-leading scorer from last year's team is also back, 6-1 junior guard Jitim Young (12.1 ppg, 3.5 rpg). Young has started every game he's played in at Northwestern, and last year he led the team with 55 steals while crashing the offensive boards to the tune of almost 2.0 per game. This year, Carmody said he'd like to get more consistent 3-point shooting from Young, who hit just 29.4 percent from behind the arc last season. The other returning starter is 6-11 senior Aaron Jennings (5.6 ppg, 3.0 rpg), a lanky center who can shoot the three and block shots with the best of the Big Ten's big men. His 54 blocks were eighth in the conference and Carmody hopes that Jennings will overcome a tendency to get into foul trouble so he can increase those numbers. "He needs to be out on the court," Carmody said. "Defensively, he has to be more of a presence because he's our only big guy." About the only help down low for Jennings will come from 6-8 sophomore Vedran Vukusic (5.1 ppg, 1.9 rpg), a native of Croatia who had the best 3-point percentage on the team last year at .469, despite battling a shoulder injury. "He will have to really get to the boards because he will likely be our second-biggest guy out there -- he has to be a mainstay," Carmody said. Vukusic is coming off April surgery on that shoulder but he should be ready for the start of the season. The only other returnee who scored more than four points a game last year is 6-6 senior forward Jason Burke (4.2 ppg, 3.4 rpg), whom Carmody hopes will blossom into a leader this year. "He seemed hesitant at times last year, and I don't want to see that lack of confidence," Carmody said. "I think he recognized that, and during the spring he was our best guy." Other veterans fighting for playing time are 6-10 sophomore Thomas Soltau (1.1 ppg, 0.3 rpg), 6-7 sophomore Davor Duvancic (0.7 ppg, 0.7 rpg), 5-9 sophomore Michael Jenkins (0.4 ppg, 0.4 rpg) and 6-5 junior Patrick Towne (0.7 ppg, 0.1 rpg). But Carmody's not ruling out any of his freshmen from playing this season. "I like to play freshmen and I like to start freshmen. If you're ready, I don't care what year you are, you're going to play," he said. The best of those freshmen might be 6-1 T.J. Parker from Lisle, Ill., an all-state guard and younger brother of San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker. The others are 6-4 guard Mohamed Hachad from Montreal, 6-7 forward Jimmy Maley from Western Springs, Ill., and 6-3 guard Evan Seacat from Paoli, Ind. The Wildcats are clearly a team on the rise in the Big Ten. They'll miss the leadership and productivity of the departed Hardy and Drayton, and until that's replaced, the program could spin its wheels a bit. But Carmody has people on campus talking about Northwestern basketball again. He's a nationally respected coach who has his team focused on the little things -- defense, ball handling, passing -- that aren't flashy but make the difference. A winning program has to crawl, and then walk, before it can run. This might not be the year that the 'Cats run, but a trip to Evanston will be no walk in the park for their Big Ten foes.
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