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Chris Collins ripped into his team after last Saturday’s home loss to Minnesota.
“We have to get a whole lot tougher,” Collins said in his post-game press conference. “Our problem is when it matters most, we’re not at our best.”
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The message continued into his media availability on Wednesday.
“If it’s an effort [question], we have to play other guys,” he said. “ I thought there were three or four plays in that Minnesota game from an effort standpoint where we just gave up on plays. … We never took a hard foul. We had a couple 50-50 balls we had a chance to get. We didn’t come down with them.”
Toughness is not supposed to be a Northwestern problem. Size and talent, sure, but under Collins, Wildcat fans have rarely been able to question the effort of their men’s basketball team. The ‘Cats play gritty, hard-nosed hoops. They suffocate you on defense and leave the gym with their teeth on the floor. It’s a hard-earned reputation, and one to be proud of.
For the most part, Northwestern rose to its head coach’s challenge on Thursday night against No. 12 Michigan State.
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The defense, especially early, was tenacious. Northwestern consistently forced Michigan State into uncomfortable situations late in the shot-clock. The Spartans had two shot-clock violations and ten total turnovers in the first half. Michigan State point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. didn’t score in the first 20 minutes of action. Northwestern led 35-28 at the break.
Michigan State would storm back in the second half, winning period two by 17 points to deprive Northwestern of an upset win that it so desperately needed. The late-game problems are well-documented at this point — the ’Cats have squandered second-half leads against Minnesota, Butler, Ohio State, Oklahoma State and Virginia — but it wasn’t a question of grit or competitive will this time around.
Collins, while dejected, was complimentary of his squad postgame.
“Proud of my team’s effort,” he said. “I thought our guys were fantastic. … I wouldn’t say it was a lack of fight. From a standpoint of physicality and rebounding and toughness and defense, I thought we matched them.”
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Shooting wise, it was a total-and-utter bloodbath. Northwestern finished 8-of-28 from the field and 2-of-12 from three in the second half. Over the full 40-minutes, the ‘Cats missed 20 of their 26 attempts from beyond the arc.
Rebounding was undoubtedly an issue as well, as it has been for this group all season. The Sparty big man trio of Jaxon Kohler, Carson Cooper and Coen Carr took to an overmatched Wildcat front court with a crowbar as Michigan State outrebounded Northwestern 25-12 in the second half.
But Northwestern still wins this game if it makes shots.
“We took 26 threes, I would venture to say that 25 were wide open,” said Collins. “We have to be able to loosen the defense with the way that people guard [Nick] Martinelli.”
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Northwestern has been shooting at a 25% clip from three in its last six contests. Those numbers are untenable. If Martinelli wasn’t engineered in a lab to make awkward mid-range jumpers, this team would be a genuine dumpster fire.
“We got to help him more,” said Collins of his superstar forward. “I mean, what an amazing player. The guy gets double-teamed, triple-teamed the whole night and he still gets [28] points.”
It remains perplexing that K.J. Windham remains on the bench despite Northwestern’s shooting struggles. Thursday marked two straight DNPs for the spark plug sophomore guard. Justin Mullins and Jordan Clayton are a combined 0-for-10 from deep in those losses. Clayton is 2-of-15 from the field in his last four games, all while averaging more than 20 minutes of playing time.
Regardless of personnel, even the best Collins basketball teams have struggled on the road in the Big Ten. The 2023-24 team that made the NCAA tournament was 3-7 away from Welsh-Ryan in conference play. It’s hard to win on the road, and Northwestern gave an excellent Michigan State side a scare in its own building.
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Yet the fact remains that Northwestern is still winless in the Big Ten through four games. At what point do we acknowledge that this team may just be poorly constructed?
Northwestern is too poor a shooting team for its size, too poor from behind the arc for a team with such consistent shortcomings on defense and on the glass. Even on a day where the defense was above average, the ‘Cats still shot themselves out of a game that they easily could have won.
If the shots start to fall, and if the ’Cats can carry their defensive momentum from Thursday into their final 16 games, this season may still be salvageable. But through 15 games, it’s hard to be optimistic.
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