Tag: Northwestern Basketball

Ohio State starts slow, finishes half with 3-point lead at Northwestern

Ohio State shook off a slow start to go on a run and took a 3-point lead into halftime against Northwestern.

The first half in Evanston looked a lot like some of the other games we’ve seen recently from Ohio State early on. But then, the Buckeyes came out of a timeout with more energy on defense and an attacking style on offense to take a little control in the game. After going up by as many as ten midway through the first half, Ohio State went into the locker room up 38-35.

There was a lid on the basket early on, as Ohio State fell down early 9-2. The offense struggled finding a way to score against a Northwestern defense that sagged all five guys close to the lane to limit the effectiveness of Kaleb Wesson.

But then, the defense clamped down and led to some runouts, some outside shots hit the bottom of the net, and the offense began to find a little more rhythm. Not everything is rosy though. Northwestern finished the half on a run that gave it some momentum headed to the break.

Forward Andre Wesson led Ohio State with eleven points. He also nabbed four rebounds and went 1 of 3 from beyond the arc. He’s brother Kaleb has been held to just four points. The Buckeyes also got contributions from their bench with Justin Ahrens pouring in six points, and both Duane Washington and D.J. Carton adding five each.

It’s a better showing on the road by Ohio State, but this one is far from over. Things went south last week against Minnesota in the second half, so there needs to be more of what we saw in the first twenty as the teams head out for the last twenty minutes.

 

Ohio State vs. Northwestern 2019 basketball preview and prediction

Ohio State is once again looking to turn its season back around when it travels to Northwestern. We’ve got a preview and prediction.

Here we go again. It’s well-chronicled the issues the Ohio State basketball team has had as of late. It’s a downward spiral that it just can’s seem to suck itself out of. So much so that the Buckeyes are in the basement of the Big Ten standings and are getting dangerously close to being on the NCAA Tournament bubble.

Now they must travel to Evanston to take on a Northwestern and attempt to wrestle away their first Big Ten road win of the season.  At least OSU still has a shot at the postseason. Northwestern’s season is in much worse shape. Barring a miraculous run through the Big Ten Tournament, the Wildcats will be sitting home after the regular season.

This one is bigger for Ohio State. It desperately needs this win.

Records

Ohio State 12-7 (2-6),  Northwestern 6-12 (1-7)

All-time series record

96-23 Ohio State leads

Last meeting

Northwestern won 68-50 on March 6 last season

Broadcast, TV, Game Time

Date: Thursday, January 23
Game Time: 6:30 PM
Venue: Welsh-Ryan Arena, Evanston, IL
Network: BTN

Next … The Ohio State Game Plan

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3

10 for 20: Northwestern basketball

Northwestern basketball in the 2020s

No one thought that when Northwestern basketball made its first-ever NCAA Tournament and then won its first NCAA tourney game in 2017, the Wildcats would become a colossus. No one thought that. This is still Northwestern. One season does not a transformation make. This was not going to become a powerhouse program which would snag high seeds in March most years. However, it was certainly reasonable to think that once Chris Collins finally ended an NCAA Tournament drought of nearly 80 years, this program — not too far from Chicago — would capture some of the big city’s high-school talent and significantly raise its floor. No, Northwestern was not in position to become an annual NCAA Tournament team (unlike, say, Wisconsin), but it was definitely in position to bring in quality players who could make the Wildcats regular contenders for NCAA berths.

Northwestern, after 2017, figured to be a program which would be in the mix for NCAA appearances and succeed once every two or three years. Unrelenting annual consistency might have been an overly optimistic expectation, but becoming a program which could reasonably expect to go Dancing every three or four years? That seemed reasonable.

Northwestern’s Big Ten Conference record (not including Big Ten Tournament games) since 2017? 10-30. The Wildcats won only six league games in 2018, four in 2019. They are 0-2 in the conference this season. They are going nowhere quickly. Earlier this season, Northwestern lost to Merrimack College, a brand-new Division I program, at home. The Wildcats are a mess.

The question for Northwestern basketball in the 2020s is not so much when the Wildcats will make their second NCAA Tournament. The question is bigger than that: Will Northwestern have a second act?

It is as though Northwestern spent all this energy and emotion getting to the NCAAs that one time… and then had nothing left for future seasons. The 2017-2018 season was one prolonged hangover. Every Big Ten team treated Northwestern very seriously, much more seriously than before, and the Wildcats were plainly not ready to take everyone’s best punch. It was a new experience for the program. Playing a season one year after making the Big Dance had literally never happened before. Yet, it remained odd that Northwestern had so little emotional fuel and didn’t come especially close to the NCAAs in 2018, with some roster holdovers from the 2017 team.

Right now, Northwestern looks like a program which is out of steam, under a coach who is out of ideas. This might not rate as “stunning,” given that Northwestern basketball lacks a sustained history of winning, but it’s also not what many people imagined at the end of the 2017 season. It was supposed to be better than this. We will see if Northwestern finds its second act in the 2020s, whether under Collins or someone else.