Game Day Essentials: Game #26 vs Northwestern

Nothwestern Info

Head Coach: Chris Collins
Location: Evansville, IL
Conference: B1G
Nickname: Wildcats

Mascot: Willie the Wildcat
Last time out: Beat Brown
Typical Rotation Depth: 9
Line: Nebraska by 5

Roster notes

• Fr Pete Nance is out with mono. He's the very tall brother of NBA player Larry Nance Jr and son of former NBA player Larry Nance Sr

Player to watch: Vic Law

One of the better defenders in the conference, Law has been asked to carry this offense and has done a serviceable job. Northwestern rolls out several similar size players so it will be interesting to see who Nebraska chooses to guard Law. You have to wonder if this, among other things, will be suggested by former Northwestern assistant Armon Gates

Player to watch: Dererk Pardon

Pardon introduced himself to the world by scoring 28 points in his first full game at Nebraska, still a career high.  He's averaged 16.6 against Nebraska during his career which is finally near its end.

KenPom explains the roster

Northwestern runs out a big versatile lineup capable of switching when they choose to

• Taylor is a grad transfer from Evansville that has seen his 21.3 ppg translate to 11.5 at NW
• AJ Turner is a transfer from Boston College where is shoot efficiency hasn't translated
• Gaines is a terrible shooter but can get to the FT line; above average rebounding from that position
• 6'8" 3pt specialist Aaron Falzon is recently back from injury and probably starts at the 4. Won't put it on the floor
• 6'7" Fr Miller Kopp is the other 3pt threat on the team
• Traditional center Barret Benson simply isn't as good as Pardon offensively though Collins has tried playing both at the same time recently
• FR pg Ryan Greer is Gaines without the FTs

Miles Presser

• Amir and Thorir will be the first guys off the bench, Nana is available
• Talked about bringing dribble-drive actions back vs Minnesota after not seeing the team go downhill vs Purdue
• Told story about how Ubel was in watching game film with the team and brought up to Roby that some of his turnover problems were due to all the energy needed to guard Murphy

Scouting NW Thread

Expected former players tonight:

Don Weber (1952-54); Charles McAfee (1955-57); Wilson Fitzpatrick (1957-58); Albert Maxey (1958-60); Daryl Petsch (1961-64); Larry Bornschlegl (1962-64); Grant Simmons (1963-66); Willie Campbell (1964-67); Dale Von Seggern (1966-70); Alan Nissen (1969-72); Calvin R Christline (1970-73); Terry Novak (1974-78); Jerry Shoecraft (1978-82); Ivan Gilreath (1980-81); Eric Van Williams (1980-84); John Matzke (1981-86); Dave Hoppen (1982-86); Joel Sealer (1984-87); Henry T. Buchanan (1986-88); Derrick Vick (1986-88); Matt Svehla (1987-89); Beau Reid (1987-91); Keith Moody (1989-91); Tony Farmer (1990-91); Matt Mar (1991-1992); Tom Wald (1994-1996); Chad Ideus (1995-1996); Andy Markowski (1995-99); Craig Wortmann (1998-01); Cary Cochran (1998-02); Ryan Thomas (1999-01); Kedrick Ford (2000-02); Brennon Clemmons (2001-03); Jake Muhleisen (2001-05); John Turek (2001-05); Bronsen Schliep (2002-06); Tony Wilbrand (2002-06); Charles Richardson (2003-07); Paul Velander (2004-09); Jim Ledsome (2005-07); Ade Dagunduro (2007-09); Steve Harley (2007-09); Drake Beranek (2009-11); Mike Fox (2009-12); Brandon Ubel (2009-13) and Trevor Menke (2010-15).

Ade Dagunduro is back for the first time and you should really read about how tough life has been for him over the last 7 years.

The Skinny: If grabbing a few drinks in the Haymarket before the game is part of your pre-game ritual, you might want to get one for the road as this has the look of two teams crawling down the court and missing shots.  Northwestern has the type of tough man defense that has killed Nebraska all year with the worst offense in the conference. "First team to 60" assumes that one of these teams will hit that mark.

On offense this year Northwestern has punted on offensive rebounds in lieu of getting back on defense and you have to wonder if tonight they'll hunt for them against a poor rebounding Nebraska team. In the past part of the reason Pardon has hurt the Huskers so much is because he wasn't the focus defensively; you have to think tonight he's number 2 on the list after Law. Simply keeping Pardon from cleaning up the garbage would go a long way.

On offense the focus needs to be solely on getting to the rim as Northwestern also is trying to run teams off the 3pt line, doesn't have elite shot blocking, and will put you on the FT line. Even if they start packing the paint, the Huskers still need to be committed to driving inside.  Seems like an opportunity for another big day for JPJ.

Prediction: Nebraska 66 - Northwestern 59