Cats look to 'stop the bleeding' against depleted Minnesota
Northwestern needs a win. Badly.
After losing back-to-back Big Ten games with disappointing efforts, the Wildcats desperately need a victory in their uphill quest to return to the NCAA Tournament this season.
Head coach Chris Collins and star guard Bryant McIntosh vowed that Northwestern would play with “a sense of urgency” in tonight’s game with Minnesota.
“When you lose a couple games in a row in the league, you’ve got to stop the bleeding,” said Collins.
Minnesota may turn out to be the tourniquet that the Wildcats need.
The Gophers limp into Allstate Arena coming off of a loss at Indiana and without two of their stars. Big man Reggie Lynch (10.1 ppg and 8.0 rpg) has been suspended after multiple sexual assault allegations in yet another scandal that has rocked the Gopher athletic department. Star wing Amir Coffey (14.1, 4.1) is also out with a shoulder injury and there is no timetable for his return.
“With all the injuries and question marks, you have to wonder how confident the team will be going on the road right now,” said EJ Stevens of TheGopherReport.com.
Northwestern isn’t a team playing with a lot of confidence, either. The Wildcats are coming off of a pair of double-digit losses, at home to Nebraska and on the road at Penn State, where they shot less than 40 percent from the field.
Last Friday, Penn State demolished Northwestern inside, outscoring the Wildcats 48-18 in what Collins called “a very disappointing defensive performance. We’re not going to win giving up that amount of layups and dunks.”
And Collins warns that, even without Lynch and Coffey, the Gophers still have some weapons that will make life difficult for Northwestern.
“They still have Jordan Murphy, they’ve still got Nate Mason, they’ve still got Dupree McBrayer,” said Collins.
Murphy, a 6-foot-6 forward, has been a one-man wrecking crew for Minnesota and a Big Ten player of the year candidate. He ranks second in the Big Ten in scoring at 18.9 points per game and first in rebounding with 12.7 per contest. Mason averages 16.0 points and 4.6 assists per game and McBrayer goes for 9.6 points per game despite playing with a leg injury that requires his wearing a walking boot after each game, according to Stevens.
Northwestern (10-7, 1-3 Big Ten) currently sits at No. 71 in KenPom.com rankings and needs to string together some tournament-quality wins to have a shot at making the Big Dance for a second straight year. The Wildcats’ best win of the season is against No. 86 Illinois, so a victory over No. 48 Minnesota (13-4, 2-2) would be a big boost.
Northwestern, a preseason No. 18 team, is doing a little soul-searching right now after failing to meet expectations through the first 17 games of the season. McIntosh said that the team has held two “come to Jesus” meetings and is currently focused on “getting back to us” – that is, playing with “our passion and our pop,” as he put it.
Collins says that he’s looking for his senior leaders to restore the swagger the Wildcats lost this season. He acknowledged that the team doesn’t have an alpha dog, a natural leader that “grabs jerseys”, but he is hoping that his fourth-year players (McIntosh, Scottie Lindsey, Vic Law and Gavin Skelly) step up collectively.
“I’m counting on those guys to set a tone that will carry over to the rest of the team,” said Collins.
At least Northwestern has a full team to work with. Minnesota, on the other hand, has a gutted roster. The loss of Lynch “cannot be understated,” said Stevens. “He changes everything at the rim for opponents.”
Without Lynch’s 6-foot-10, 260-pound presence in the middle, Indiana outrebounded Minnesota last Saturday and “did whatever they wanted at the rim,” said Stevens, leading to a 75-71 win.
And that’s just on the court. Off of it, Minnesota could experience more fallout from the Lynch scandal. On Tuesday a third allegation surfaced about Lynch, and he has now been accused of three separate sexual assaults in a four-week period from April 2016 to early May 2016, according to Stevens.
Northwestern badly needs a win to right its ship. Minnesota wants to find a way to win without Lynch and Coffey.
As McIntosh said, this is a battle between “two teams with their backs against the wall and it’s a must-win.”
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