No one is happier to flip the calendar to February tomorrow than Vic Law. To say that Northwestern’s fifth-year senior was in a scoring slump in January is like saying it’s been a little chilly in Chicago this week.
Law shot less than 25 percent for the month of January and scored just over eight points per game, 12 fewer than he averaged in December. He's been even worse in the four games since returning from his ankle injury, shooting less than 20 percent from the floor and scoring just seven points per game.
Law is still the team's leading scorer at 15.3 points per game, so, unsurprisingly, as he struggled, so did Northwestern's offense.
The Wildcats have scored more than their 68.5-point-per-game average just once in the last eight games, a 73-66 win over Indiana on Jan. 22. They haven't reached 40-percent shooting in their last four contests as baskets are getting harder and harder to come by, and the last two games have been particularly brutal, with season lows in shooting (29.6 and 31 percent) and points (46 and 52) against Wisconsin and Maryland, respectively.
Law hasn't reached his season scoring average in a month, since he poured in 21 in a win over Columbia on Dec. 30. He saw his scoring average fall faster than the temperatures in that period, from 20.2 points per game in December to 8.4 in January. (While January's schedule has been filled with tougher Big Ten matchups, December was no slouch, either, as the Wildcats played Indiana, Michigan, DePaul and Oklahoma among their six opponents.)
Look at Law's scoring numbers in Northwestern's eight January games, including the one he sat out against Michigan with an ankle injury:
Those shooting numbers would be disappointing for a freshman walkon. They are flat-out galling for a senior leader who has scored more than 1,000 career points and is regarded as the best all-around player on the team.
To put those numbers in perspective, 24.3-percent shooting is 16 percentage points fewer than Law's career average of 40.1. Furthermore, his 12 percent from beyond the arc is less than one-third of his career average of 37.1 percent.
To his credit, when his offense leaves him, Law usually finds other ways to impact the game. In the seven contests he played in January, he led the team in rebounding five times, in assists twice, in steals five times and in blocked shots thrice.
On the season, he leads the team in scoring and steals (23), and ranks second in rebounds (6.6 per game), assists (2.7 per game) and blocks (21). So no one fills all the columns on the stat sheet better than Law.
With Law struggling to score, Northwestern has run its offense more through center Dererk Pardon, who is the top scorer in Big Ten play with 15.5 points per game, to Law's 10.4. Still, Law handles the ball more than anyone besides A.J. Turner, and he and Anthony Gaines are the team's top defenders.
Where Northwestern is at its worst right now is putting points on the board, and that's where they need Law's contributions the most. No one is sure of the effect Law’s ankle or his knee tendinitis is having on his performance, but it’s clear that something is amiss.
Also clear is this fact: if the Wildcats are going to turn their season around in February, Law will have to get back to being Law.
