Northwestern head coach Chris Collins must feel like he's playing whack-a-mole during this nine-game losing streak. He works to knock one problem back down, only to have another one rear its ugly head.
It's been one thing after another for these Wildcats. Early in the season, when Northwestern won six of its first seven games, just about everything was going right. The Wildcats were shooting the ball accurately from long range, playing well enough on the defensive end and taking care of the basketball.
But one by one, aspects of their game broke down as the competition level increased in the unforgiving Big Ten.
Three-point shooting, a major component of their hot start, failed them. Boo Buie and Robbie Beran went through horrific, prolonged scoring slumps. The Wildcats' defense allowed more than 80 points in five straight games.
Northwestern has regained a bit of its outside shooting touch recently, hitting double-figure three-pointers in two of the last three games. Collins said his defense has improved, too.
But the newest problem to arise is turnovers. After being one of the best teams in the Big Ten in ball security earlier in the season, the Wildcats have fumbled their way to 49 turnovers over the last three games, an average of more than 16 per game.
In Saturday night's 75-70 loss to Purdue, Northwestern turned the ball over 15 times. That led to 18 points off turnovers for the Boilermakers. That's "crushing" in a two-possession game, according to Collins.
"The last three games, that's kind of been the bugaboo," said Collins. "We had 20 (turnovers) against Rutgers, 14 against Penn State and 15 tonight. That really isn't who we are when we're playing well."
Collins thought that many of the turnovers against Purdue were "self-inflicted wounds" that keep hounding his team. He praised his team's effort against the No. 24 Boilers but lamented the turnovers or poor shots his team took at critical times in the game.
Defensively, Northwestern held Purdue's leading scorer, Trevion Williams, in check. The 6-foot-10 big man came in averaging 16 points and 10 rebounds per game but, thanks to foul trouble and a steady diet of double teams in the post, he was held to eight points and three rebounds in just 16 minutes.
The Wildcats outshot the Boilermakers from the field (44.1% to 40.7%) and beyond the arc (35.7% to 34.8%), making 10 triples to Purdue's eight.
But Northwestern's 15 turnovers led to too many runouts for layups or fouls on the other end. Purdue wound up outscoring Northwestern 12-7 in fast-break points and, more significantly, making 23 free throws, almost triple Northwestern's eight.
Over the last three games, opponents have taken 72 foul shots, compared to just 40 for the Wildcats.
"At times our defense hasn't been good, but I feel like we've really shored up on our half-court defense," said Collins. "We're getting better when we get set.
"But the live ball turnovers really hurt us in the Penn State game, really hurt us in the Rutgers game and really hurt us tonight."
As Collins explained, committing turnovers are "not a recipe for success for the Wildcats."
"We're a team that needs to be under 10 turnovers (per game) and give ourselves a chance offensively to have good possessions and shoot the basketball."
Collins shook up the starting lineup against Purdue, starting Anthony Gaines at guard in place of Buie, and Ryan Young instead of the struggling Beran up front. The moves were not punitive, he said, but represented an attempt to "shake things up" and snap out of a losing streak that started on Dec. 26 and could engulf the rest of the season.
Collins said he was reasonably happy with the changes, as well as his team's effort.
"Our guys played very hard," he said. "They left it all out there tonight."
But the bottom line was another loss. Northwestern shot the ball better, played better defense and gave maximum effort, but turnovers ultimately did them in.
If it's not one thing, it's another. Collins will have to continue to whack the moles on the head and hope that another new one doesn't pop up.
