Big Ten Tournament, round 1: Indiana v. Northwestern, again.

by John M (The Crimson Quarry) on Mar 11, 2010 9:00 AM EST Comment 1 comment

Northwestern Wildcats
Current record: 19-12 (17-11)
Current RPI: 117
Current Sagarin: 77
Current Pomeroy: 80
2008-09 record: 17-14 (8-10), lost to Tulsa in the first round of the NIT
2008-09 RPI: 78
2008-09 Sagarin: 59
2008-09 Pomeroy: 70
Series: IU leads 108-46
Last Northwestern win: 2/7/2010 (78-61 in Evanston)
Last IU win: 3/6/2010 (88-80 in Bloomington)
Pomeroy scouting report
TV: approximately 5 p.m., ESPN2

Blogs: Lake the Posts, Sippin' on Purple

Indiana and Northwestern meet for the second time in 6 days but for the first time ever in the Big Ten Tournament. IU and Northwestern split the regular season series. Northwestern won the game in Evanston handily and IU won in overtime just a few days ago. As I noted yesterday, Northwestern is the only school that IU has never played in Big Ten Tournament play. This is IU's fifth appearance on the tournament's first day. Northwestern, on the other hand, has played on day 1 in each of the previous 12 tournaments and has made it to Friday only four times. For IU, 2009 was a year of negative milestones, and last season IU exited on Thursday for the first time.

I don't know what to expect. IU was fortunate that Northwestern shot poorly in last weekend's matchup. Certainly, IU's 2-3 zone did seem to cause some struggles for Northwestern, and the Wildcats shot only 31 percent from three point range (season average: 36-4). After a week of preparation, can the Hoosiers successfully limit NU again?

Northwestern's scoring balance in the two games was dramatically different. In the first game, all five Northwestern starters scored in double figures. In the most recent game, John Shurna (31 points) and Michael Thompson (25 points) accounted for well over half of NU's points.

			FG			3PT			FT			Rebounds			Misc
	G	M	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	Off	Def	Tot	Ast	TO	Stl	Blk	PF	PPG
John Shurna	31	36.4	6.5	13.9	46.8	2.4	6.5	36.8	3.1	4.1	75.6	1.8	4.6	6.4	2.6	1.9	0.8	1.0	2.1	18.5
Michael Thompson	31	37.8	4.3	10.2	42.1	2.5	6.1	40.7	2.8	3.4	82.9	0.4	1.4	1.8	4.2	1.6	1.0	0.1	2.7	13.9
Drew Crawford	31	27.1	3.5	7.6	45.5	1.5	4.1	35.2	1.6	2.5	63.6	1.4	2.5	3.9	1.9	1.5	0.5	0.7	3.0	9.9
Jeremy Nash	31	34.5	2.8	7.4	37.7	1.2	4.0	30.6	2.3	2.7	82.4	0.8	3.0	3.8	3.2	1.5	1.7	0.6	2.9	9.0
Luke Mirkovic	31	26.3	2.9	6.0	48.1	0.3	0.8	34.6	1.5	2.8	54.7	2.0	3.9	5.9	2.4	1.5	0.8	0.9	2.2	7.6
Alex Marcotullio	31	14.2	1.6	4.0	39.5	1.3	3.4	37.1	0.5	0.8	70.8	0.3	1.0	1.3	0.9	0.6	0.9	0.0	1.7	5.0
Kyle Rowley	27	9.0	0.6	1.4	41.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.7	1.3	52.8	0.7	1.5	2.2	0.4	1.0	0.0	0.2	1.7	1.9
Mike Capocci	23	7.6	0.7	1.4	53.1	0.0	0.2	25.0	0.3	0.5	63.6	0.3	1.3	1.6	0.6	0.6	0.3	0.2	1.2	1.8
Davide Curletti	21	7.7	0.4	0.9	50.0	0.1	0.2	75.0	0.4	0.9	50.0	0.4	0.9	1.2	0.6	0.4	0.2	0.1	1.4	1.4
Ivan Peljusic	21	6.6	0.4	1.4	31.0	0.2	0.6	30.8	0.2	0.4	55.6	0.3	1.0	1.3	0.6	0.6	0.2	0.3	0.7	1.3
Nick Fruendt	18	3.1	0.3	0.7	41.7	0.1	0.4	28.6	0.2	0.2	100.0	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.1	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.9
Reggie Hearn	12	2.0	0.2	0.3	50.0	0.1	0.2	50.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.4
Jeff Ryan	1	14.0	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	2.0	2.0	0.0	1.0	0.0
Austin Nichols	5	0.8	0.0	0.2	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0

			FG			3PT			FT			Rebounds			Misc
	G	M	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	Off	Def	Tot	Ast	TO	Stl	Blk	PF	PPG
Maurice Creek	12	25.4	5.8	10.9	52.7	2.5	5.6	44.8	2.4	3.2	76.3	1.6	2.3	3.8	1.8	1.5	1.4	0.4	1.8	16.4
Verdell Jones III	30	31.3	4.8	12.0	39.9	0.6	2.4	25.4	4.6	6.1	75.3	0.9	3.0	3.9	3.3	2.9	0.9	0.4	1.7	14.8
Christian Watford	30	28.3	3.9	10.3	37.9	0.5	1.5	31.8	3.8	4.8	79.7	2.0	4.1	6.0	0.6	2.3	0.5	0.6	2.1	12.1
Devan Dumes	29	18.1	2.1	6.3	33.3	1.1	3.4	31.3	1.5	2.1	70.5	0.4	1.6	2.1	1.1	1.8	1.0	0.1	2.0	6.8
Jordan Hulls	30	24.9	2.1	5.1	40.8	1.5	3.8	40.4	0.7	0.9	78.6	0.6	1.5	2.1	1.5	1.1	0.6	0.0	1.9	6.4
Jeremiah Rivers	30	28.7	2.1	5.4	39.5	0.0	0.2	0.0	1.7	3.0	57.8	0.9	3.5	4.4	3.5	2.9	1.4	0.6	2.6	6.0
Derek Elston	30	15.1	2.2	4.7	46.5	0.3	0.8	37.5	1.0	1.5	65.2	1.7	2.3	4.0	0.4	1.1	0.7	0.4	1.9	5.7
Tom Pritchard	30	20.2	1.8	3.0	60.7	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.6	1.6	36.7	1.7	1.8	3.5	0.5	1.0	0.5	0.6	3.2	4.2
Bobby Capobianco	30	11.8	0.9	2.2	40.9	0.2	0.5	31.3	0.3	0.7	45.5	1.3	1.3	2.7	0.3	0.7	0.4	0.3	2.3	2.3
Matt Roth	2	5.5	0.5	1.0	50.0	0.0	0.5	0.0	1.0	1.0	100.0	0.5	0.5	1.0	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.5	2.0
Daniel Moore	27	7.3	0.4	0.7	50.0	0.1	0.3	28.6	0.5	0.6	82.4	0.2	0.6	0.7	0.3	0.5	0.4	0.0	1.0	1.3
Bawa Muniru	18	3.4	0.2	0.4	50.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.4	37.5	0.4	0.3	0.7	0.0	0.2	0.1	0.3	0.5	0.6
Tijan Jobe	21	4.6	0.2	0.4	44.4	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.5	0.7	0.0	0.3	0.0	0.2	1.0	0.4
Brett Finkelmeier	12	2.1	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.3	0.5	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.0
Kory Barnett	11	2.1	0.0	0.4	0.0	0.0	0.4	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0
Steven Gambles	7	1.7	0.0	0.3	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.4	0.1	0.6	0.0	0.3	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.0

Well, we will see how it turns out. This is one of Northwestern's best teams ever, and I'm sure NU will be motivated to knock off IU after losing last weekend. The Hoosiers, of course, along with Penn State and Michigan, have no hope for postseason play absent a miraculous 4-game run in this tournament. The winner faces Purdue at 6:30 Friday.

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