Carmody looking for mo' of same

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Coming off an upset of then-No. 6 Purdue on Saturday, Northwestern coach Bill Carmody is hoping the Wildcats can use the momentum tonight when they visit No. 21 Ohio State.

The Cats (13-4, 2-3 Big Ten) are off to their best start since opening 15-3 during the 1945-46 season. NU, which broke into the Associated Press top 25 in late December, received votes this week.

''We had a week of tough games, and I thought we played pretty decently,'' Carmody said Monday. ''The schedule has been tough for us, and Ohio State is playing as well as anyone with [Evan] Turner back. There's no question that winning a game like [Saturday's upset of Purdue] was great for our school and great for our players.''

John Shurna leads NU, averaging 16.8 points and 7.1 rebounds. Point guard Juice Thompson averages 14.4 points and 4.4 assists, and freshman Drew Crawford is averaging 10.9 points.

''A lot of what they do stems from Thompson -- he is such a good point guard,'' Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. ''And [Carmody] has surrounded him with guys who can make shots.''

Crawford has been a difference-maker since Day 1.

''What I really liked about the way he played [against Purdue] was his two-handed rebounding,'' Carmody said. ''He is a lot more athletic than a lot of our guys. And he has been a lot more consistent lately.''

Ohio State (13-5, 3-3) has been led by Turner, a Chicago native who played in high school at St. Joseph. A 6-7 junior, Turner was named Big Ten player of the week for the fourth time this season and seventh time overall.

 

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"We got beat by a better team," Purdue coach Matt Painter said.

Painter and Northwestern students were more impressed than Top 25 pollsters, who kept the Wildcats unranked Monday.

Big deal. The most relevant ranking to Northwestern is the Top 65 released March 14. Jerry Palm, the NCAA tournament expert who runs CollegeRPI.com, projected his second bracket Monday and had Northwestern one of the final four teams to be excluded from the field, along with Illinois.

That officially rents the Wildcats space on the tournament bubble, more comfy than the Big Ten basement.

"They have a chance," Palm said. "The Purdue win gave them a win over a sure tournament team. The only other one they have right now may be Notre Dame. They can't afford to lose to teams that aren't going anywhere."

Translation: Northwestern must take advantage of a schedule that has it playing six of the final 13 Big Ten games against teams lower in the standings: Indiana, Penn State and Iowa. In the remaining seven, the Wildcats need to manufacture another moment or two that jogs the memory of Northwestern alums such as Roberson.

At 2-3, Northwestern really needs to finish 8-5 down the stretch in Big Ten play to remove doubt.

"I don't know if .500 in the league is going to be good enough, but it's early," Palm said.

Is it?

"Every day we work hard at staying focused and level-headed," Thompson said. "But we talk about it. And we feel we have a great chance to make the tournament."

Naturally for Carmody's team, the back door is open.

 

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OSU men's basketball: Nothing mild about Wildcats
Northwestern is playing well despite loss of key players


There were seasons past when Northwestern coach Bill Carmody looked at his bench and felt queasy. He didn't want to have to substitute.

"There was a big drop-off" between the five starters and the first three or four waiting on the bench, he said.

"I don't think that's the case anymore," Carmody said before this season. "I think we can go a little deeper."

He said that in October, before his best player, Kevin Coble, and another regular, Jeff Ryan, both seniors, were injured and lost for the season.

"We're not as deep as we were," Carmody said yesterday.

But the Wildcats still might have enough to do what they set out to at the start of the season -- be invited to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.

Fresh off a victory over Purdue, Northwestern (13-4, 2-3 Big Ten) visits Value City Arena tonight to take on resurgent Ohio State. The Boilermakers, No. 6 at the time, were the highest-ranked team the Wildcats have defeated in 30 years.

Ohio State returned to the national rankings yesterday -- No. 21 in the Associated Press poll and No. 25 in the USA Today-ESPN poll -- after victories over two ranked teams, Purdue and Wisconsin, last week.

Northwestern got a handful of votes in the AP poll, a tribute to the turnaround Carmody has engineered after his bosses stayed patient with him despite his record regressing in 2007 and '08, his seventh and eighth seasons at the school.

Their patience was rewarded last year when the Wildcats finished 17-14 (8-10 Big Ten) and received a spot in the National Invitation Tournament for the first time in 10 years.

"He downplays it, but Bill Carmody, I think, is a great coach," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. "As much as absorbing the loss of a player, how about absorbing the loss of a loss? He's lost some tough games, and then they bounce back. That's the mark of a great coach and great-character kids."

The Wildcats had wins last season at Michigan State and Purdue and at home over Ohio State and Wisconsin. They might have made the NCAA field if a couple of their five Big Ten losses by five points or fewer had gone the other way.

Those losses toughened them, though. They are 6-1 this season in games decided by nine points or less.

"They had more grit than our team," Purdue coach Matt Painter said after his team's loss to Northwestern on Saturday. "The last four or five years, (departed guard) Craig Moore used to carry that stick in terms of being a leader and fighting for them. I think they've got four, five, six guys now that are really on edge, that play hard, and they're bringing some of those younger guys with them."

That Northwestern has the depth of toughness and talent it has is testament to better recruiting, especially in the Chicago area. Four starters -- Michael Thompson, John Shurna, Jeremy Nash and Drew Crawford -- are from the Chicago area, and five of the seven in the primary rotation are underclassmen.

"Our freshman and sophomore classes are definitely a step above what we've been getting," Carmody said. "My assistant coaches have done a real good job getting guys here who can come in and play right away"

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? Matchup to watch: Northwestern made 22 three-pointers in two games against Ohio State last season and is averaging a Big Ten-best nine per game in conference play. The Buckeyes have given up a league-high 8.3 per game and 30 in the past three games.

? Notable: This is the teams' only regular-season meeting. Ohio State has 29 consecutive wins over Northwestern in Columbus, the last loss coming in 1977. Northwestern's victory in Evanston, Ill., last season snapped a 17-game Ohio State win streak in the series dating to 1998. Evan Turner is seven assists from joining Jim Jackson as the only Ohio State players with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 300 assists in their careers.