Sloppy Night for Northwestern Leads to an Easy 67-54 Win for Butler

Last season, Northwestern finished 10th in the country in Assist to Turnover Ratio. Holding on to the rock is normally one of their strong suits, as they dished out 472 assists last year, while only turning it over 346 times.

In Wednesday's loss to Butler, they coughed up the ball 16 times, while only netting 15 assists. The Bulldogs seem to have that effect on Northwestern. In last year's game, NU turned it over 17 times, while only tallying 14 assists in a 57-53 win for Butler.

Northwestern is not talented enough to get away with so many mistakes. The Princeton Offense relies on precision passing and perfect timing, neither of which were evident on Wednesday.

Northwestern is desperate for some scoring right now, so that's forcing Michael "Juice" Thompson and John Shurna to force stuff that simply isn't there. They each turned it over four times, but also combined for 30 of NU's 54 points.

Center Luka Mirkovic had a night to forget. Bill Carmody said after the game that they thought they could exploit his height advantage down low, but it simply wasn't to be tonight.

He was only 1-for-7 from the floor and got benched in favor of Kyle Rowley and later in the game, Davide Curletti.

If Northwestern expects to have success, they absolutely, positively, need a low-post presence. Without one, you'll see a lot more scores in the 50s like tonight.

Another issue on offense is that Jeremy Nash reverted back to his old non-aggressive ways after he missed an early dunk. Nash is the only senior on the floor right now; he can't let one missed dunk prevent him from driving to the hoop the rest of the game.

Meanwhile, starting small forward Drew Crawford for the second consecutive game provided absolutely nothing. I don't mean to call out the freshman, but he's playing like one, and it's killing the flow of the offense.

But for those of you who like to see the silver lining, the bottom line is that Butler was just as effective last year against NU, and that was when the 'Cats had Coble, Moore, and Ryan on the floor.

This year they didn't have those three and struggled just as badly, but Butler hit a few more shots and won by a more convincing margin.

Quite simply, Butler is one of the best teams in the entire country, and now Northwestern can "flush it," in football coach Pat Fitzgerald's words.

After-all, Tennessee State is coming to town on Sunday. It will be a good chance for Nash and Crawford to gain some confidence, and for NU to experiment more with guys like freshman Alex Marcotullio, who impressed Coach Carmody with his play off the bench against the Bulldogs.

If Northwestern can find some guys to put the ball in the hoop besides Thompson and Shurna; that will greatly reduce the amount of turnovers resulting from those two trying to do too much; and the 'Cats will be in much better shape once Big Ten play comes around.