Northwestern Basketball Finding a Different Way to Win

Saying the Northwestern men's basketball team likes to shoot the rock from outside is a pretty significant understatement.

After all, 47 percent of the shots they've attempted this year have come from downtown.

In fact, many fans and pundits have said that NU lives and dies by the three.

So if I were to tell you that they made a season-low four three-pointers against the sixth ranked team in the country, naturally you'd assume they lost...right?

Well, they won, and they did it in the most impressive fashion imaginable. They beat Purdue, possibly the best defensive team in the entire conference, if not the country, at their own game.

The Wildcats were tougher, quicker to loose balls, and they dominated the boards.

Yes, you read that correctly.

They dominated the boards—as in they out-rebounded Purdue 42-23.

Ever since I called him out after the Illinois and Michigan State games, Luka Mirkovic has played like a man possessed. I would like to take credit for his turnaround, but I seriously doubt anyone on the team even knows this column exists. 

But I have to give credit where credit is due. Mirkovic had his way with Purdue's future NBA big man: JaJuan Johnson, going over Johnson a couple times for baskets and also forcing the star center into early foul trouble that he never recovered from.

Purdue showed their fatal weakness: a lack of depth (something NU can relate to), as the backups just couldn't handle the challenge of stopping Mirkovic. The man was everywhere, scoring 16 points and pulling down 10 rebounds.

If he does that every game, Northwestern will not only make the NCAA tournament, they'll advance pretty far.

That's how good they are when Mirkovic plays at that level. Of course, he won't play like that every game. He's still a sophomore and will have his ups and downs, but man oh man, he sure showed off his potential against Purdue.

It will be interesting to see how he plays against Dallas Lauderdale and the Ohio State Buckeyes on Tuesday. Luka feeds off the crowd, pounding his chest, and "raising the roof" with his arms. He won't be able to do that in the harsh atmosphere of Columbus.

While Mirkovic was doing some great work in the low post, Juice Thompson exploited Purdue's lack of quality point guard up top. Thompson hit a couple threes, but most of his damage came from hard drives to the basket that ended with him either scoring or drawing a foul.

I think the play of the game though was Drew Crawford's "and one" drive to the basket late in the second half. That was the type of athletic, aggressive play that NU hoops has rarely seen in the past, and it was a huge difference-maker as NU pulled away from the Boilermakers.

The fact that NU went to the charity stripe 30 times in the game speaks volumes to how aggressive they were on offense. The fact that they hit 26 of those free throws shows that they spent a lot of time in practice after the debacle that was the Wisconsin game.

On a personal note, this is my last basketball season as a Northwestern student, and it was an amazing feeling to rush the court. My buddy Kenny Avila actually was the first one out there and he was worried that no one else would follow him, but we did. It doesn't top rushing the football field after NU beat Wisconsin, but it was a pretty amazing experience nonetheless.

Another item of importance: the Wildcats did not play the 1-3-1 zone defense at all against the Boilermakers. They played the 2-3 zone with a little man to man mixed in the entire game. This caused two things to happen: it allowed them to rebound better, and it prevented Moore and Hummel from getting open corner three attempts.

The beauty of the 1-3-1 is that it forces a lot of turnovers, but NU was still able to cause havoc with their 2-3 zone in this one.

Lastly, NU showed they can win against elite competition even when their leading scorer John Shurna has an off night.

Can you imagine how good this team will be when everything clicks?

It should be a scary thought for the rest of the Big Ten.