John Shurna Breaks Northwestern Scoring Record in Victory over Minnesota

It’s never a bad game if your star player breaks the school’s all-time scoring record.

In a commanding 64-53 victory over Minnesota, John Shurna scored 18 points to surpass Bill McKinney’s 35-year-old scoring mark.  With four more regular-season games and two possible postseason tournaments, Shurna should be able to score the 98 more points he needs to be the first Wildcat to ever break 2,000 points. 

This season’s team may continue to add program firsts if it has a strong showing in the final four regular-season games and secures the school’s first-ever bid to the NCAA tournament, a feat that is looking a lot more likely after a huge win over Minnesota.

Game notes

In addition to Shurna’s heroics, Dave Sobolewski scored a game-high 22 points while hitting four of five shots from behind the arc.  His consistent scoring of late has risen his points per game to 9.4, and now only Shurna and Drew Crawford average more. 

Northwestern’s 3-point shooting has also been better in recent games, and the team hit 10 3s against Minnesota, making them at a 37 percent clip. 

Overall, the team’s offense, averaging 70.3 ppg, has not been experiencing its scoring droughts from earlier in the season.  Shurna, averaging 20.2 ppg, showed his ability to dominate the offensive end when he exploded with 12 points in a 3:22 span toward the end of the first half. 

The Wildcats did commit 10 turnovers, but they added 15 assists in solid team basketball.  Minnesota had a rougher game with 14 assists compared to 21 turnovers. 

Northwestern coach Bill Carmody kept the Wildcats in the 1-3-1 for a large percentage of the game, and it often forced the Golden Gophers to take tough 3s, on which they shot 5-for-17.  The Cats recorded eight steals, and they were able to force Minnesota into traps at midcourt. 

Minnesota’s press on defense seemed to have an effect on Northwestern, because it would usually take close to 10 seconds for the ball to actually get to the offensive end, but the press could be more effectively broken with a pick set in the backcourt. 

Northwestern’s real issues were in rebounding and interior defense.  In addition to allowing 30 points in the paint, the Wildcats pulled in 20 rebounds compared to Minnesota’s gigantic 41, including 17 offensive rebounds. 

Luka Mirkovic again did not play, and although Davide Curletti had a decent game, he had his left hand taped up past the wrist due to an unconfirmed injury. 

An interesting positive note to come out of the game was the fact that the Big Ten Network is running a promotion in which the Big Ten student section that forces conference opponents to shoot the worst free throw percentage on its home court wins $5,000 toward a charity of its choice. 

Somehow, Big Ten teams have shot 70-115 at Welsh-Ryan Arena, and this 60.87 percent from the charity stripe is the best in the conference. 

Although it is not entirely clear how this phenomenon is to be explained, Northwestern is undoubtedly finding some home-court advantage.  The Cats are 11-3 at home and 5-2 in conference play.

Looking toward Michigan

This next game will test that home-court advantage.  After pulling out a 2-point win in overtime on Jan. 11 in Ann Arbor, the Wolverines are coming off a win over sixth-ranked Ohio State as they travel to Evanston. 

Northwestern has only one game to give if the team is to reach .500 in conference play.  However, Ohio State is also coming to town, so a win here would give the Cats some much needed breathing room. 

This promises to be a great matchup in which the Cats look to exact revenge in a way similar to what they did to Illinois and Minnesota. 

Northwestern is only averaging 3.4 ppg more than Michigan, while Michigan is only shooting 0.2 percentage points better.  While the teams are extremely well-matched on the offensive end, Michigan is only averaging 1.2 rpg more than Northwestern, the Wildcats’ biggest weakness. 

If Shurna continues to light it up, a full student section keeps those free throws biting iron and the team begins to box out, the Cats have a real chance in this game.

The fight for the tournament

It looks as if eight Big Ten teams will be receiving bids to the NCAA tournament.  After the win over Minnesota, Northwestern sits in seventh place in the conference standings. 

With Purdue sweeping Northwestern, sweeping Illinois, and winning the sole contest with Minnesota, the Boilermakers will most likely be taking that sixth bid.  That means there are two remaining for Northwestern, Minnesota, and Illinois. 

Before Saturday’s games, Northwestern already had a higher RPI than Illinois and won while Minnesota and Illinois both lost. 

Illinois got stomped on by the lowly Cornhuskers, and the Fighting Illini are fighting themselves out of the tournament, while Bruce Weber is fighting himself out of a job. 

If the Cats can continue to win, and even if they end up below .500 in conference play, they will have a solid shot at the tournament if Illinois cannot find a win and the selection committee is enamored enough with the Big Ten to hand out eight bids. 

At least one guy in the building is ignoring all these ifs.  The new Northwestern scoring leader, the man an entire building of strangers will affectionately call “Johnny,” is doing all he can to propel his team to its first ever Big Dance.