B1G Game 5: Gophers Host Northwestern (1-11-17)

Ignatius L Hoops

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Gophers (1-3) Host Northwestern (2-2).

Nia Coffey makes her last appearance at Williams arena in her final attempt to get the Wildcats back to the NCAA tournament. (The Wildcats played in the 2015 NCAA). Last season, the Gophers won 95-92 at Williams. The Gophers 16 point lead during the third quarter evaporated as Northwestern tied it at 74 entering the fourth. It was a shootout from there. The return match in Evanston was a 2 OT, Banham gets 60!!!, thriller drawing national attention. However, the Wildcats got some revenge in the B1G tournament 84-74.

The Wildcats have height. But you can’t forget the B1Gs all time thief, 5’4”Ashley Deary. Deary already has 11 steals in her first four B1G games. Sticking up for Northwestern’s bigs, 6’2” Lauren Douglas has contributed 10 steals. To me, Deary’s rebounding is even more annoying than her steals; no one pursues the ball harder.

Fortunately, Nia Coffey is foul prone: in four B1G games, she’s picked up 16 fouls.

Wins: @ Nebraska 62-58; Purdue, 76-60.
Losses: Ohio State, 94-87; @ Maryland, 96-65.

The Nebraska win was a battle: The Wildcats led 58-55 with four minutes remaining and both teams went almost the final four minutes without scoring. Against Purdue, Northwestern’s one good quarter, 19-7, gave them the cushion they needed.

Against Ohio State, Northwestern trailed 90-87 with 34 seconds remaining. Against Maryland they had nothing.

https://dailynorthwestern.com/2017/...etball-no-3-maryland-rolls-past-northwestern/

The opening two minutes of Saturday’s game at Maryland didn’t go well for Northwestern.

The Wildcats turned the ball over on each of their first three possessions, and the Terrapins answered with a bucket each time. Before ever attempting a field goal, NU trailed 6-0.

Unfortunately for the Cats, the remaining 38 minutes didn’t go much better. Senior Shatori Walker-Kimbrough scored 18 points, leading five Maryland players in double figures as the No. 3 Terrapins (15-1, 3-0 Big Ten) routed NU (13-4, 2-2) 96-65 Saturday in College Park.

“I think we’re a much better team than we showed,” coach Joe McKeown said. “We just didn’t do a good job defensively of staying in front of them and that was the difference.”






Probable Starters (B1G stats):

Nia Coffey: 6’1” F Sr (21.3 point/game; 8.5 rebounds/game)
Lauren Douglas: 6’2” F Sr. (11.0 p/g)
Ashley Deary: 5’4” G Sr. (9.0 p/g; 4.8 r/g and 7.3 assists/game)
Allie Tuttle: 6’4” F Sr (Mckeown must have his reasons)
Christen Inman: 5’10” G Sr. (15.3 p/g)


Others:

Abi Scheid: 6’2” F Fr. (9.8 p/g and 4.5 r/g)
Abbie Wolf: 6'4" F Fr (5.0 p/g)
 

Seems like Northwestern is a bit of an enigma. As you pointed out, they gave OSU all they could handle, but then they also had a rough time with Nebraska. Coffey is a very good player, although she can be turnover- and foul-prone. I will always wonder what she would have done with teammates like Banham or Zahui B. (I understand the academic attraction of Northwestern.) Northwestern is not a deep team, so foul trouble could be a big problem for them. I'm not the biggest fan of Coach McKeown. If you look at his record in all his time at Northwestern, it's not all that impressive. Big game for the Gophers if they want to continue to think they can make the NCAA tourney.
 

Yup, sadly this feels like another must win given their schedule. I would like to see Fernstrom have a big game.
 


Northwestern sophomore Jordan Hankins has passed away. Very sad. :(
http://nusports.com/news/2017/1/9/w...-mourns-loss-of-sophomore-jordan-hankins.aspx

Wednesday's game is cancelled. I assume they meant postponed as they will work to find a make up date.

A little more information:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...stern-basketball-spt-0110-20170109-story.html

Northwestern women's basketball player Jordan Hankins was found dead in her room on campus Monday afternoon, the school said. The sophomore from Indianapolis was 19.

The cause of death is not known. Evanston police are investigating, but the school said in a statement there was no evidence of foul play.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office will determine the cause of death
 








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