Learning from a disappointing men's basketball season

This season is disappointing, but you already know that. Now comes the important question: What can Chris Collins and company learn from this year to avoid a repeat of this season and get the fan base excited again about Northwestern basketball? NBN Sports has the definitive answers. (Hint: score more points!)

Stop relying on the 3

Jono Zarrilli

Northwestern is second in the Big Ten – behind Michigan State – both in 3-point attempts per game and on the season. Yet while the Spartans shoot from deep at a scorching 42.2 percent, the Wildcats are ninth in the conference at a 35.1 percent clip. The challenge here is that their 2-point shooting is also abysmal: They sit at 13th in the conference with a 47.2 percent mark.

Collins needs to devise more creative offensive schemes that will enable a Bryant McIntosh and Scottie Lindsey-less offense to get more high-percentage opportunities in the paint. The team’s leader next year will likely be Dererk Pardon, who is third in the Big Ten with a 63.5 percent FG percentage. Find ways to get him the ball, and the team will not crash and burn when the 3’s are not falling.

Rejuvenate the offense

Jacob Munoz

There’s no excuse for how lackluster the offense has been. The team ranks second-worst in points scored during B1G Conference play and is shooting a measly .424 on field goal percentage throughout the season (298th out of 351 college teams). Coach Collins and the rest of his staff need to address this persistent scoring problem if they want to move past losing their two best scorers, seniors McIntosh and Lindsey.

However, despite a relative train-wreck of a season, Wildcat fans should know that the team is not necessarily doomed to return to mediocrity. Pardon and Vic Law are poised to be next year’s senior leaders and have proven their ability to perform. In his past three games filling in for McIntosh, freshman Anthony Gaines has delivered for Northwestern and will likely be the top guard for the team next season. To add some extra promise, the Wildcats will finally have their campus arena back in 2018 (have we only been gone one season?), and along with that, an influx of new fans will hopefully come.

Understand that there are new expectations

Charlie Sidles

The biggest thing men’s basketball can learn from this season is that since they are now in the national spotlight, there is a new standard the team is held to. Undoubtedly, this is a down year; the team has certainly not lived up to its (in hindsight, over-optimistic) expectations. However, if this season had happened three years ago, it would be considered a solid season. After all, the Wildcats have a winning record and a ranked win. But greed is a bottomless pit: When you give fans a taste of winning, they will always want more. This season shows that Northwestern has a new standard, and moving forward, they need to have a higher floor to be taken seriously as a program.

Lastly, one of our more cynical writers has an alternative lesson that we learned last Saturday:

Twenty-seven point leads are not nearly big enough

Trevor Lystad

It was going to be a great story: Despite their rough season, the ‘Cats blew out No. 2 Michigan State, demonstrating that they are more than capable of playing at last year’s tournament-caliber level. Up 27 at one point and 22 at halftime over the Spartans, Northwestern looked ready to cruise to victory. Then – remembering that this was Northwestern and that happiness doesn’t exist – they collapsed, scoring 11 points in the second half and eventually losing 65-60.

The lesson here: Go up by way more than 27 in the first half, especially against a team as good as MSU. A forty-point lead might be enough, though 50 might be good just so we can avoid “crunch time” altogether.

(Scoring more than 11 points in the second half could also work, but we should be realistic here).