By Teddy GreensteinA week ago, Northwestern proved momentum in college basketball to be a most fickle thing. After surging past then-No. 6 Purdue, the Wildcats lost their good vibes seconds after the opening tip at Ohio State.
"We had the nice win and then went to Columbus and got smacked pretty good," NU coach Bill Carmody said. "Now things have to change."
By rallying from eight down in the second half to beat Illinois on Saturday, Carmody & Co. have put themselves back on the NCAA tournament bubble. A Web site that compiles tournament projections has Northwestern as the fourth closest team out.
Photo: Bill Carmody hopes Northwestern is pointed in the right direction. (Nam Y. Huh/AP)
The Wildcats could score a huge victory on Tuesday by beating Minnesota, another bubble team.
The 12-7 Gophers are 10-1 at home and have beaten Northwestern by an average of 21 points at Williams Arena the last two seasons. Before that, the Wildcats won three straight in Minneapolis.
"I just know it's a good team and they don't lose at home often," Carmody said. "The key for us will be handling their pressure. They press you in a lot of different ways, and they're a very good shooting team. We have to make sure they don't get easy baskets."
Minnesota's top three scorers - Lawrence Westbrook, Blake Hoffarber (CQ) and Damian Johnson - all shoot better than 50 percent.
And coach Tubby Smith does love to press and trap: The Gophers rank eighth in the nation by causing turnovers on 26.1 percent of their opponents' possessions, according to kenpom.com.
That will put a premium on NU's ball-handling, and shine a light on point guard Michael "Juice" Thompson, who played a season-low 27 minutes against Illinois because of foul trouble and scored just four points. (CQ)
NU centers Luka (CQ) Mirkovic and Kyle Rowley helped pick up the scoring slack, combining for 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
"Rowley had scored only one basket in Big Ten (play); for him to get a couple was important for them," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said Monday. "Luka took it to Tiz (Mike Tisdale) and Tiz has had so much foul trouble, he doesn't know what to do. So he backed off and Luka felt that and rolled it at him.
"(The centers) were very effective. If they can give them those numbers to go with Thompson, (John) Shurna and (Drew) Crawford, you're expanding your group and improving your team."
The 12-7 Gophers are 10-1 at home and have beaten Northwestern by an average of 21 points at Williams Arena the last two seasons. Before that, the Wildcats won three straight in Minneapolis.
"I just know it's a good team and they don't lose at home often," Carmody said. "The key for us will be handling their pressure. They press you in a lot of different ways, and they're a very good shooting team. We have to make sure they don't get easy baskets."
Minnesota's top three scorers - Lawrence Westbrook, Blake Hoffarber (CQ) and Damian Johnson - all shoot better than 50 percent.
And coach Tubby Smith does love to press and trap: The Gophers rank eighth in the nation by causing turnovers on 26.1 percent of their opponents' possessions, according to kenpom.com.
That will put a premium on NU's ball-handling, and shine a light on point guard Michael "Juice" Thompson, who played a season-low 27 minutes against Illinois because of foul trouble and scored just four points. (CQ)
NU centers Luka (CQ) Mirkovic and Kyle Rowley helped pick up the scoring slack, combining for 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
"Rowley had scored only one basket in Big Ten (play); for him to get a couple was important for them," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said Monday. "Luka took it to Tiz (Mike Tisdale) and Tiz has had so much foul trouble, he doesn't know what to do. So he backed off and Luka felt that and rolled it at him.
"(The centers) were very effective. If they can give them those numbers to go with Thompson, (John) Shurna and (Drew) Crawford, you're expanding your group and improving your team."
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