Push Through the Tape
Anyone who has run a marathon knows that a long race requires rigorous preparation including diet, conditioning, mental toughness, and tactical smarts. The Big Ten Conference race is at the 20 mile mark in marathon terms and all of the preparatory steps begin to pay dividends for those teams that have conducted a ocmprehensive plan for the entire race.
The teams this week that seem to be ready for the very difficult and competitive run to the finish include Michigan State (they have a nice lead), Purdue (they are hanging on and showing some new energy), Ohio State (they are a bit shaky), and Illinois (ragged, but still running strong).
Badger Dance
A team that has turned up its pace in the race for an invitation to the Big Dance is Wisconsin. Credit the good coaching of Bo Ryan and the strong play of their two seasoned seniors, Landry and Krabbenhoft, for their 4 game winning streak after an unheard of six straight losses by a Ryan coached team. Minnesota, according to the TV gurus, is in the Big Dance, but they clearly are fading after a great start. They need a big win to stem the slide into the NIT.
Painter Brings Buckets
In the game Wednesday night, Purdue brought “Buckets” Bobby Riddell into the line-up and what a game this 4 year walk-on played. With Robbie Hummel looking on and cheering on “Buckets”, Riddell sparked the Boilers with 13 points and some very impressive plays. For basketball afficionado, his best play was not the three point shooting or the nice driving lay-up, but the missile precision bounce pass to a cutting Johnson for an easy lay-up. It was one of the best passes of the season. And what a better nickname than “Buckets” in the basketball crazy state of Indiana?
It was a nice win for Purdue and an encouraging sign that they can play strong without Hummel. JaJuan Johnson is emerging as a very effective in the post in that he has the length of a strong post player, but the athleticism and outside shooting precision of a scoring forward. His soft offensive touch is a joy to watch.
Against Iowa, Hummel returned to the line-up, but his lack of play and conditioning were visible as he did not contribute much to the Purdue win. Johnson, Moore, and Kramer all played strong games. The Kramer face mask and the bandaged forehead of Iowa’s Jake Kelly were reminders of how physical play in the big ten can be. The Hawkeyes continue to play strong even though Tate and Peterson were on the sideline with injuries and freshman Tucker sitting out due to academic problems.
Penn State Battles Back
Penn State pulled out a huge win over Minnesota, 68 to 63. Since their dramatic win against Michigan State in East Lansing, the Littany Lions had lost three straight and Talor Battle, the leading scorer in the Big Ten scored a total of only 19 points in those loses, zero in the loss to Purdue. He returned to his strong game yesterday in the Lions impressive win over the Gophers.
The Gophers did find an effective three point shooter in Devoe Joseph, who hit 7 of 8 behind the three point stripe. The Gophers will have to notch up their defensive pressure if they are to make a strong run to the finish line.
Cats Can’t Finish
As a long time Northwestern fan, the Thursday nite game against the Illini was one of the best games played in Welsh Ryan Arena. Unfortunately, many of these really good games have been lost by the Cats in the closing seconds. But credit the great play of Demetri McCamey as he simply strapped the Illini on his back and gutted out the win with a nice bankshot from the baseline with 2.9 seconds on the clock for a 60 to 59 win, and the first time the Illini were in the lead.
Pingatore in the House
Perhaps it was McCamey’s high school coach, Gene Pingatore, presence behind the Illini bench who was special motivation to McCamey’s strong play. Pingatore recently became the winningest high school coach in the State of Illinois with 827 wins and counting. At 71 years old, he has coached at Westchester St. Joe’s in LaGrange, a western suburb of Chicago, for 40 years. He has one state championship and a long list of great players who played for him at St. Joe’s including Isiah Thomas, Deryl Cunningham (Kansas State), Daryl Thomas (Indiana). Tony Freeman, Sr. and Jr. (Jr. now at SIU formerly at Iowa), Brandon Watkins (Penn. St.), Evan Turner (OSU), and Demetri McCamey (Illini). If you have not watched him coach, it is a treat as he brings energy and a high level of expectation to the sidelines as he exhorts his teams on to success.
The real high point of the Illini win was the effective defensive job that Chester Frazier did on Craig Moore. Moore played hard and literally ran out gas at the end of game. Moore is a competitor, hates to lose, and will do everything he can do to eke out a win. A disappointing performance was the play of Coble who was matched up with Trent Meacham. With a 6 inch advantage over Meacham, Coble should have been able to work free for a few more of his patented offensive moves that could have made a huge difference in the outcome of this game.
In the final two minutes, Coach Weber went to a 4 guard line-up and the Cats were completely unprepared for the swarming Illini hordes. Lucio Mirkovic was the outlet for the pressured Cat ballhandlers, but he did not know what to do with the ball so he called two timeouts, exhausting the final weapon the Cats had to be used in the final seconds. In essence, Coach Weber and Wayne McClain are credited with this defensive twist, which proved to be the winning margin.
Mirkovic played a very strong game and Carmody should never have left him in at this point of the game. Carmody was unable to recognize that he too needed to bring in some experienced ballhandlers; Ryan and Williams would have been the obvious substitutes. The point of rigorous preparation and conditioning for a marathon is applicable here in that the Cats were not prepared for this game ending pressure. This lack of preparation was admitted by NU players in the post game interviews. Hopefully, this deficiency will be fixed by Carmody for future games.
Original Story:
http://hoopraker.com/2009/02/15/race-...
