Northwestern Preview

Northwestern is still looking for its first trip to the NCAA tournament, and it looks like they will be looking a little while longer after this year.  The B1G is just too deep and talented for the Purple People Eaters to finish with a good enough conference record to get selected. 

Offensively, NW is led by John Shurna who is actually leading the B1G in scoring currently (18.6 ppg). It will likely continue to decline throughout the rest of the conference season, but he can score quickly from a lot of different ways.  He is a very good jump shooter, even though he has one of the ugliest shots that I have ever seen.  Their point guard Crawford is 2nd in the B1G scoring 17.9 ppg.  He is an athletic scoring point guard who is capable of putting up 20 on most nights.  He struggled against the good defense from Aaron Craft and OSU.  Northwestern relies on these guys for most of their scoring, and when they are having an off night N will likely get beat easily.  They have been blown out by Ohio State and Baylor, while also losing to a good Creighton team. 

Defensively Northwestern usually runs a 2-3 or a 3-2 zone where they pack in the middle of the court.  he Wildcats do not have much scoring or talent in the post, and need to use a lot of help defense against teams with a strong post player.  Shurna and Crawford also lead the team in rebounding.  They are a very weak rebounding team. 

Morgan should be able to have a field day against the Wildcats, since they do not have much talent to stay with him.  Crawford vs Burke will be an interesting matchup, because Crawford will be looking to score more than most B1G point guards.  Again, Michigan's starters have a lot more talent that Northwestern's.  Shurna will be forced to cover Tim Hardaway, which will be one of his toughest assignments all season and will likely impact his offense in a negative way. 

Northwestern could surprise some people this year on a night where Shurna and Crawford get hot and score 40 points combined, but they will not be able to sustain it for a successful conference season.  NW will likely have between 5-7 B1G wins.