Northwestern-Northern Illinois postmortem

And here I thought I wasted four years of high school French and a year of college French. For some reason, it all paid off on Friday night in Evanston.

Among the many things we learned during Northwestern’s 77-55 season-opening win over Northern Illinois? That senior forward Kevin Coble has what currently is diagnosed as a mild Lisfranc fracture in his left foot…and that senior guard Jeremy Nash was “ a little bit of a dilettante” in coach Bill Carmody’s eyes.

For those who aren’t up on their Sartre, their Saint-Exupery or the lovely phrase “je ne sais quoi,” a dilettante is someone who dabbles in an activity. One internet definition offers a harsher take: “a person who takes up an art, activity or subject merely for amusement, especially in a desultory or superficial way.”

Before we get to Carmody’s explanation, here’s what the 6-foot-3 senior from Marist High School did tonight as he took Coble’s spot in the starting lineup:

--Second career start
--Career-high 37 minutes
--Career-high 20 points (he never scored more than 10 last year)
--Game-high 4 steals
--Team-high 3 assists
--Four rebounds
--Two breakaway dunks off steals
--He attacked the basket enough to earn 12 free-throw attempts. He took a grand total of 24 free throws in 17 Big Ten games last year.

Now, class, everyone ecoutez and be prepared to repetez as Professor Bill lays a little Camus on us:
“Well, he’s a senior now. I thought he sort of had -- I don’t know if it was a breakout year last year -- but for him it was because he sort of was a little bit of a dilettante his first couple years. He dabbled in it. Last year he started playing a little harder. This spring and summer he worked on his game.”

Monsieur Nash, your take?
“I don’t think it’s so much as being more serious. I think the first two years, getting injured with my groin and then my back, I think that took a toll on me. I wanted to do more, but at the same time I didn’t know what my role was.”

Last year, NU relied on Nash to deliver a spark off the bench -- primarily as the indefatiguable defender atop the 1-3-1 zone trap. This year, the coaches have told him that’s not enough. Even if Coble was playing.

“All this week, they kept telling me to assert myself on offense,” Nash said. “Don’t just sit back and lay back and expect it to be all defense. That’s what I tried to do today.”

NOW, THE REST OF THE STORY (Feel free to read aloud in snooty French accent)

With Coble’s best-case scenario being a mid-January return (though it sounds more like he’ll need surgery that would keep him off the court until late March at the earliest), the Wildcats don’t need any more problems.

Yet the first half turned out to be one of those emergency drills that public-safety officials conduct every so often. Sophomore forward John Shurna picked up his second foul with 15:33 left in the first half. Freshman guard Drew Crawford, who started his college debut, picked up his second foul at the 14:48 mark. Neither guy scored while he was in there and neither guy returned until the second half.

In their stead, Nash picked it up as did frontcourt guys such as Luka Mirkovic (15 points, 5 rebounds), Ivan Peljusic (7 points, team-high 7 rebounds) and Mike Capocci (5 points, including what Carmody claimed to be the first alley-oop dunk of his coaching career).

The big downer? Senior Jeff Ryan played 14 minutes when Shurna went out, but Ryan went out with what appeared to be a serious left knee injury with 1:28 left in the first half. Ryan needed to be helped off the floor and he spent the second half sitting in the seats behind the bench. Coble could stand and applaud his teammates, but Ryan couldn’t. Carmody said he’ll go for X-rays but didn’t sound optimistic.

OTHER THOUGHTS and BON MOTS
--Carmody said freshman Drew Crawford (2 points, 1 rebound, 4 fouls in 12 minutes) played about as expected. Apparently he fouled early and often in the scrimmage against Indiana Wesleyan as well as the exhibition against Robert Morris, but nobody seems too concerned.

--John Shurna didn’t score or grab a rebound in the first half, but finished with 12 points and 5 rebounds. Seemed to rush his shots...or maybe his release is just that blurry-quick.

--Sophomore center Kyle Rowley, who broke his foot in early August, played 13 minutes off the bench and contributed 5 points and 2 rebounds. He looked stronger than last year, but no more or less mobile than before.

--Ivan Peljusic received several compliments from Carmody. Sounds like he’ll be pegged into Nash’s instant energy role of a year ago.

--Northern Illinois really missed 6-foot-11 junior center Sean Kowal. He picked up his second foul less than four minutes into the game and sat for the rest of the half. With him out, the Huskies lost what little size they had. Senior Ante Dzepina tried (6 points, 4 rebounds), but the Huskies got overrun inside.

--Kowal, by the way, finished with 8 points, 3 rebounds and 2 blocks in 18 minutes. My calculations indicate the Huskies lost by just 2 points when Kowal was on the floor, but lost by 20 when he wasn’t.

--NIU coach Ricardo Patton brought in senior forward Najul Ervin when Kowal got his second early foul, but Ervin did next to nothing in his 5 minutes and Patton sat last year’s starting power forward for the rest of the way. “Just kind of walking around,” Patton said. “We’re not going to play a guy that’s not going to play hard. And he’s a guy that I think has to play hard for us to be as good as we can be.”

--The Huskies came away confident about how they were able to beat Northwestern’s switching man-to-man defense. Indeed, Jake Anderson kept slashing to the hoop and got several of his 15 points that way as the Huskies built an early 16-11 lead. When Northwestern switched to its 1-3-1 zone, the Huskies couldn’t match their height, their length and their intensity and threw a few balls away.

--NIU didn’t walk away from this game unscathed, either. Tony Nixon’s elbow ran into Jake Anderson’s teeth and suffered a nice cut. NU’s Jeremy Nash whacked Xavier Silas’ shooting hand while trying to block a shot early in the second half. Silas’ hand remained swollen after the game, though trainer Phil Voorhis told him he thought it was a soft tissue injury and not a break.

--NIU shot just 2 of 18 on 3-pointers and 13 of 26 from the free-throw line. While Silas and his busted hand had a lot to do with that, it’s not a good sign for an NIU team that shot just .592 at the line last year.

All right. Time to pack up and start making the trek toward Champaign. Another day, another ball game.

As Piaf sang, “Je ne regrette rien.”

LW