Northwestern takes the CIC

John Shurna lugged the Chicago Invitational Challenge MVP trophy out of Northwestern’s locker room on Saturday night -- and did it while wearing a look that defined the word sheepish.

One of these days, Shurna is going to go all Rickey Henderson on us and proclaim himself as the greatest of all-time. But he's a long, long way from that point. In fact, before we talked about his role in Northwestern’s 67-65 championship win over Iowa State, he asked if I knew how Glenbard West’s football team did in the Class 7A state title game. For now, we’re just going to have to use the cold, hard facts to quantify the sophomore forward’s improvement.

At least 10 NBA scouts loaded the row of seats along the UIC Pavilion’s baseline this weekend. They came to see Notre Dame’s Luke Harangody and Iowa State’s Craig Brackins. They saw some decent play from those two fellas, but they sure got an eyeful of Shurna.

In 76 minutes, Shurna shot 18 of 39 overall, 6 of 15 from 3-point range and 6 of 6 from the line. In addition to posting the top two scoring efforts of his career (25 against Notre Dame and 23 against Iowa State tonight), Shurna grabbed 15 rebounds, handed out 8 assists and blocked 3 shots.

While it’s probably not fair to say Shurna outplayed Harangody and Brackins, since it’s not like they went head-to-head as often as not, it’s fair to say Shurna belonged with those guys…which is a huge step forward in performance and expectations. Don’t expect the upgrade in status to blow up his head.

“He’s such a humble kid,” said NU coach Bill Carmody. “It’s hard to get that guy to be confident. You know that guy. He looks like he’s 14 years old. He’s a little goofy, god bless him.”

So, John, what are you going to do with that trophy? Put it in a place of prominence in your dorm room?

“Probably give it to my mom,” Shurna said. Sheepishly.

OTHER THINGS:
--Kevin Coble will undergo surgery Wednesday to fix the Lisfranc fracture in his left foot. The four-month rehab process means Coble could hit the court on April 2…which would be the day before the Final Four semifinals at Indianapolis. Just sayin’.

While Coble clearly can’t be thrilled with missing out on this adventure with his teammates, he’s doing a great job of hiding what misery he’s experiencing. As he crutched his way out of NU’s victorious locker room, he was singing a happy little ditty.

--Jeff Ryan, meanwhile, apparently will wait until the winter break to fix the torn ACL in his knee. Former NU president Henry Bienen walked up to Ryan during pregame shooting drills and offered his condolences on the injury. Nice move.

--Northwestern doesn’t have much time before the next big challenge. The Wildcats leave around noon on Monday for Tuesday’s ACC/Big Ten Challenge game at North Carolina State. The Wolfpack are 4-0 going into Sunday’s home game against New Orleans.

Point guard Juice Thompson heads to NC State having played all 80 minutes this weekend. He has played 233 of a possible 240 minutes in NU’s first 6 games, but he says he can handle it. “As long as I get my rest, I’m pretty sure I’m fine,” he said. “In practice, I work hard on my conditioning. It’s just a matter of getting rest and eating right.”

--Northwestern didn’t pick up its first half in the opening half until the 7:16 mark -- a rare situation that didn’t escape Iowa State coach Greg McDermott. “They haven’t fouled us for 10 minutes,” McDermott told a ref during a brief break in the action. “Amazing.”

In the second half, Iowa State got into the bonus with 12:11 left to play. Amazing, isn’t it? ISU finished with one more foul than Northwestern, but the Cyclones fouled intentionally three times in the final 21 seconds.

--Northwestern played its 1-3-1 zone trap the entire way in Friday night’s win over Notre Dame. So why did the Wildcats play it for roughly half of the opening half -- and stick to their matchup zone for the entire second half? It’s all about assistant coach Mitch Henderson and his stats.
“They were 5 for 13 against the matchup (in the first half) and 11 for 18 against the 1-3-1…no, 11 for 17,” Henderson said.

--Some more Carmody thoughts on Shurna: “He was underrated when he came out of high school. He's been good. And now it seems like he's consistent. Last year he was good every other game or every third game. Since Kevin (Coble) isn't here and Jeff (Ryan) with leadership and stuff, he and Mike (Thompson) and Jeremy (Nash), they have to do more. They can't be the auxiilary kind of guy, you’ve got to get some shots up. you’ve got to take accountability for us winning and losing. I think he's doing that now.”

--Funny leftover from the Saint Louis/Notre Dame third-place game. SLU coach Rick Majerus had a cheat sheet to help him identify the refs. Somebody put each of their pictures on a note card and wrote their names underneath them…so Rick knew how to address each guy as he chewed on them.

--Finally, here’s the all-tournament team. Not sure how they decided it…since they didn’t ask anyone to vote for it:

MVP: John Shurna, Northwestern
Juice Thompson, Northwestern
Jeremy Nash, Northwestern
Craig Brackins, Iowa State
Lucca Staiger, Iowa State
Willie Reed, Saint Louis
Luke Harangody, Notre Dame
Kyle Ohman, Liberty
Josh Sain, Tennessee State
Kurtis Woods, Kennesaw State
Ricky Lamb, Mississippi Valley State

LW