Defenseless Cats crushed by Gophers
All of Northwestern's glaring defensive shortcomings were on full display Wednesday night. Good thing there wasn't much of a crowd to witness it.
Minnesota rolled to an easy 92-72 victory on a nasty winter night in front of an announced 2,872 at Welsh-Ryan Arena. The Wildcats hadn't given up that many points since Virginia beat them 94-52 on Nov. 27.
The Wildcats (7-13) dropped to 0-9 in the Big Ten, continuing their worst conference start since 2001. Minnesota dominated inside and outside, overpowering a Northwestern team that looks more and more like it could be the worst of coach Bill Carmody's eight-year tenure.
"It's rough," he said. "It's not just me. It's the whole team, the staff. It's rough for everyone. It's frustrating."
Minnesota (14-7, 4-5) shot 56.9 percent and hit 22 of 29 free throws to sweep the season series.
The Gophers hit 12 of 23 3-pointers and outrebounded the hosts 38-17. Center Spencer Tollackson scored 19 points, going 7 of 7 from the floor and 5 of 5 from the line to lead six Gophers in double figures.
"Tonight, he had the size, he had the bulk, so he had the advantage that we needed," Gophers coach Tubby Smith said. "And it paid off for us."
Tollackson found plenty of openings in Northwestern's broken zone, as did the Gophers' outside shooters. Carmody junked the zone at the end and went to a man defense, which could be a sign of things to come.
"I was trying to figure it out at halftime," he said. "We lost Tim Doyle and Vince Scott from last year, so how did our defense change so much? I don't understand it. I know we have to do something about it, go man-to-man or press and fall back into something."
Kevin Coble led Northwestern with 22 points, but 14 of those came after the Wildcats already were trailing by double digits in the second half.
Craig Moore and Michael Thompson were strong in the first half, finishing with 19 apiece as the Wildcats continued a recent hot streak by hitting an impressive 52.8 percent from the floor.
Minnesota ended the first half on a 13-2 run for a 47-33 lead at the break. Jamal Abu-Shamala (16 points) hit a pair of 3s and a pair of free throws during the run. Six-foot guard Lawrence Westbrook (12 points, 10 assists) personally outrebounded the Wildcats 7-5 in the first half.
Northwestern trailed 34-31 on a Moore layup with 2:56 to play before Minnesota scored 7 straight and took a double-digit lead in the last two minutes of the half.