Up-front help may lead to bright future for Northwestern

INDIANAPOLIS -- Northwestern coach Bill Carmody looked skyward and sighed before answering a question about the Wildcats' 8-22 season, which ended Thursday with a 55-52 loss to Minnesota in the Big Ten tournament.

Carmody might be looking anywhere for help, including above, after the worst year in his eight seasons as coach. He's 103-135 at Northwestern.

Maybe Carmody just needs to look west of Evanston, to the suburbs. The Wildcats will welcome two freshmen next year who just received all-state honors.

Carmody is looking for Class 4A all-stater Nick Fruendt, a 6-foot-6 forward from Batavia, and second-team all-stater John Shurna, a 6-foot-8 forward from Glenbard West, for immediate help.

"You can only go up, and I do think we have a few guys coming in the frontcourt that are going to help us right away, as freshmen do these days," Carmody said. "So that's what we have to look forward to."

Northwestern will return its starting lineup, which includes forward Kevin Coble and guards Craig Moore and Michael Thompson. Coble and Moore both played 40 minutes Thursday, and Thompson played 37, while shouldering almost the entire scoring load.

"There's a lot of pressure on our perimeter guys," Carmody said. "We have some new blood that's going to be coming in. It gives us some help up front."

Disappointing end: Sophomore Kevin Coble didn't take much solace in his fine individual season, which ended with a team-leading 16 points per game after he averaged 14.5 as a freshman.

Coble, an 81.4 percent free-throw shooter, hit 4 of 5, but his miss came on a front end of a 1-and-1 with 1:20 left and Northwestern down 53-52.

"It's frustrating, continuing to see the same problem night in, night out," Coble said.

No lead is safe: By not holding its 13-point halftime lead Thursday, Northwestern finished the year 4-5 in games it led at halftime.