One bright spot for reeling Cats

Northwestern forward Kevin Coble was in mid-season form Saturday night. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, the rest of the team played like the season is already over.

In a battle of Big Ten bottom feeders, Northwestern was plankton.

The Wildcats were drubbed by Michigan 78-68 at Welsh-Ryan Arena in a game that wasn't nearly as close as the final score indicates.

Coble scored a career-high 34 points in his second start, and fourth game, since returning from a prolonged absence to be with his mother during her cancer treatments in Arizona.

"He made shots, he drove by them, he did some things around the basket," Northwestern coach Bill Carmody said. "I didn't expect it today, or this soon, but it was a very good game for him, offensively. His defense needs a whole lot of work, but so does the whole team's."

Coble's total bested Vedran Vukusic's 32 points (Jan. 26, 2005 against Iowa) as the high game of the Carmody era, and he was 3 points shy of Evan Eschmeyer's arena record. Coble's 14 field goals (on 18 attempts) tied Juwan Howard and Glenn Robinson for a Welsh-Ryan record as well.

Coble missed the first two months of the season, and the soft-spoken 6-foot-8 sophomore said it has been difficult to get in the groove again.

But he's catching up quickly. He scored 17 in a loss to Minnesota on Wednesday after coming off the bench for two games, and Michigan coach John Beilein even compared his pump fake to Larry Bird's.

"It's tough being gone for as long as I have, because the guys have been playing together for a long time," Coble said. "We're still feeling each other out. At the same time, I'm taking something positive from each time I play."

Coble's output was the only good news for his foundering team. He hit 4 of 5 3-pointers, while the rest of the team hit 1 of 16 3s, and 14 of 42 overall.

Freshman guard Manny Harris scored 22 to lead Michigan (5-11, 1-3), which had lost five straight since beating Oakland on Dec. 12 and only dressed seven scholarship players. Ekpe Udoh had 14 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocks.

Northwestern (5-8, 0-4) looked lost on both sides of the floor for most of the game, trailing by as many as 30 before cutting the lead late with an 18-0 run in garbage time.

"We're talented enough to win today," Carmody said. "I'm disappointed we didn't play with enough intensity on defense as necessary."