DePaul 69
NIU 64

Brandon Young wins Jay Goedert MVP award.

Did Kirk play?  Also did NIU slow the down game.

Why was this game so difficult?

Didn't get to see the game, but it looks like we just didn't rebound well and way too many turnovers.

Sounds to me like a lack of effort and intensity.

Billy:  Why such a low scoring game? Where was Kirk?  Glad we got the win!!

I went to the game.. We controlled the pace pretty well. We didn't rebound well and turned the ball over way too much. We never were able to make a real run. I think our biggest lead might have been 6 or 7.

Also did we make a run at Aboul Nader? He is solid.

that was our free throw stats...sometimes you win ugly but you do the little things that make the difference...in years past we lose this game. I'm not pleased, but certainly happy we did what was needed to win. One game at a time...UMBC next

NT

Didn't see the game, but just a glance at the box score probably indicates the culprits.

Rebounding: 33-23 in favor or NIU
Turnovers: 20
A pretty shaky 3pt %: 4-14

Still I'll take the win. Similar to Chicago St, I'll give the guys their dues at the free throw line: 84%.. Perhaps this is finally being made a point of focus and we are seeing some dividends?

McKinney & Nader played together at Maine East in their younger years

Winning ugly is better than loosing ugly. Our bigs were nonexistent tonight. Keep working.

NIU is very bad team, some say that NIU is rebuilding but we let a below avg team almost tie the game at the end is just bad on our part.  We let NIU dictate the tempo instead of us causing problems for them.  Nadar ( best player for their team) was clearly out of shape, we should have made him run for oxygen.

Mush,

Did you watch the game? NIU substituted more players than DePaul! They kept fresh bodies in the game and slowed down the defense with that zone.

We had a few good runs in the first half and then played stupid with the ball.

A let down vs an inferior team after a nice road win. Not overly surprised. It happens but we got the W and that is all that matters

lovethedraelon wrote:

Seemed like NIU just really packed it in with that 2-3 zone and we were hesitant to shoot the the three ball.  Crockett and BY hit huge threes in the second half.

I followed the espn play-by-play write-up at the end of the game and those three pointers definitely felt like they were monstrous. This feels like a game depaul would've lost the last 2 years. I'll take it. A win is a win.

They were enormous. 

The one BY made was pretty deep and pretty well contested.  It was a very nerve-wrecking game and I think our players were afraid to make a mistake.  If either one of those two threes did not go down we may have lost because they were both to retake the lead.

However.... I take all of this as a positive as well.  We actually DO have some leadership right now as I believe Young and Clahar knew what to do down the stretch.  Last year when a team came out an punched us in the mouth we withered.  We did not allow that yesterday and although we have more talent this clearly was not a favorable matchup for us. 

This is a game we would have lost in previous years and we willed it out.  Northern may not be a good team but they defintely brought their best effort and should improve as the year goes on with Nader.

Positives from yesterday
Mckinney plays great defense and is becoming a reliable offensive role player
We protect the rim better than any team probably since Chandler was a Demon. 

Negatives
Turnovers were awful and we never adjusted to the Zone
Many players had off games so I am not going to break them down individually.