Northwestern Game Analysis

Well I don't know whether to be encouraged or discouraged about today's game. On the one hand we played well enough to stay in it to the end. On the other hand, woulda, shoulda , coulda! This should have been a win. We played well in the first half and had the game under control and were even threatening to break it open.
But their coach made a great halftime adjustment and had his guys come out in a 1-3-1 trapping zone defense. To say we didn't handle it well is an understatement. Hickey and Stringer were clueless. They constantly waited too long to pass out of the trap and even worse tried to dribble out of it.
When three guys are converging on one, guess what? Somebody is open. You need quick, sharp, crisp passes to get out of the trap and make them pay. Instead what we got were long soft balloon passes that gave them plenty of time to adjust and trap us again. Or intercept the pass and go the distance which happened several times.
Trent either didn't know what to do, which I doubt, or couldn't get his players to execute. So on the one hand Hickey looked great at times but on the other hand he ultimately lost the game for us by not making good passes.
Another crucial happening, in my opinion, was Storm getting into foul trouble. His turnaround jumper was looking great, 3-3, and he was getting rebounds but his foul trouble limited him to nine minutes. Why Trent didn't put him back in the game in the second half even with four fouls is beyond me.
So suck it up, another loss! Bur still lots of promise if we just work it into the front court guys and only take the three's when they are wide open. And work on and execute the basics - passing, rebounding and defense. The offensive firepower is there to win if we just do the other things well.