Northwestern men’s basketball needs to right the ship, now

It was quite the tale of two halves for Northwestern basketball on Turkey Day.

Playing some hoops after dark a-la-the former Pac-12 (coming back to television screens near you soon), Northwestern faced off against Oklahoma State on Thanksgiving looking for a chance to pick up a win against some its last valuable non-conference competition left.

The first half was ugly, don’t get me wrong. But that was the case for both teams, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Just the way Northwestern likes it.

Under head coach Chris Collins, We’ve seen the ‘Cats have the most success time and again when they make the game a slugfest that needs to be played in the trenches, rather than a fast-paced and more uncertain style of play. This year has appeared a little different for NU, as it has adopted a somewhat faster play style given the apparent embarrassment of riches Collins now has for himself in the backcourt.

Yesterday’s opening half of basketball was the perfect example of a marriage of those two opposites. Northwestern may have scored 40 points, but the ‘Cats were not at all efficient offensively, shooting just 17% from three and looking largely unwilling to score outside of their star, Nick Martinelli, with occasional stretches of support from Arrinten Page or Jayden Reid.

The difference-maker for them was free throws. NU’s tough basketball got the ‘‘Cats to the line 20 times in just the first half. Despite making just 14 of them, Northwestern picking up fouls got Oklahoma State into trouble, especially from some of its bigger players, and took away its size advantage that killed Northwestern on the boards for much of the opening 10 minutes of the contest.

The second half, though, was quite a different story, not so much so for Northwestern’s offense as for its defense.

It was much of the same for the first few minutes of half two. A few early buckets from Martinelli and Angelo Ciaravino, the two leading scorers on the night for NU, helped stretch the lead all the way out to six, the largest of the night. But from that point on, it looked like a switch had flipped.

Whereas Northwestern looked like the aggressors for the first 20 minutes, scratching and clawing its way to a one-point lead at halftime in spite of a slew of offensive miscues, the Cowboys clearly had more juice in the final 15. Not two minutes after the Wildcats earned their biggest lead of the night, OSU stormed back with an 8-0 run to retake a 48-46 lead.

Then after Northwestern re-established a four-point advantage, Oklahoma State’s microwave offense bubbled over once again. Anthony Roy suddenly found fire, hitting three triples over a two-minute span to helped the Cowboys go on a 16-4 run for their biggest lead of the night with just six minutes left.

Northwestern didn’t go out without a fight. But looking back at that stretch of play, it is abundantly clear that it’s where the game was won for one team, and lost for the other. And last night’s struggles down the stretch appear to be part of a larger problem for Collins’ squad with finishing ball games.

This team gave Wildcat fans a lot of hope in the early going, with a string of dominant, no-doubt-about-it wins, albeit over some lower-tier mid-major teams. But compared to years past, where Northwestern would have to sweat out a win or two against that same competition, it looked as though the ‘Cats were in for an improved year, where scoring was divvied up more evenly and depth was a strong point that could keep them firing on all cylinders for all 40 minutes.

Instead, Feast Week has taught us some sobering lessons about Northwestern. In all four of its high-major matchups, NU has had trouble with closing out games. Even if it ended in narrow two-point victories against DePaul and South Carolina (neither of which should have come down to the last shot, but did), the problem was even more glaring in losses to Virginia and now the Cowboys.

“In our two losses, we did a lot to ourselves in those games,” Collins said postgame. “We have to be a lot more disciplined. And that starts with me.”

If NU wants to be able to truly compete for a tournament spot amidst a gauntlet of a Big Ten schedule that is approaching faster than you’d think, it’ll need to do some soul-searching, and quick. The main issue appears to a lack of depth.

Yes, I said it. I’ll be the first one to admit how high I was just a couple weeks ago on the supposed depth Northwestern had this year compared to years past. And I still do believe there will be more depth available for Collins compared to other years. But it’s not enough to feel comfortable, yet.

Collins discussed a lot in the offseason how hard it would be to figure out who to play and how many to play night in and night out, simply because there was so many to choose from. That problem seems to have quickly solved itself. Although NU got ten guys on the floor, only eight played in the second half after Tyler Kropp and Justin Mullins each looked a little lost on the court.

The p way to look at that is that Northwestern has enough guys it feels comfortable with playing that benching two normal rotational players doesn’t necessarily hurt too much. But when practically everybody except for Martinelli and Ciaravino looked out of rhythm in the second half, the whole “depth” factor doesn’t really play that much of a role anymore.

Looking on the bright side, we’ve seen breakout performances from many different players now, with Ciaravino being the latest after a 14-point breakout that marks his season-high and just the third time he’s scored in double digits as a Wildcat. Page, Reid, Tre Singleton and Max Green have all also shown some real positive signs this year as well. Now, it’s all about putting it together.

Whether it be on an individual level or team level, the biggest thing stopping the ‘Cats from getting to the next tier of competition is consistency. If the closing five minutes of UVA or OSU are played differently, Northwestern could be sitting at 7-0 and with a real argument to be ranked.

But that’s not how things played out. There is no need to panic, but the improvement needs to be seen soon for the ‘Cats. With its first Big Ten matchups coming up next week at Wisconsin and then versus Ohio State, NU doesn’t necessarily have the time to continue testing things out.

“It’s just kind of the same story we need to get corrected,” said Collins postgame. “

We’ve seen solid stretches. We’ve seen solid single-game performances. But the time is now to put it all together.