This was humiliating and embarrassing, a performance that bordered on shameful and offered little hope for the future. For this was not Michigan State, the class of the Big Ten or even Wisconsin, which can give any opponent indigestion with its defense. This was only Oakland University, a relative newcomer to Division I basketball that plays in the Mid-Continent Conference.
It does have a cute nickname, the Golden Grizzlies. But when it arrived at Welsh-Ryan Arena for a Sunday matinee with Northwestern, its record was a paltry 2-11, and its leading scorer was in street clothes with a broken bone in his right hand. Hawaii-Pacific and Southern Utah were the only teams Oakland had managed to defeat, and here it looked like the perfect warmup act for the Wildcats as they prepared for their Big Ten opener Wednesday at Iowa.
But then those Cats went out and did this: They made just one of their first 18 shots, and went 4 of 23 overall in the first half. They made just two of their 12 first-half three-point attempts, and put up only 13 first-half points.
They got absolutely no points from one of their supposed leaders, sophomore forward Steve Lepore, and shot 16 of 54 overall (29.6 percent). They got only three points from their other supposed leader, sophomore point guard David Newman, and went 4 of 23 on their three-point attempts (17.4 percent) on the game. They played defense lackadaisically through much of the game, and when it ended they were losers by the score of 60-41.
“That first half was rock bottom,” coach Kevin O’Neill said.
“We pretty much hit rock bottom,” Newman echoed minutes later. “We have to move on and worry about Iowa now. But obviously, it hurts. Not many good things happened today.”
This was the second consecutive wretched outing for the Cats (4-7), who scored only 18 first-half points Wednesday on their way to losing to Southern Cal by 41.
“We didn’t react well to their pressure and didn’t respond to their challenge,” O’Neill said then, but Sunday the only pressure his team faced was self-imposed.
Oakland did not press the Cats as the Trojans had, nor did it harass the Cats with a defense that was especially withering. But even open shots proved impossible for NU on this afternoon, and as the misses mounted, so did the tentativeness.
“When you get pounded like we did [at USC], especially when you’re a young group, I think they question themselves a little bit,” O’Neill explained. “If they have success right off, they’re fine. But when we missed shots early, we tightened up on the offensive end. And when we tightened up on the offensive end, we tightened up on the defensive end. “
“When we couldn’t knock down any shots,” said Newman, “that kind of got into our heads. We shut down from there.”
The Wildcats trailed 35-13 at halftime, and even though they showed a pulse in the second half, they never got closer than 15. Ben Johnson, the freshman guard, ended up leading them with 15 points, but no other Cat reached double figures and that was enough to leave O’Neill publicly considering his options for the Iowa game.
“We looked like an entire team of freshmen,” he finally said. “I understand guys playing like freshmen who are freshmen. I don’t understand guys playing like freshmen when they’re sophomores. Those guys who’ve been through it before should play a little better. . . . So we have to look at changes for the sake of making changes.”
