For the coaches at DePaul and Northwestern, going on their gut has been an important factor.
So far, it appears instincts are working.
The Blue Demons (4-1) are off to their best start since 2002-03. Northwestern (5-1) has started better than it has since the 2001-02 season. Each team’s lone loss was on the road.
But Northwestern coach Bill Carmody and DePaul counterpart Jerry Wainwright are learning the best ways to shuffle the several young players on their rosters and will need some production from at least a few of them Saturday when DePaul travels to Northwestern for a non-conference meeting.
“A guy might play 25 minutes or 12 minutes, and you don’t like to coach that way all the time, just going on gut feeling,” Carmody said. “But some years you have to do it. I know you have to have patience with them, but they have to play. A turnover or something, I can’t get too excited about those types of things. I have to give them some minutes.”
Northwestern relies on senior Craig Moore and junior Kevin Coble, but the Wildcats start freshman center Kyle Rowley, freshman forward John Shurna and sophomore guard Michael Thompson.
The Blue Demons start sophomores Dar Tucker and Mac Koshwal and split much of the time at point guard between freshmen Mike Bizoukas and Jeremiah Kelly.
Wainwright said there is some merit to allowing players to learn as they go, “not throttling their spirit,” he said.
“We [don’t] know who we are yet,” Wainwright said. “We know who we want to be. Sometimes it’s a gut feeling, who’s going to step in and be a good matchup.”
So early in the season, the meeting between teams separated by fewer than 10 miles is hardly a must-win. But it could point an arrow in one direction or another for each.
“It’s a momentum game,” Wainwright said. “Young teams can get way too up or way too down. A lot of it is based on how you play.”
The Blue Demons have handled their manageable early schedule well and did not lose until flying to California for a game Wednesday night.
The Wildcats feel just fine, too, after defeating Florida State in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Their only loss was at Butler.
“We’ve won the games we should have won,” Carmody said. “But it’s ancient history. We have to turn around and face DePaul, which is having a nice year.”
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sryan@tribune.com
DePaul women bury SIU 85-42
The Blue Demons have spent much of the previous three seasons searching for an effective inside-outside attack. That wait may finally be over.
Read more about the game at chicagotribune.com/colleges
