A few hours before busing to Wisconsin for the latest stop on the death march known as Northwestern’s January conference schedule, Bill Carmody contemplated the keys to avoiding further frustration.
The Wildcats coach talked rebounding. He talked about making shots. No revelations, just bare-bones precepts for success, laid out plain between sips of coffee.
By now, Carmody might need something stronger.
His Wildcats didn’t rebound Wednesday night, they didn’t make shots and they threw in ineffective defense to boot. The result was a thorough calamity, a 74-45 loss at the Kohl Center that continued a precipitous decline after a promising start to the season.
“Everything that could go wrong, went wrong,” Wildcats guard Craig Moore said.
Northwestern’s point total was a season low. So was the 31.4 percent shooting. No player scored in double figures, and starter John Shurna sat the entire second half. The rebounding deficit of 42-28 landed in double digits for the third consecutive Big Ten game.
Exacerbating the agony was Wisconsin’s 50 percent shooting, just the second time this season an opponent has hit that mark against the Wildcats (8-5, 0-3). And the specifics were no less gory.
A stretch of almost 11 minutes in the first half with just one field goal carved a hole. Then a complete defensive collapse dumped the dirt on top, as Wisconsin (12-3, 2-0) embarked on a 23-7 second-half run as it hit 9 of 11 shots.
The result was a 25-point lead and a picture of a yawning Northwestern fan on the arena’s big screens.
“We just really didn’t have any answers,” Carmody said. “We have some time off now and I’m glad. We have a heck of a lot to work on.”
Though Northwestern lamented its defensive effort, the offense looked lost as the Badgers shut down the paint early and then limited the Wildcats to 3 of 17 shooting from three-point range.
“Anything they tried, we had an answer for it,” said Badgers center Jon Leuer, who had 15 points, eight rebounds and three blocks. “Our rotations were crisp and we didn’t make many mistakes.”
That makes one of them.
“It’s natural to be a little discouraged,” said Wildcats forward Kevin Coble, who played 31 minutes after getting banged up in practice Monday. “But you stay with it and hope it eventually will pay off.”
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bchamilton@tribune.com
