Thursday, 9;14 p.m. Central Time. Chicago O’Hare International Airport, Terminal 3, Gate H14. I have been here for three hours. Or maybe three years.
I am supposed to visit my parents in Tucson, Arizona this weekend and my flight has been delayed by nearly five hours. My connection in Dallas is a distant fantasy at this point, so I will be spending a very short night in the Dallas-Forth Worth airport before a morning flight the rest of the way.
Now I’m sure you’re wondering why on earth this is relevant
to an Inside NU article. But as I sit here listening to a flight to Los Angeles board at our gate because we’ve been delayed an additional two hours, contemplating our place amongst the stars and rewatching the past week of Northwestern basketball, I couldn’t help but draw some comparisons between my current situation and Jordan Clayton’s tenure at Northwestern. This may seem far-fetched, but bear with me.
Clayton’s time at Northwestern has featured a remarkable roller coaster that is well-documented on this site and others. His role has fluctuated wildly from season to season and game to game, including a planned redshirt sophomore year that went awry, team captaincy as a junior and going from a DNP to a starter in a week’s span earlier this season. While I don’t know the inner workings of his mind, I have to imagine he has wondered long and hard about whether he made the right choice to come to Northwestern, whether to head for the exits at any point and how much this uncertainty has affected his mental health.
My trip (if you can call it that, since I haven’t gone anywhere yet) has seen me go to five different gates, gate-check my baggage straight to Tucson just minutes before learning I would be missing my connection, boarding and de-boarding a plane and, finally, deciding to be productive by writing this column. Over the past three hours, I have wondered long and hard about whether I made the right choice to fly American Airlines (I did not), whether to abandon my plans and stay in Evanston this weekend (not happening) and how much this has impacted my mental health (a great deal).
Like Clayton many times over the past three years, probably stressing over his situation, I doubt I will sleep very much tonight in DFW. But at the end of my journey (if it ever ends), I will hopefully experience the same feeling that imbued Clayton on Wednesday night, when he scored a career-high 20 points on 6-of-7 shooting from three: the feeling of arrival, of certainty, and of being home.
Offense
Most of Clayton’s threes didn’t have much to break down. Either Martinelli was in a post up and Clayton’s defender sagged too far off, or he came uncovered when Maryland went to their press.
But since I can’t go without showing any of the threes, this was by far the best one. Northwestern runs its usual BLOB (baseline out-of-bounds) play, with Martinelli curling to about 18 feet along the baseline, a similar spot to where he broke Maryland’s hearts last year. The jumper isn’t there, so he drives it instead. The double comes and Martinelli has nowhere to go with the ball. Clayton is open in his original location on the weak side wing, but instead of standing still and begging for the ball, he circles around the perimeter until he locates himself in Martinelli’s line of sight. He sees Mills charging and adds a pump-fake, side-step dribble to get the fly by before confidently draining a three that is much more difficult than it looks because of the movement, rhythm and the fact that Mills is contesting from Clayton’s blind spot. This is the kind of play that, too often this season, has resulted in four guys standing still and Martinelli being forced to shoot over the double team — but Clayton did a good job to earn himself a look.
Sometimes, simple is best. Martinelli is such an effective decoy that he can create open shots for guys halfway across the floor and all they have to do is make them. Martinelli starts a screener on the SLOB (sideline out-of-bounds, see above) and West heads to the corner. Because West is becoming a dangerous shooter, the Terrapins top-lock West with Solomon Washington, preventing the pass from going to the corner by switching into the passing lane. Washington then tries to recover back to Martinelli to avoid a mismatch on the interior. Kropp recognizes that and sets a down screen for West, who curls up to the wing. The screen was hardly needed as West had about ten feet of space to can the triple and tie the game, which the ‘Cats would never trail again in. This play works because West is showing up on the scouting report as a shooter to get the open switch. And more importantly, because Martinelli requires so much attention and defensive intensity that teams will leave other players, even shooters like West, open for a second to not allow an easy post-up for Martinelli.
Author’s note: Thursday, 11:15 p.m. CT. Our gate got relocated AGAIN (back to the second gate, go figure) and we have boarded the plane and appear set to take off. Our long national nightmare (my personal six-hour inconvenience) is over.
Defense
I’ve decided to go all positive this week. Even though Northwestern lost by 20 at Nebraska, I’ve written enough negativity for a lifetime on this Wildcats season, so two good defensive sets are included here.
In Northwestern’s loss to Nebraska, defense was not the issue. This defensive play starts with impressive footwork from Martinelli, who has had a disturbing tendency to get beaten on straight-line drives, guarding the quicker Pryce Sandfort. From there, it’s the Tre Singleton show. Singleton stands his ground on Berke Buyuktuncel, despite giving up thirty pounds and then shifts seamlessly into help defense on Sandfort. The first-year showcased his quickness immediately after flashing his strength to push Sandfort under the hoop and force a wild up-and-under attempt that falls short. Singleton has been one of the best Wildcat defenders all season long, and with these tools to guard bigs and perimeter players, it’s not hard to see why.
How about some more Tre Singleton? Martinelli gets beat by the talented redshirt freshman Andre Mills for Maryland (who had 39 points in this game), but Singleton steps in front, shows his full length without jumping and takes away the shot and the pass simultaneously. On the weak side, Clayton helps all the way down on Washington until Martinelli gets inside position following his switch. Clayton recovers back out to the perimeter a bit late, but shows his veteran savvy by forcing Darius Adams to switch to his weak hand, which slows him down. Adams tries to get back to the right but spins and doesn’t have a good view of the floor, so Singleton flying in with hands high surprises Adams and he throws the ball right to West.
Author’s note: Friday, 2:40 a.m. CT. I have made it to Dallas-Fort Worth. It is brighter than Welsh-Ryan Arena in here. There are exactly six other people trying to sleep at the same gate as me. I got the least comfortable spot.
Coach Collins Clip of the Week
Typically, we see Collins getting frustrated with the young guys, but here he takes his ire out on Martinelli. His senior captain gets into a post-up and just…forgets to go get the ball. Collins yells, “Come catch it!” and then buries his head in his hands. He rubs his eyes like he can’t believe what he’s seeing before commiserating with Bryant McIntosh on the bench, who naturally agrees that Martinelli should have gone to catch the ball.
Author’s note: Friday, 12:05 p.m. Mountain Time. I made it to Tucson. My flight out of Dallas was pushed back two additional hours. My bag was left in Chicago and won’t be here until later today. I did not sleep. There is a non-zero chance I am hallucinating and never left Chicago. I cannot rule out the possibility that my mind fabricated writing this entire article. Did Jordan Clayton truly score 20 points in a Big Ten game? I may never know. Thank you for joining me on this excruciating journey.
