Hoosiers to play Northwestern

When IU senior forward Tabitha Gerardot watched film of IU’s 58-52 loss to Northwestern earlier this season, she saw a “sluggish” team that missed 14 free throws and saw a potential conference win slip away.

Northwestern (17-15) plays IU (20-12) at 7 p.m. today in Assembly Hall in the third round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. Gerardot and her fellow teammates are looking to redeem themselves.

“I think now you look at that (game) as a competitive athlete, and you just hate that,” Gerardot said. “It makes your skin crawl. So we want to be back on the floor and play well.”

The Wildcats travel to Bloomington having just defeated IUPUI in the second round of the WNIT 88-52. In the win, Northwestern cruised to victory thanks, in part, to its second-half shooting performance where the Wildcats shot 75.9 percent from the floor.

Apart from the obvious offensive success Northwestern had against IUPUI, IU Coach Curt Miller was impressed by the Wildcats’ defensive effort.

Throughout the game, Northwestern relied on a three-quarter press and a variety of defensive schemes Miller expects to see again tonight.

“They mixed defenses really well against IUPUI,” Miller said. “They dominated. Their defense really confused them, had them out of sync.”

IU’s response to Northwestern’s defense will be led by freshman Larryn Brooks, who is averaging 22 points per game in the WNIT this year.

Brooks said she had been slumping in recent games but believes her game is coming together. Miller credited her added emphasis on driving to the basket for her recent success. He said he believes the transition game against Northwestern will be key in deciding a winner.

“Transition defense, I think, is the story of the game,” Miller said. “(Northwestern’s) really, really talented in transition. They’re probably more athletic in every single position out there, so we really have to get back in order to stop them.”

Miller added at times, Northwestern scores almost 40 percent of its points in transition.

Leading the transition scoring for the Wildcats this year has been freshman Nia Coffey. The 6-foot-1 forward leads the Wildcats averaging 15.3 points and grabbing a team-high 8.23 rebounds per game.

In the earlier matchup between the teams this season, Coffey played only seven minutes before getting injured and sitting out the remainder of the game. Now that Coffey is healthy, freshman guard Alexis Gassion is expecting Coffey to return strong.

“(Coffey) is a really talented freshman,” Gassion said. “We need to stop her aggressiveness and force her right. We definitely need to force her to her weaker hand to slow her down.”

The Wildcats play an unconventional lineup that often plays without a true center.

In recent games, Northwestern has shrunk its rotation down to seven players.

Northwestern is the Big Ten’s worst rebounding team. Its lack of size led to IU grabbing 20 offensive rebounds the last time the teams met. Miller said rebounding against Northwestern, the Big Ten’s leader in blocks at 6.7 blocks per game, will be key for his team.

“When you have a team that really goes after blocked shots, you have to out-offensive rebound them,” Miller said.

Northwestern is the first Big Ten team IU will have played in the postseason. The Hoosiers are undefeated against non-conference opponents, but IU has lost six of its last seven games against Big Ten foes.

Miller said IU is trying not focus on its recent Big Ten struggles and instead just “survive and advance” to the next round.

“We’ve never tried to be anything other than ourselves,” Miller said. “We know who we are. There are teams that are more talented than us, but we want to be a thorn in people’s side and play hard and shake hands at the end of the night and let the win/loss take care of itself.”