BOSTON – The season is just three games old, but already a couple of clear areas of concern have shown up for Northeastern. Foul trouble in the frontcourt has hampered the Huskies in their two losses, and on Wednesday they did not execute well down the stretch en route to an overtime loss at cross-town rival Boston University. At the same time, those concerns can easily be a little overstated right now in light of how young the season is.
The first concern is foul trouble up front. Starters Manny Adako and Nkem Ojoughboh were both in foul trouble for much of the season-opening loss at Siena, and both fouled out at Boston University. Adako played just 20 minutes against the Terriers, and thus far his numbers aren’t what one would have expected with the way he progressed in his first three seasons. But it wasn’t just about either of the two not playing much as individuals that had the biggest effect.
“Our frontcourt was in foul trouble pretty much the whole night, so we were forced to go with an unconventional lineup for us, and that lineup kind of gave us a lift,” said head coach Bill Coen, referring to a stretch where the Huskies came alive in the second half and took the lead back from the Terriers. “We played four guards and a post player and pressed a little bit and trapped a little bit, and I thought that picked our energy up and created some easy baskets for us offensively. But it really took us out of how we normally play, and I think at the end our execution wasn’t what it should have been because of the different lineup that was out there.”
Indicative of the issue is that freshman guard Jonathan Lee saw his first action of the season, playing 10 ineffective minutes. Besides Adako and Ojoughboh (who played 35 minutes), Vinny Lima played just seven minutes and Mathiang Muo, who stands 6’6″ despite being more of a post player, saw 13 minutes of action. Everyone else who played was a guard or wing.
The Huskies forced 20 turnovers and got many stops at the defensive end after the Terriers ran out to a 40-29 lead early in the second half. At one point, the Terriers went more than 10 minutes without a field goal and had just one over about 14 minutes. As effective as the defense was, it’s not who this team is, and it showed later in the game.
“We just have to be better about that,” said Coen on the foul trouble. “Some of the fouls, you’re going to get if you’re playing aggressively, and some of the fouls are giveaway fouls, and it’s those fouls that kind of get you sitting down early. There’s a foul or two every game that we don’t need to commit, and we have to be better about that, because it is limiting the play of our frontcourt and it’s making a difference in how we finish games.”
That brings us to the second area of concern: executing down the stretch. The Huskies did not do that well against Boston University, as they couldn’t hang on in regulation and had chances in overtime they weren’t able to take advantage of. In the final three minutes of regulation, the Huskies didn’t score, missing three shots and turning the ball over on the other possession. In the extra session, they gave up the lead with less than a minute to go and proceeded to turn the ball over and miss three shots, not scoring a point the rest of the way. After the turnover, the Terriers turned it over again and gave the ball away after a missed shot, but the Huskies still could not capitalize.
The troublesome part isn’t just the stat line. Down 67-64 in the final seconds, the Huskies got the ball into the frontcourt quickly, leaving plenty of time to get a reasonably good shot under the circumstances. Baptiste Bataille tried to lean in on a defender as he launched an off-balance three-pointer that missed badly, with no chance to get a foul as the defender simply wasn’t that close to him.
“Overall, I thought the difference in the game was that BU made plays when they needed to,” Coen said.
While the foul trouble and execution down the stretch are not good issues to have, especially for a team with a core of veterans, it’s still early in the season. The Huskies also don’t have any “gimme” games on the non-conference schedule, so they have been and will be tested throughout the next month or so.
It is also worth noting that they went into a three-game losing streak around this time last year during which they didn’t play well at all and, like now, appeared to have some serious concerns. Before long, they turned it around and then ran out to a great start in CAA play. Right now, Husky fans have to hope history repeats itself in that respect.
