Northwestern went small against Tennessee State on Sunday, and while fans are probably ripping their hair out about being out-rebounded by a school from the Ohio Valley Conference - by 10 nonetheless - there were some positives that came out of Bill Carmody's half-long experiment.
Davide Curletti was the beneficiary of the tactics switch. After playing 9 minutes in the first half Curletti played 8 in the second, and those were only limited by his foul trouble. When Curletti was on the court - and Northwestern was presumably "going small" the Wildcats had a plus-minus of +23. Yes, Northwestern outscored Tennessee State by 23 points when Curletti was on the court and was outscored by 16 when he was on the bench. You can't make this stuff up.
What else does plus-minus reveal from the game, why was going small so helpful and a bonus stats nugget from DePaul after the jump.
Here are the plus-minus ratings for the three Northwestern centers that appeared in Sunday's game.
- Luka Mirkovic (-6)
- Kyle Rowley (-10)
- Davide Curletti +23
The conveniently works out to +7, the margin by which Northwestern won. Also, if you add up the minutes of this three-headed monster you get 17+17+6, which just happens to equal the 40 minute game. There's no overlap between these players. Carmody obviously believes that they are all true centers.
Here's their plus-minus production per minute:
- Curletti - +1.35 points per minute
- Mirkovic - (-.35) points per minute
- Rowley - (-1.67) points per minute
Carmody astutely said after the game that this wasn't Rowley's type of basketball game. It was obvious that was the case as Kyle played just 1 minute in the second half. What wasn't so obvious apparenlty was the fact that this wasn't really Mirkovic's game either. Luka had a lot of problems establishing position in the post and Northwestern - for the second game in a row - failed to take advantage of a physical superiority. Mirkovic took nary a shot in the first half and just two in the entire game.
When a team like Tennessee State forces Northwestern to go small they've already won half the battle. It's lucky for the Wildcats that Curletti was able to step up in such a big way for Northwestern on Sunday. In the future though - say against Liberty on Tuesday - Northwestern's big men have to be more aggressive with demanding the ball in the post and force themselves to the basket. 6'11" wallflowers aren't going to get it done this season.
Note: Basketball Prospectus does the best work on the internet with advanced statistics in basketball - pro and college. John Gasaway's latest about DePaul's new found commitment to the defensive end is a good place to start. Great work by Jerry Wainwright's squad the past two games, even if they are 1-1.
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Tags: Davide Curletti, DePaul, Northwestern, statistics
