Nov. 21, 2008
EVANSTON, Ill. -
Northwestern seeks its first 3-0 start to a season in 15 years as it travels to Brown for its first road game of the of the 2008-09 campaign Saturday. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. Central time. The Wildcats started the 1993-94 season with nine straight wins en route to a 15-14 record and an NIT appearance.
Saturday's contest can be hear live on WNUR 89.3 FM and online at http://sports.wnur.org.
Last Time Out
The Wildcats (2-0) jumped out to an 18-point halftime lead and led by at least 10 the rest of the way in defeating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 66-48 on Wednesday at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Kevin Coble led NU with 18 points while John Shurna added 17 points and nine rebounds, including five offensive boards. Craig Moore chipped in with 14 points, six assists and three steals.
Series History: Northwestern leads, 3-2.
Last Meeting: Sterling Williams scored a career-high 20 points, but it wasn't enough at Brown stunned the Wildcats 73-67 in Evanston Nov. 24, 2007.
Scouting Brown
The Bears opened the season with a tight 76-74 loss at a Rhode Island squad that recently fell just short of an upset win at Duke. Brown was downed 89-52 at George Mason in its second game of the year.
Brown posted a 19-10 record last season, including an 11-3 mark in Ivy League play. The Bears graduated their top two scorers from a year ago. Sophomore guard Peter Sullivan, a Wilmette native, is the team's leading returning scorer at 8.8 points per game as a freshman.
Jesse Agel is in his first season as head coach of the Bears. He served on former NU assistant Craig Robinson's staff the past two seasons after coaching for 17 seasons as an assistant at Vermont.
Moore Where That Came From
Senior guard Craig Moore became the top 3-point shooter in school history Wednesday with one make from beyond the arc to raise his career total to 213. The mark surpasses Vedran Vukusic's (2002-06) previous record of 212. Moore's 585 attempts from beyond the arc are only 18 behind the Northwestern record of 603 held by Winston Blake (1999-2003). He has an outstanding chance to finish in the top five in Big Ten history in both categories.
Doing It With Defense
The lack of an inside presence hurt Northwestern in many ways last season, including allowing opponents to shoot 48.3 percent from the field, including 39.2 percent from 3-point range. So far this year, the Wildcats' foes have shot a combined 31.0 percent from the field and have committed an average of 20 turnovers per game. NU's first two opponents have made a mere 11 combined field goals in the first half while turning the ball over 27 times before the break. After finishing last in the country with a -10.8 rebounding margin a year ago, NU has out-rebounded its opponent in each of its first two games this season.
Up Next...
The Wildcats remain on the road next Wednesday as they travel to Indianapolis to face Butler at 6 p.m. Central time.