NUsports.com Special Contributor
There is nothing pretty about defense, nor is it a regular feature on any of this day's ubiquitous highlight shows. It is not of this era, which so glamorizes glitz and glitter, nor does it further the self-aggrandizement sought by so many who represent this age. It is instead hard labor, dirty work, and it requires sweat and constant effort and attention to detail and a selfless willingness to favor substance over style.
Sunday night, at a rollicking Welsh-Ryan, the point Bryant McIntosh was extraordinary in the 'Cats 13-point win over Indiana. He scored a team-high 21 and handed out eight assists and, as always, cooly choreographed his team's offense. But this victory, and its foundation, is better represented by a snapshot of the six-foot-six, 220-pound Sanjay Lumpkin combatting and defending the Hoosiers' talented big body, the six-foot-10, 255-pound Thomas Bryant.
"Sanjay was awesome tonight," Chris Collins would later say. "There were a lot of eyes on McIntosh, and rightfully so. But I thought Lumpkin was equally the star tonight. You guys know, Sanjay's a favorite of mine. I love his effort. I love what he brings. He's the heart and soul of our team. I love watching that guy play. He gives everything he's got."
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There is nothing pretty about defense, nor is it a regular feature on any of this day's ubiquitous highlight shows. But Sunday night, at a rocking Welsh-Ryan, it keyed the 'Cats win over the Hoosiers, who entered this game averaging a conference-best 83 points-per-game while shooting a conference best 49.9 percent from the field. They were considered as explosive as a short-tempered autocrat, but here the 'Cats defused them, limiting them to just 55 points and 32.1 percent shooting. "The defense was the story of this game. Our team defense was really good tonight," Collins later said.
"We know that's a huge key for our success," said Lumpkin. "We watch extra film now. We are always on the same page. We are so locked in in our prep. That stuff carries over to the game. Obviously, when we're scoring it's great. But we know that we're not always going to be shooting the ball well, and that defense is what wins you games. Your defense can be consistent. It can be there game in, game out. It's a huge part of what we're doing right now."
Sunday, early, that defense wavered enough to let the Hoosiers jump out to a 10-1 lead with less than five minutes gone. But now it stiffened and allowed them just two foul shots over the next eight minutes, just 13 more points until halftime arrived. This was a lockdown performance by the 'Cats and through these 20 minutes they forced Indiana into 10 turnovers, which led to 15 points, and limited Indiana to just two fast-break points. "We weren't making enough shots. We weren't getting inside as much as we could have," Hoosier coach Tom Crean would say when asked why his offense went stagnant after its opening burst. "The key was we let them get a couple of run outs, get some confidence."
"We're a tough-minded team," Collins said of his defensive work. "Having veteran guys who understand our principles— we're a function of each other on both ends of the floor. We are not a one-man band … When it comes to our defense, we try to play a team defense. We try to be tough-minded. We try to make teams take tough shots, then do the best we can to get on the board. We're not the biggest team. But our guys battle and they've really embraced, 'To be good, you've got to play good defense.' It's what they've done. It's nothing I've done. It's a will to win by the guys, and a will to want to play defense that's made us a good defensive team."
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There is nothing pretty about defense, nor is it a regular feature on any of this day's ubiquitous highlight shows. But Sunday night, at a raucous Welsh-Ryan, it staked the 'Cats to a 12-point halftime lead, and kept that lead in double digits even as they struggled with some foul trouble in the 20 minutes that followed. Dererk Pardon, the six-foot-eight center, picked up his third just 34 seconds into that second half and went to the bench, replaced by the six-foot-ten freshman Barrett Benson. Then, at 17:31, Benson himself picked up his third, which brought on the six-foot-eight Gavin Skelly, and now Lumpkin was guarding the 6-foot-10 Bryant and Skelly was guarding the six-foot-10 De'Ron Davis.
Still, despite their size advantage, the Hoosiers never could get closer than a dozen, and the reason here was not just the 'Cat D, but also that mutual dependency ("We're a function of each other") often referred to by Collins. Vic Law, for one example, struggled with his shot all this evening (he finished two-of-12). But here he is, at the end of the shot clock, driving the baseline and drawing a foul, and then there he is, after an Indiana miss, outracing Bryant and Zach McRoberts for the ball and one of his 12 rebounds.
Pardon, so brilliant Thursday night against Nebraska, here managed not a single point. Bur Benson chipped in four while putting in 13 important minutes. Scottie Lindsey, in the first half, missed all three of his three-point attempts and went just two-of-seven overall. But Nate Taphorn, off the bench, went two-of-three for five points before turning his right ankle and watching the second half in street clothes.
Then, of course, there were McIntosh and Lumpkin, who punctuated his evening with a ball fake that left Bryant on the ground and him open for an easy layup. That, unlike his normal efforts, was indeed fit for a highlight show, but his more important work was still the kind that often goes unnoticed. "Every day," he would say about that, "I just try to do what it takes to win. If that means I've got to guard a 6-10 guy, or I have to take a charge, I'm always going to be there to make the play to win. I'm always going to be there for my guys.
"That's what I do. That's what I bring to the table. When it comes down to it, you've got to man up and do what it takes to win the game."
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There is nothing pretty about defense, nor is it a regular feature on any of this day's ubiquitous highlight shows. But, with it as their foundation, the 'Cats are 18-4 overall, and 7-2 in the Big Ten, and third in the conference standings behind only Maryland and Wisconsin, and suddenly the object of chatter and national attention. (The theme de jour is, The Cubs broke their curse by winning the World Series. Will Northwestern breaks its and finally make the NCAA tourney?) "I worry about it every second," Collins will say when asked about that spotlight and the negative effect it might have. "As a coach you're always worrying about things that could derail what you've got going good. It's a fine line. I love that people are taking notice of what these guys are doing. I'm very proud of that. I'm very proud of the success so far. But yet I also know how much basketball we still need to play, and understand the fine line between winning and losing in this conference. The moment you let the outside chatter, the noise— if you soften up just the littlest bit, you get crashed down to reality really quick in this conference."
But, McIntosh is soon asked, how much fun is the team now having in pursuit of its goal?
"It's special," he will admit. "That's the end of the story for us. It's going to be really special when we do it and I really believe we're good enough to. There's some things we have to get better at. We have to get a little bit tougher, and then we can be really, really good. We feel we are really good. But we can be even better, which I think is scary. That's the fun part. Going in each and every day, and understanding what everyone thinks of this program, and allowing that to be a little bit of a fire in our belly, and it stokes right there.
"We have to be different. This is over. This isn't the same Northwestern."