Recap: NU 84 UNF 54

NU (8-1) took care of business last night and beat up on an overmatched UNF (1-6) squad. UNF did hang in the game for the first 17 minutes or so. Ultimately, NU's torrid shooting was too much for UNF, and Carmody's decision to employ the 1-3-1 took the starch out of the Ospreys' offense.

There is much glee in Wildcatland these days. Certainly a seven game winning streak is cause for celebration. That and the fact that NU is not dependent on one or two guys this year to win. To be sure Juice is the key and he needs to be out there for this team to motor, but on any given night it is difficult to predict just who will be the MVP. Last night Mirkovic stepped it up big time with 8 assists and 3-4 shooting from distance. Does NU at long last have a Princeton Offense center?

One area for concern that has been lost in the purple wave of enthusiasm is NU's defensive woes. In the first halves of the past two games NU has tried to employ the match-up zone and even a little straight-up man defense. In both games the overmatched cupcake scored with relative ease. This is not good as NU needs to be able to switch defenses to keep opposing offenses off balance. NU needs to continue to work on defense as Carmody himself acknowledged in his post-game interview last night.

There is some concern among fans that NU is too reliant on the three pointer. Hogwash! NU's propensity to knock it down from distance is unequivocally a great thing. It forces defenses to come out to guard around the arc which opens up the passing lanes for cutters. This will become abundantly clear in NU's next game against Stanford which already has a penchant for aggressive press defense.