Northwestern Scouting Report

Sam Bourne
Dec 1, 2023
3 min read

Updated: Jan 30, 2024

Northwestern has upset top ranked Purdue twice in as many years. The Wildcats guard heavy offense and physical defensive style has been effective against Purdue. On the flip side, Northwestern has not won a game in Mackey Arena since 2014 and this game will not be any easier with Purdue being undefeated in Mackey this season. For Purdue, this game is all about revenge and Northwestern is seeking to not just solidify back to back NCAA tournament bids for the first time in program history, but to gain their best ever seed as well.

Wildcats Offense

Offensive Overview

The offense in Evanston has steadily improved over the last four seasons, morphing from a top 150 offense into a top 40 offense this year according to Kenpom. Northwestern has built a solid roster, but it all functions around potential All-American Boo Buie. If teams want to beat Northwestern, they have to find a way to slow down Buie in the litany of different actions that Northwestern runs for their star.

Player Profiles

#0 - Buie

The best driver for Northwestern, he is going to create his own shot and works very well with Nicholson in the two man game. His go to move is getting to his right hand floater coming off of screens that he can make within 15 feet. He loves to hit the roller if teams are too focused on stopping his drive. Off ball, he mainly is looking to catch and shoot or he will wait to get into an action with Nicholson. Overall, it is vital to keep him out of the paint and force him to his left hand side.

#13 - Barnhizer

With a big frame, Barnhizer is a methodical scorer inside the arc. Northwestern is going to use him in a lot of different ways all over the court. He has improved as an outside shooter, hitting 36% of his threes. Taking away the middle and forcing him to the sidelines will be important to slow down his mid range scoring.

#5 - Langborg

He has the greenest of green lights besides Buie. He is going to come off a lot of pin downs where he likes to curl into mid range jumpers. On the perimeter, he wants the three ball but if that is taken away, he is going to put his head down and go right.

#3 - Berry

Another shooter similar to Langborg. If he can't get his shot, he will also put his head down to try to get to the rim. He is not a great driver so help defense should be aggressive trying to attack the ball on his drives to force turnovers.

#34 - Nicholson

A big body that he uses as an effective and slightly illegal screener. He is only going to shoot at the rim off of rolls or rebounds.

#2 - Martinelli

Left hand, left hand, left hand, left hand

Northwestern Main Offensive Actions

Horns Wing Iso for Barnhizer

Horns Corner Zoom for Buie

Horns Gut Zoom for Buie

Give and Go

Double Pin Downs

"Tight" Dribble Handoff

Northwestern's Defense

Defensive Styles

Man to Man (Switching):

Pick in Roll Coverages - Hard hedging with Nicholson, switching non-center actions

Weakside Defense - Low man aggressive helping, high man zoning up the weakside

On-Ball Defense - Aggressive reaching and hand checking
Post Defense - Hard double from the power forward

Predicted Matchups

Braden Smith - Boo Buie

Fletcher Loyer - Ryan Langborg

Lance Jones - Ty Berry

Kauffman-Renn - Brooks Barnhizer

Zach Edey - Matthew Nicholson

How Purdue can Attack Northwestern:

Attack Northwestern's point of attack defense - drive the ball off closeouts
Skip passes lead to long closeouts or open threes
Cut from the corner against Northwestern's hard hedge or post double
Look to reject ball screens
Use Trey Kauffman-Renn as a passer in the mid post