Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Close Nonconference Play With Long Island
1/3/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 3, 2003
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EVANSTON, Ill. - On Monday, the members of the Northwestern men's basketball team found new shirts in their lockers when they arrived at the arena prior to the game with Buffalo.
The message on the back was a simple one: Make Shots.
That has always been a mantra of head coach Bill Carmody, but actually reading it instead of hearing it may have spurred the 'Cats into action. They set fire to Welsh-Ryan Arena by torching the basket with 46 points and an .864 shooting percentage in the first half (19-of-22).
Unfortunately, two of Carmody's biggest concerns reared themselves up in the second half of that contest. First, the Wildcats cooled off considerably from the field, shooting just 36 percent (9-of-25). Second, after taking an 18-point lead into the break, NU allowed the Bulls to draw within eight midway through the second stanza and kept things interesting before prevailing by seven points, 69-62.
With an up-tempo Long Island squad in town Saturday night-and Iowa coming here Wednesday to tip off Big Ten play- Carmody knows his team needs to remedy those two problems. Fast.
"My biggest concern heading into these next couple of games is our shooting, especially from long range," he said. "Also, we are not playing well with leads. The Bowling Green, Fordham and Buffalo games all had a similar pattern-we had good leads in all of them, but we could not finish our opponent off without an effort. We cannot let teams back into the game when we have a sizable lead."
GAME 11 -- NORTHWESTERN (7-3) vs. Long Island (3-6)
Date/Time: Saturday, Jan. 4, 2003/7 p.m. CST
Site: Welsh-Ryan Arena (Evanston)
Capacity: 8,117
Television: none
Radio: WGN 720 AM (Dave Eanet, PBP; Shon Morris, analyst)
(also on wgnradio.com)
