Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Tip Off Big Ten Play With Hawkeyes
1/8/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 8, 2003
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EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody is not much for motivational duds. You will not see his Wildcats wearing shorts that say "Defense" or shirts that read "Bear Down."
So his players had to sense the urgency when they arrived at their lockers prior to the Dec. 30 game with Buffalo and found new t-shirts. On the front was an innocuous Wildcat Basketball. Nothing new there.
The eye-opener came when they saw the words on the back.
Make Shots.
The message was received in that game-at least, it was for a half. The 'Cats hit 19 of 22 shots from the field en route to 46 points in the opening stanza, then cooled down significantly in the second half; in addition, they were just 2-of-13 from three-point land for the game.
The shooting doldrums from beyond the arc continued Saturday in NU's 70-42 win over Long Island. The Wildcats were 4-of-13 from downtown, dropping their three-point percentage for the season to .336.
According to Carmody, this is a stat that needs to improve dramatically in order for Northwestern to have another successful campaign in the bigger, more rugged Big Ten.
"We need to get our shots falling," he said. "When we are hitting our stuff from the outside, we stretch the defense and that opens up stuff on the inside. You want to make your opponent pick a poison; right now, we are making it easier for them."
GAME 12 -- Northwestern (8-3, 0-0) vs. Iowa (8-3, 0-0)
Date/Time: Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2003/7 p.m. CST
Site: Welsh-Ryan Arena (Evanston)
Capacity: 8,117
Television: ESPN Plus (WCIU in Chicago)
(Larry Morgan, PBP; Shon Morris, analyst)
Radio: WGN 720 AM (also on wgnradio.com)
(Dave Eanet, PBP; David Kaplan, analyst)
