Northwestern University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
12/1/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody:
"I thought we played a decent first half, not a great first half. It was
sloppy for both teams in the first half and we had a little bit of a
lead. In the second half we weren't able to contain them."
"It didn't seem like Richardson was that involved in the first half, but then everything he shot in the second half just went in."
"They guarded us well. Our two big guys didn't seem to be able to move and it seemed that the pressure bothered those guys. They kept the ball away from our center (Vedran Vukusic), they worked hard to keep the ball away from him and that's important to our offense."
"They played good defense in the second half, it's a very help-conscious team, it's well drilled. When we would drive they would all collapse and if you throw it out I think you can hurt those guys. I thought their defense was pretty good. It was consistent."
FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton:
On Northwestern's Offense:
"They (Northwestern) did something different-their big guy took us off
the dribble and kicked it out to their perimeter guys. Most systems have
the little guys penetrating and kicking to another perimeter player. That
was something we had to adjust to in the second half. "
"Our guys did a much better job containing the dribble in the second half and it didn't give them quite as many good open looks. We were able contest the shots a little better. We got on an offensive roll and that really made a difference in the game."
"This team tested all of our defensive focus. We had to make adjustments to what we normally do. We couldn't get out in the passing lanes. We didn't give up any back door pass, but we did give up some shuffle cuts. A system like this makes you a little hesitant when you're trying to stick with your old defensive principles."
On Anthony Richardson:
"Anthony had a nice rhythm to the game. He was very focused. He didn't
score a lot of points in the first half, but he had a confidence about
him. He wanted to go out and do what he had to do to help us win. That's
what you like to see growing in your team."
On Offensive Adjustments:
"I thought that offensively we played unselfish and continued to move the
ball with the extra pass. Those are the things you like to see evolving
and you can hear the words of encouragement they're give to one another.
If we can continue to keep growing in those areas, it's going to give us
a chance to continue to develop and improve."
"The thing the match-up zone did was take away our inside game. We had intended to go inside a lot more in the first half, but the angles were not there. Even though we didn't get a lot of inside opportunities complete, I thought we did go inside early and let them know they had to be a little concerned."
On having to come back:
"We've talked about these situations all fall. How we would response in
adverse situations. We've been trying to coach their minds as much as
their bodies. We realize that with the type of team we have, we still
hopefully have room for error. The things that we can't control,
attitude, effort and concentration are things we're trying to make our
guys understand that those are areas that we have to be on top of our
game plan."
