Northwestern University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
1/4/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody
Opening statement...
"Overall I am pleased with our performance tonight. The only team that has had more bad luck than us with injuries this year is Purdue, and right off the bat Nate (Minnoy) goes down. They have already lost a lot of guys this year. We forced a lot of turnovers and made shots. Out of the gate we were down 7-2 but Vedran (Vukusic) made a couple of difficult one-dribble jumpers look easy and that got us back into the game. After that, our offense worked pretty well in the first half. Tim (Doyle) made some nice moves in the post as well as some nice passes. I think the key in the second half was that we stopped them from getting as many offensive rebounds as they did in the first half. They really beat us up on the boards in the first half."
On his team's good shooting night...
"We got some lay-ups and post-ups tonight, and those always help your field goal percentage. Tim banged in a couple of three's. Craig (Moore) shot the ball well and Vedran seemed to make almost every shot he took."
On Tim Doyle's play...
"It is important for Tim to score inside. It allows Vedran to play outside more. Not only can he post up, but Tim is also a great passer from the post. If we can put him in the post with Bernard (Coté), Vedran and Craig on the outside, I really believe our offense will work nicely. Tim is a really good basketball player. I have liked him since his sophomore year of high school."
On Vedran being able to produce every night...
"Vedran is able to score in a lot of different ways. He knows that I am not going to take him out of the game, which always helps. He can make the outside shot, but also makes good cuts to the basket and draws fouls. Teams are going to try to beat him up for the next two months and he needs to handle that."
On the team's backcourt play...
"The backcourt of Sterling Williams and Craig Moore has been playing very well as of late. They are hard workers in practice, and it has really become contagious. This is definitely not the team I envisioned, but these guys have come in and played well."
On Mohamed Hachad's status...
"He is a possibility for Saturday. That said, he will not play many minutes if he does play."
Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter
Did the early injury to Nate Minnoy take the wind out of the team's sail?
"Northwestern is very unique in how they play. A lot of people talk about the Princeton-style offense, but defensively -- an opposing team needs to have people out there that can handle, pass and shoot it and we don't have 13 guys like that. (Purdue guard) Chris Lutz is somebody like that. (Purdue guard) Bryant Dillon isn't a good shooter but he makes good decisions and can pass it. But from a cerebral standpoint, that really hurt us. Tonight, the story was more Northwestern and (Northwestern forward Vedran Vukusic) and (Northwestern guard Tim Doyle). Those two guys played great. Give them credit."
On Northwestern's play...
"We had a matchup problem with Vukusic. We had a lot of guys on Vukusic and we had to do a lot of different switching. We had a lot of breakdowns in the first half, a lot of simple breakdowns. They capitalized on that and that got them going and when you have a big scorer like that, you have to get him going. They did a good job of playing hard on the defensive end, playing hard on the offensive end and just stepping up."
You probably didn't prepare too much for Tim Doyle...
"No, we did think about Doyle. We did think about him. The one thing that concerned me was him getting the basketball in the post. He's got an old man's game. But he's a good player and he's effective. That shouldn't take away from him, that's just his style. He's effective and you can't let him get the ball in the post, especially with their shooters. (Northwestern guard Craig Moore) made a couple shots. Obviously Vukusic made a couple shots and we had to play them honest. I have respect for guys like that-they maximize their ability and just play hard. I told our guys before the game, (Doyle) is a tough kid and he plays hard. If you match that, we'll win that battle. But if you don't match that, we're going to lose it, and obviously we didn't match it."
