Postgame Quotes
1/28/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 28, 2009
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Northwestern vs. Indiana
Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody
Opening Statement...
"I just thought it was a hard-fought college game. It was a little messy, but I still thought it was real hard-fought, tough, exciting college game. They jumped out on us and seemed to be making every shot. We came back and were very fortunate to be tied at half. Got a pretty nice lead there, I think we had a nine- or 10-point lead. We had two steals for two-on-ones that we didn't convert. They stole them and then hit a three. The team just never quit. It comes down to the final five seconds. I think we were very fortunate, because they shot the ball well and had a plan of attack. It's easy to pack it in, but they didn't. On our side we had Luka [Mirkovic] out with a sprained ankle; that definitely hurt us a bit. We were playing with a lineup that was juggled around, so when you get a win you fell really good about it."
On the play of Kevin Coble...
"I told him at halftime, 'Just hang in there, don't worry about, you've only taken two shots.' We weren't really looking for him. We don't really look for him that much. It's a bit of a democracy, which maybe is not good. But in the second half we were trying to post and we threw the ball down to him a lot. And then he made some of those really tough shots. In the lane he had a couple. He had the big steal there at the end. We went (man-to-man), we were switching everything and things didn't seem to open up for him. So then he just saw it. And it's a good thing he got it, because the last thing we said was, 'Don't go for the steal.' I don't enjoy saying that, but..."
On his team's play in the first half...
"I'll have to look at it, but I thought we were being too cute in the first half. Guys were cutting backdoor so we'd try to throw them the pass all the time. You have to run for at least eight seconds, 10 seconds."
On the lineup...
"We juggled the lineup in a lot of different ways. With Luka out, Mike (Thompson) in foul trouble and Craig (Moore) had a couple there too. I thought Sterling Williams came in and did terrific. He hit a nice little shot in the lane, he forced a turnover and did a good job taking care of the offensive rebound. Jeremy (Nash) has been playing better and better. If he can make shots like he did tonight, then we really have something, because he's real important at the top of that zone."
On earning the win...
"It's a big game to win, that's clear. We've won three out of four or something like that. It just keeps going. [Indiana] hasn't won any (conference) games but they've been close in a bunch. They're going to win, I'm just glad it wasn't against us tonight."
