Northwestern University Athletics
Eavesdropping at the Big Ten's Basketball Media Day
10/29/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Oct. 29, 2009
Men's Basketball Head Coach News Conference Transcription (PDF)
By SKIP MYSLENSKI, NUsports.com Special Contributor
SPEAKING UP
Michael Thompson, the 'Cat point, has noticed the change in Bill Carmody, a card-carrying pessimist given to finding the cloud inside any silver lining. "This year," he explains, "he seems a lot more pleased with the way things are going early on. He seems a lot happier this year. We've been doing the offensive and defensive sets a lot faster than we have in recent memory. We can go on to other things, the harder things, right away."
What about Thompson's own attitude?
"I'm very confident and I'm very happy with the way the team's looked. I think this year's going to be one of the better years for us. Last year we made a big change and a big step forward."
What did one of the biggest steps, winning at Michigan State, mean to this team?
"That taught us, we already knew we could compete with everyone. Just winning that game on the road, making that history, that just gave us so much more confidence. It told us we can go on the road and we can compete, we can do more than compete, we can win on the road. That's very important. In recent memory, we really haven't had that much success on the road. We've won the bulk of our games at home. Winning on the road, that just helped us a lot. Hopefully, we can keep that going. With Craig (Moore) gone, I have to step up, be that vocal leader he was. So each day I'm trying to push my guys to go harder and harder."
So he has take over the role of team leader?
"Yeah, it's hard on me. He was a feisty guy, a loud guy. I don't lead that way. I don't really want to yell at everyone. So I've been working in my own way to lead the team and get everyone to work harder 100 percent of the time.
Does he see himself as a quiet leader?
"Yeah. But sometimes I have get loud. I'm stepping out of my element, my nature, to do that for the team. But for the most part I like to lead by example, talk to guys, tell them what they're doing wrong, try to help them the best that I can that way."
A RAY OF SUNSHINE
Carmody himself was just a table away from his junior point when asked about his emergence as a more-vocal leader. "We talked about it all spring. 'Hey, Mike, c'mon,'" he would say. "He's a quiet kid. He's a quiet kid. But he knows what he's doing. I've hypnotized him into thinking we think alike and all that. He's good, he's a really underrated player. He had a reputation in high school, but I didn't think he'd be as good as he is. He shot 43 percent from three-point range and I hesitated about offering the kid because he couldn't shoot. I loved the kid. But I just said, 'I'm putting him in a situation that he's not going to be able to do.' You know, small kid, tough, but, well, he just works his tail off. He was OK on the 17-footer and all, but he really wasn't a three-point shooter in high school at all. But he's just there, shooting all the time. So I just want him to be more vocal, tell guys what to do, no one can question him, he does it. I have really high regard (for him). I don't want to make him feel too good. But it's, 'C'mon, Mike, tell guys what to do. You might not be making friends right off the bat. But you've got to tell some of these big, young guys, That's not how we do it here. Go about your business the right way.'"
The talk turned then to freshman Drew Crawford, a 6-foot-5 wing who is athletic, dynamic and already bordering folk-hero status after throwing down a tip dunk in a recent practice. ("He jumped up so high, it caught everyone by surprise. He just jumped up and slammed it in with authority. That's something we usually don't see at practice," Thompson said of the moment.) "Crawford, I'm going to throw in there," Carmody said here. "(Jeremy) Nash (a senior) will probably start. I'll ask him, 'Do you want to start, Jeremy?' If he says, 'Yeah, coach, it's very important to me,' I'd probably start him. But I'd prefer, he was really instrumental for us last year in a lot of our wins. I like when he comes of the bench, he energizes, he gets you going. He's still playing a lot more minutes than a lot of guys and he'll do the same thing. But I'd like to get Crawford in there, get him in, screw up, take him out, get him back in, like that kind of thing. He doesn't have to do quite so much...We've got some other guys. That's how I'm thinking about it."
Is he, a noted pessimist, actually manifesting some optimism?
"Well, you know, I can look down the bench and think, 'That ninth guy's OK.' You didn't have many options before. If a guy's playing bad, you say, 'OK, let's hope he plays through it.' Now I have an option. He can play through it or I can get someone else in there. That's a big thing."
Simply, how does he feel about his team?
"I like 'em. Yeah. I like 'em. I think we have a real shot."
UNEASY LIES THE HEAD THAT WEARS THE CROWN
Michigan State is coming off a Final Four, is the favorite to win the Big Ten title and is again a legit national championship contender. But here Spartan coach Tom Izzo is discussing Purdue and he says, "I think they're the best team in the league right now. They got everybody back, the top six guys. Right now, we're unproven. We're a little bit more unproven at more than one position. They've got everybody back. Their chemistry, their camaraderie, their desire...They've got the mission of playing (the Final Four) in their home state this year, like we did last year, and they have a legitimate shot, which means you're one of 15, 16 teams that could make the Final Four. They're in that mold."
Where does he consider his team unproven?
"We lost the best defensive player in the league (guard Travis Walton). He was a lockdown defender. I will guarantee you, we don't have a lockdown defender. That doesn't mean we won't be good defensively. But he was a lockdown, where guys would say, 'Geez. Oh, God. I've got to play against him tonight.' At center we lost...15 years of practice experience. But I'm worried about, I told my team this at the beginning of the year. I'm worried about, in order, leadership and chemistry is number one. Then our defense because we're missing that lockdown guy. Then our center play. We lost a great leader (Walton). We lost a chemistry guy in (center Goran) Suton. He was not a captain, not a vocal guy, but he had the pulse of the team. He'd come into my office and say, 'This guy's that, his girlfriend dumped him.' We just have some unprovens in that area. I like my team. I think we have a chance to be very good. But I think theirs (Purdue's) right now is more polished."
Is he still having fun after all these years?
"Yeah, yeah. I am having fun. But the old adage is true, it's harder to stay there than it is to get there. The outside distractions get to me more. Recruiting's getting harder. I think there's more cheating, I think it's getting worse again because we make more money, to be honest about it. So there's never an off-season. You talk about when do you recharge the batteries? I just don't think there is one when you're at a school like ours, which means the school doesn't recruit to itself like a Kentucky or a Kansas or a (North) Carolina. You still have to stay up to those standards, but you know what? I like my team, I like my guys, I think I have to learn to do that. I think that's my next step. I have to learn to enjoy what we've built. I'm not sure I've learned to do that. I do have to learn to do that. I'm fortunate. The Sweet 16s, the Elite Eights, the Finals Fours we've been in. We've had good players, we're graduating our guys, we've had minimal problems. I should enjoy it a little bit more."
NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
There was no basketball discussed with Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, who grew up outside Philadelphia in a town called Chester and so has a rooter's interest in the World Series. "My dad was taking me to games when I was four, five, six. My first recollection of anything in sport is going to Connie Mack Stadium (where the Phillies then played). My dad took me to games in the early '50s. The smell of, I'd like to say popcorn, hot dogs and all that, but mostly it was stale beer. Everybody smoked. We'd go on these bus things from Chester, everybody got a hoagie, you could actually carry sodas and stuff into the park in the early '50s. And how 'bout this, memories? I could never figure why my dad would reach into his pocket and give these kids in the neighborhood a quarter to watch the car. The antenna (would be broken). A tire would be flat. But my dad had a little bit of charisma, he got to know the kids, and he'd always take care of them (and they took care that the family car wasn't damaged)."
What was his first big memory?
"The grass. If you've ever seen Chester, it's row houses, there's no grass. There wasn't a lot of open space, green space. So to walk into the park, I never saw a golf course until I was in my 20s, so yeah, I do remember that. But there is one thing that happened at a baseball game that I pointed out and that's where my dad knew that I was destined to do something that involved detail. The Phillies are playing an afternoon game and you remember the old parks, where they had the (scoreboard) on the side of the bleachers? Count. Outs. Batter. And they had the time. I'm in the right field bleachers looking dead on the sign. Granny Hamner is at the plate. Granny Hamner is number two. It's two-and-two on him. There's two outs. It's two-to-two. And it was 2:22. I'm telling you, 'Guys, look at that board.' They couldn't believe it. It was straight twos across the board."
Does he have a favorite Phillie story?
"When I coached at Sun Valley High School (outside Philadelphia), we played the Phillies and we played the Eagles. We were doing a fund-raising thing. Harold Carmichael (a formal Eagle receiver) had 40 on us. We couldn't stop him. Harold Carmichael was pretty good. And Larry Bowa (the former Phillie shortstop) and I got into a little scrape. Mike Schmidt (the All-Star third baseman) was tough. The Phillies had a pretty good team and, you know, all your students are there and everything else. So here Larry Bowa and I are guarding each other, we're pushing at each other, two guys who are Type A personalities going at it."
And, finally, since it is October and he once owned the month.
"Reggie Jackson was in our league (when Ryan was a high school player), Cheltenham High. I played against him in baseball, basketball and football. Best running back in the state. I was the safety and I had the most tackles on him and that's bad because they beat us 33-0. In basketball, I got to guard him, we always beat him in basketball. In baseball, it was a split. But I still have, you remember what spikes were like back in the early '60s? (In case you don't, they were some two inches long.) I think he sharpened them, I really do. I was about 150 and Reggie Jackson, wow, he was chiseled. I still have a scar where he stepped on me."
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