Northwestern University Athletics
Coble's Injury Presents Both Questions and Opportunities
11/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 12, 2009
NUsports.com special contributor Skip Myslenski had the opportunity to sit down with Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody and senior forward Kevin Coble at Wednesday's practice. Coble is slated to find out the extent of the injury late Thursday while the rest of the squad prepares for Friday night's season opener against Northern Illinois at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
It was just-another play at last Tuesday's practice, but when it was over, the face of the 'Cats' men's basketball team was dramatically altered. "I got a rebound, came down a little off balance and my foot was unstable and popped a little bit," says senior forward Kevin Coble, recalling that moment. "That's pretty much all I remember. The popping and going down."
The 6-foot-8 Coble, who led his team last season in both scoring and rebounding, went down with what is now described as a mid-foot sprain. He is scheduled to visit a specialist on Thursday for further examination. But he is sure to be sidelined for at least four-to-six weeks and could, if surgery is required, miss the entire season.
"It's disappointing, certainly. Frustrating for me, but I'd imagine for the guys too seeing how well everything had been going," he would say following Wednesday's practice. "What's nice is everyone's been working hard all along, so I'm hoping they're just going to go forward and know that it is what it is and deal with it for a few weeks and see where that puts me. Hopefully I'll be able to come back and help them after they've had a good non-conference season."
This was, of course, the season when many thought the 'Cats, behind Coble, would earn their first NCAA Tournament bid. And now? "I still think now, it's not like the world stops because of this," he says. "I don't think the goal or anything has changed from 24 hours ago to now. Everybody's just got a different feel right now. In the past, it was never as exciting as it is right now to be part of Northwestern basketball. We've got a lot of good pieces in place, guys back and new ones coming in, just on the verge of doing something that hasn't been done before."
Is that something the team thinks about?
"In the back of our minds, probably, in the locker room, just making sure we're doing things day to day that will get us to that step. It's not like it's pressure or something we have to worry about. It's not like it's consuming us at all. It's in perspective, which is good."
Does that heighten the anticipation for the coming season, which kicks off Friday against Northern Illinois?
"I think so. I think in the past, my freshman and sophomore year, no one expected much. I don't know if that rubs off on you and you take that to heart. If there aren't any expectations of you from others, do you put expectations on yourself? I think we just didn't have a great deal of success my first couple of years in terms of win-loss, but we did a lot of things that were good that are now showing up. I think there's just an excitement. This is the first year I think that it's really clear cut. It's something that should be done."
Does that make it harder for him to accept this injury?
"Yeah. Its very disappointing to have this come up, the timing is poor obviously. For me, this is why I wanted to be up here. It was for the NCAA Tournament. But we'll get through the non-conference season, the guys will be fine, it's just one person. Then we'll see where we are a month from now. A lot can happen and hopefully I can be back for the Big Ten season."
*****
"I don't know what to say. I didn't find out until seven o'clock (Tuesday) night that it's not good," 'Cat coach Bill Carmody is saying late Wednesday morning. He is sitting in the stands of Welsh-Ryan Arena and, over the next minutes, goes virtual stream-of-conscious while considering the effects of Coble's injury.
"You have 35 minutes you have to give now," he begins. "You have 16 points, leading scorer, leading rebounder. You take, I don't know, Kobe (Bryant) out, what happens to the Lakers? You take your best guy out of there in both areas. Then, besides the scoring and the rebounding, he makes the other guys feel like they belong out there, you know what I mean? He lifts guys, like (Michael) Jordan lifted Steve Kerr and all those kind of guys. 'We can play. We belong out here.' I think he did that to some of our guys. That hurts too."
How does he replace him?
"Do you go deeper or do you just give more minutes to the guys? Do you stay big, do you go with (6-foot-8 junior Ivan) Peljusic, same size kind of guy, can score a little bit? Or do you go smaller with (6-foot-4 senior Jeremy) Nash, which is my feeling right now. Go with experience on that. You're still not that small."
But he was hoping to use Nash as a spark off the bench?
"Exactly. So I'm tempted to go with the other guy. I'll see how it goes, but I think it will probably be Nash the first night, just the calmness of it, and bring (6-foot-6 senior Jeff) Ryan in off the bench. I really haven't thought it through. I didn't sleep last night trying to figure out all the different things. But I know you have to, scoring, he (Coble) scored when there wasn't anything. He's one of those guys who comes up with stuff that isn't in the offense, like the good guys do. That's hard to replace. But. Some people say, 'Well, it's an opportunity. C'mon, (John) Shurna, you can't just give us seven points a night (as he did last season as a freshman). This is your time.' It's not like I'm singing the blues. But I'm not positive what's going to happen...
"I don't know. I just think we're going to have to go more with some of these veterans and hope the guys from last year play like veterans. Luka (Mirkovic, the 6-foot-11 sophomore). I'm trying to think of guys who can possibly score some points for you. At the end of the day, you have to be able to score. (Guard) Michael Thompson, whom I wanted (to score) anyway. Shurna."
How have his players reacted to the news?
"I don't know. I didn't address it even. I didn't address it to them because I don't know. They know he's not going to be playing early on. But they don't know more than that."
Does he consider this a cruel twist considering the optimism surrounding the team?
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't want to say it's out the window. That would be saying these guys can't do it and I think we have some pretty good guys out there. But now they're going to have to do more. There are some capable guys. But it's coming on them a little sooner than they thought."
So they are going to take on different roles?
"Just increased. Instead of taking six shots, you might have to take nine. The other thing that happens, which I think is the key, Johnny was going to be guarded by the fourth best guy. Now the best guy's going to guard Shurna. He was going to reap the benefits of them trying to wipe out Coble. Now it's not going to happen. They're going to say, 'Well, who's their good forward? Let's go on that guy.' And Kevin has actually turned into a pretty good passer, which he never even did. He got better and better and better at it. He and Shurna seemed to have this connection the first three weeks. Oh, man. When you have forwards like that, where they can both make a shot, they can both score around the basket, drive a little bit, well."
So, at least for Friday, it appears the starting lineup he trots out will feature Thompson, Shurna, Nash, Mirkovic and the 6-foot-5 freshman Drew Crawford.
"I had Drew in the backcourt (with Coble healthy), that's really a nice-sized team. Now I might start him down the baseline a little bit more. We'll see. . . We've talked about (his expected role). I said, 'You don't have to impact the game. Last year I had three freshmen I had to get stuff from. Shurna, Luka, Kyle (Rowley). This year, you just have to be that guy who gets six points and four rebounds and two steals and picks up a loose ball.' So it changes his role a little bit too.
"Again, I haven't thought it all through. But I know it's going to effect (us in) different ways than you expect. It's not just 16, 17 points, maybe more this year. So it's tough. It changes things."
