Northwestern University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
11/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 18, 2009
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Northwestern vs. Butler
November 18, 2009
Postgame Quotes
Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody
Opening Statement ...
"I think that's a good team. I don't know if they actually played particularly well tonight. We had 16 turnovers they told me, and we never have that many turnovers. It's hard for us to win with that. It was a six-point difference at half, and we came out in the second half and (Avery) Jukes hit a couple threes on us. Our defense was bad; there were open looks. Our 1-3-1 zone really was not effective, it didn't seem as lively. Jeremy (Nash) wasn't forcing passes and forcing turnovers. It just seemed like they were in control. We had a hard time putting the ball in the basket. Luka (Mirkovic) didn't have a particularly good night, we thought we might be able to throw the ball down to him and he might be able to do something down there on (Matt) Howard, just put a little pressure on him in there, but he was ineffective and he had some pretty good looks. Jeremy scored 20 points the other night, and I said I hope it's not an aberration. Tonight he just didn't seem to have it, but you have to give credit to Butler, they're a very good team. They didn't guard us as hard as I thought they would. We prepared for a little more over play defensively, so we were cutting, and we didn't seem to be finishing our cuts. Butler just did a real nice job defending us, and when their guys needed to make shots, they made shots."
On the defensive play of Butler ...
"Yeah, they played looser than I thought they were going to play. I don't think it should affect us so much; I don't mean to say it was bad defense, I just expected a little bit more over play. They just played a real solid defense, and it was very effective."
On rearranging the NU lineup due to injury ...
"I threw (Alex) Marcotullio in there. He had been out for about a week with a groin pull right before our first game, so I really didn't play him in that first game. He's been playing pretty well, he knows what's going on, he's got a good head. Losing (Craig) Moore was one thing, but now with (Kevin) Coble out, we have to get someone out there for the long-range shooting. He's a pretty effective shooter, and he knows what he's doing. As long as physically he can handle it right now, and I think he can, so it was good to see. Yeah, just have to try to figure it out, it's a little different. That's no excuse, but I feel like we're trying to do this on the fly right now."
On how the identity of the team changes without Coble ...
"I don't think it should. We're going to do the same thing with different guys. Everyone is talking about opportunities, and there are minutes there. Some people have to come through. I though (John) Shurna had a pretty decent second half, but the game was over. You got to have a good first half. He scored points and he got rebounds, it seemed like he came to life, but we were already down by 12, 14 points, so it was a little easier to do that. Guys have got to be ready to go right from the start, and I didn't think we played a very good first half. Credit them for that, but it just seemed like we weren't quite ready to get going."
Butler Head Coach Brad Stevens
Opening statement...
"They've got a lot of very skilled players. You knew it was going to be a monumental task to come up here and win. You have to have a focus of winning one possession at a time, especially in this game. I was very pleased with our guys. For the most part, that was their approach throughout the entire night."
On the team's success against Big Ten opponents...
"I don't know that it's against the Big Ten or against anybody else. Our guys like to play. They like to play together. They have a lot of fun. We have a lot of fun coaching them. Whoever we are playing against, they are not always worried about their conference affiliation. They just want to go out and try to play to the best of their ability."
On the team's offensive execution...
"The way that they play, you're going to have to deliver passes and you're going to have to make shots. I thought our guys did both. We put an emphasis on delivering where they wanted. We put an emphasis on these guys being ready to shoot the ball. We didn't shoot the ball as well as I'd hoped but you know 9-for-26 is little bit lower than you would want. We hit some big ones at critical times when they were coming half on us then we hit 3 huge ones in the first half. Gordon (Hayward) hit one at the end of the first half, I believe, that was really big. Then, you know, Avery (Jukes) and Gordon strung those together in the second half and opened the game up a little bit."
