Northwestern University Athletics
Drew's Views
12/14/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 14, 2009
Hello, Wildcat Fans!
Big win for us this past Sunday against North Carolina A&T! We won 90-65 in one of our best offensive games of the season. I really got a great feel for Coach Carmody's Princeton offense in this game. We moved the ball really well, cut hard, and as Coach loves to say, we made shots. Defensively we gave up 37 points in the first half, which was too many for our style of play, but in the second half we picked the defense up and held them to 28 points.
Personally it was my best game of the season. I passed my season high in points and my shot was feeling good. I always seem to have good games when I make my first shot, and that night I did that and I ended up playing well. Jeremy Nash caught a big alley-oop for a dunk as well, and I congratulated him on that because I know he has been anticipating it for a while. I threw him an attempted alley-oop pass a couple weeks ago in our game against Liberty that he wasn't able to dunk. We have been debating for a while whether it was the pass from me or his jumping ability that caused him to miss it, so it was great to see him get one. (I still think my pass to him was "dunkable.")
The fan support at the game was great. Even though we are on winter break, we still had a great crowd come out to cheer us on. It is always a huge help for us when we have a good crowd, because playing in a packed gym is something that every basketball player loves. We feed off of the energy from our fans, so thank you all for supporting us! We play three more games at Welsh-Ryan Arena before the Big Ten season starts and I hope to see you all there as you continue to cheer us on.
Our upcoming games are against North Florida and Stanford, both huge games for us. It is important for us to enter the Big Ten season with some momentum, and these two upcoming games are vital in maintaining our momentum. We will continue to practice and lift hard in preparation for the long road ahead. After a break from practice during finals week, Coach Carmody worked us hard in the few days before the game and we came out ready.
Practice is so essential for us as a team to be successful. Mastering the Princeton offense is a difficult thing to do, but with the help from the older guys and the repetition that we get in practice, we freshman are picking it up pretty well. There have been quite a few times in practice when I make a mistake in the offense, but the coaches are great in helping us get things straight. Everything we do in practice translates into game situations, and good practices are essential for us to be a precise basketball team. They are tough, and sometimes it is hard to get excited to practice early in the morning, but it pays off when game time comes around.
Living conditions have changed a little for Alex Marcotullio and myself as we moved from the dormitory to a hotel in Evanston. It is much different living in the hotel, but I must say I do enjoy having someone make my bed and bringing fresh towels. Also I can't complain about having a bigger bed, and the HBO movies are phenomenal. Without classes we have a lot of free time, and a good movie selection is essential in keeping us from just sleeping all day.
Once again thank you to all of you Wildcat supporters, it is great to see the crowd in the stands! Shout out to the Ville (Naperville) and good luck to Coach Kramer and the Naperville Central Redhawks!
Until next time!
Drew Crawford
