Postgame Quotes
3/4/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 4, 2009
Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody
Opening statement...
"I was just really happy for our guys tonight. There was a stretch when we didn't score. At the 8:05 mark I put in Williams, Nash and Mirkovic and they came in, hit some shots, opened the court and gave us a lot of energy. I'm really happy for Sterling [Williams]. He's a fifth-year senior working on his master's. During our senior night, I wasn't able to get him in, so for him to do that tonight, it was really special."
On their man-to-man defense...
"Might as well throw our 1-3-1 zone out the window. Purdue had some open shots, stuff they normally make. It just didn't go down."
On defending JaJuan Johnson...
"He hit a jumper early but after that, we were able to force him into some stuff. I thought Rowley did a nice job being physical. Johnson is a good player, he is hard to stop."
On his team's play down the stretch...
"All we do is play close games. Any extra possessions we can get, we'll take. With the defense Purdue plays, three straight possessions will really wear them down. Coming into tonight I thought we would have some opportunities on the offensive boards. It really paid off."
Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter
On the play of Northwestern's role players...
"I thought Northwestern really played well down the stretch. We got good shots for the first five or six minutes [of the second half] and then we started forcing things. Williams and Nash came in and just played harder, they were quicker to the ball, and gave their team a lot of energy. Northwestern played harder than us at Evanston and harder than us tonight. We are fortunate to be 1-1 against them."
On whether or not he thought his team had a letdown because MSU won the conference...
"I think you would have to ask each individual player that. I didn't sense that. Northwestern played us exceptional at Evanston; we knew they were a very good team. They embarrassed us. We respect them. I thought we came out ready to play. They just outplayed us."
On the play of junior forward Kevin Coble...
"Coble is very good at those intermediate shots. He hit a couple of very difficult shots. If they can stay close on the boards, they are going to beat a lot of teams. All the 50/50 plays, Northwestern dominated us in that category."
