Northwestern University Athletics
Postgame Quotes - Northwestern vs. Purdue (Jan. 16, 2010)
1/16/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 16, 2010
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Postgame Quotes Jan. 16, 2010 Northwestern 72, Purdue 64
Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody
Opening statement...
"I thought it was just a really good college basketball game. It was close at half. Their pressure hurt us in the first half. We had nine turnovers and I think we only average 11 or 11.5 turnovers a game, so they were putting the heat on us pretty good. They weren't getting second shots, which was good. In the second half, you saw the game. It was equal or tied all the way through. At the end, we had some guys make some big plays. Drew [Crawford] banged that shot with two seconds left and Jeremy Nash set a great screen. It was actually a free shot and that was big. Then [Crawford] had a nice drive to the basket from the wing opposite the bench. Then [Michael Thompson] here, he brought the ball up the court every time. The guy's throwing up at halftime and he just kept getting it up the court, up the court because some of the other guys were struggling. I just thought it was a really good team effort. I think [Purdue] was hurt when [JaJuan] Johnson got in foul trouble and then Luka [Mirkovic] did a good job scoring around the basket there. Throughout the whole game, we rebounded. They didn't get that many second shots. So we got a win and we hit our foul shots too. That made the difference."
On Northwestern's play and momentum into the rest of the Big Ten slate...
"We haven't played well at home. We've had some nice games away from home down in Chicago, at N.C. State, actually played pretty well down in Champaign and lost. So it was good to play well. I thought we did ok the other night against Wisconsin, but we weren't able to finish and today we were fortunate to do that. But it's still so early. Like I told the guys in the Wisconsin game, if we win tonight, we've still got to play Purdue on Saturday. I'll say that now, we still have to play Ohio State on Tuesday. You enjoy it, get what you can from it. I'm really proud of the guys and Matt [Painter]'s probably pretty proud of his team. They had a lot of open looks that they normally might hit and they didn't go down."
On the play of freshman Drew Crawford...
"We've played 15, 16 games now and after a while, you're not like a freshman anymore. He's willing to take a shot, a big shot. The one with two seconds left, he had to take but he knocked it down. A lot of guys take them, but he knocked it down. Then that drive on [Robbie] Hummel from the wing, that's a big time play because at the end of it, he was at the rim and it wasn't just a flip. He put the ball in the basket so he's doing well. He's got a lot to work on, but he's doing well. What I liked was that I saw two-handed rebounds down there in the last three minutes. His body was in there and he was getting big-time rebounds."
On Purdue's foul trouble and its effect on the game...
"They play hard. They guard you hard and they play very physical defense. We wanted to get into their bench a little bit if we could and that's what happens sometimes if you play that kind of defense. Again, we had 16 turnovers tonight so they might get in foul trouble but they turn you over an awful lot too so the benefits are pretty nice."
Freshman Drew Crawford
On playing with four fouls for much of the second half...
"At that point, you've just got to make sure you play smart. I knew I had four so if I got one more, I'd be out so I was just trying to move my feet and keep my hands straight up. I just had to be careful out there."
On stepping up in the second half of the game...
"I just waited for my time in the game. My teammates were able to find me. It was a great team effort for us. In the first half, it was everybody else knocking shots down. In the second half, I hit a couple but it's just all about how we work together as a team to get that victory."
On Northwestern out-rebounding Purdue by 19...
"Rebounding is all about toughness and tonight we really showed that toughness. Everybody, whether it was handling the pressure, getting rebounds or playing defense, I think we all had great toughness in this game. That really helped us with the rebounding."
On Northwestern fans storming the court...
"It's a great feeling. Since I've been here, I've been watching other colleges with their schools storming the court after they beat a ranked team or a good team. Since I've gotten here, I've always wanted to be a part of that and finally, that happened tonight. I'm very excited about it."
On Purdue's defense and Northwestern's response...
"Purdue plays very tough defense. They pressure you full-court and our offense is pretty much designed for teams like that. We just did a great job getting to the basket, finding our guys in the low post and everybody just did a good job of finishing tonight. It was a good team effort."
On the team's progress since his freshman season...
"It feels great. My first year, we won one game in conference and now we've won two. So it's a lot different from my first year. Now that we're winning, we've got a lot of fans here and there's just a great feeling all around campus. We came into the season with a nice buzz and everybody was talking about how they're excited to watch us play. Now we're playing well, though we hadn't been playing well at home, but tonight to come out to get a win like this against a good team like Purdue, that's just a good thing for us."
Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter
Opening Statement...
"I thought at the start of the game we were really trying to emphasize getting the basketball inside and establishing a presence inside. I thought we did a good job getting in there, but we weren't that productive. In the first half I think we had some good shots at the basket, we only had one turnover, and some things didn't go down for us. But I thought the story of the game was Northwestern's ability to chase long rebounds down and dominate us on the glass. I'm very impressed with what Bill [Carmody] has done here at Northwestern, how hard his kids' are playing, his attention to detail in the rebounding area. They've come so far, there, then where they were a couple years ago to go along with their skill set and now their rebounding. Like I said I'm very impressed with Northwestern. I think they played harder then us and tougher than us."
On playing without JaJuan Johnson...
"We played differently when JaJuan Johnson isn't in. We actually don't have a post up guy, we have to post up some guards at times, but against their switching man-to-man, their match-up, whatever you want to call it, you're going to have a more difficult time against that. You're going to have to probe their defense, be able to use your dribble and break them down and try to get more drives and get to the free-throw line. We play differently when he's not in. That's difficult. The foul trouble does how affect how we play on both ends."
On Crawford's three-pointers...
"Just something Northwestern does with their out-of-bounds plays. It's one of the wrinkles that they do, just a simple screen, he got caught up in the screen and Drew Crawford made a big shot. It was probably the play of the game, probably both of his threes. I thought right there when we have a two-point lead and now they take the lead by one and we don't score on the other end, I thought Crawford stepped up and made a couple of huge plays."
On where Purdue's effort lacked...
"We got some good numbers. I thought Rob [Hummel] was efficient and E'Twaun [Moore] was efficient, offensively, if you look at their numbers. We just didn't put in the effort across the board, in rebounding. These guys come off the bench and they miss some shots. I don't care if they go 0-3 from three or 0-5 from three; get a rebound. We've got guys on our team that have more fouls then rebounds for the season. You got to give an effort. It's a tricky game, it will humble you, but you have to play harder then your opponent, you have to be tougher then your opponent and you have to get rebounds. If you don't do those things you're going get beat, especially on the road. We got beat by a better team. They played harder then we did. Just look at some of the effort categories there. It's pretty simple to me if you're watching the game."
On the mistakes that have caused Purdue's last three losses...
"When you win you're still making mistakes. We made some improvements in rebounding in the non-conference. We actually out rebounded 10-11 or 11-12 of our opponents and since then we've been out rebounded every big ten game. And we played some pretty good teams. We played Tennessee, Wake Forest, Alabama, West Virginia, and those aren't second-level team. They're all pretty good teams that have physical front-line guys. We've slacked in that area; we've got to do a better job."
