Northwestern University Athletics
Skip Myslenski's Season-Opener Primer
11/12/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 12, 2010
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
He is 58 now, and graying and grizzled, and about to begin his 35th season in the coaching racket. Still, as he awaits his 'Cats Friday night opener at Northern Illinois, Bill Carmody drops the word scary into the conversation. "I hate the fact that it's (an) eight o'clock (start)," he says, explaining the unexpected presence of that adjective. "If it was one o'clock, I wouldn't have to worry as long. Now I've got seven extra hours and the guys too. We're practicing in the morning this term. So the whole day you're waiting for it.
"And you're away. And it's a good team. They have a terrific player in this kid (Xavier) Silas (a 6-foot-5 senior guard). He's probably a second-round pick. And the unknowns. They have two, three JC guys. That's a scary part. And the guys have opening jitters, too. Even veterans. That's another contributing factor to scariness."
"Definitely. Definitely," the senior guard Michael Thompson will say when asked if that is true. "The first game is always scary. Everyone has jitters, and this year we're opening up on the road. It should be a tough, hostile environment. But everybody on our team is excited for the challenge."
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We wonder if an uncertainty about his own team contributes to that scariness factor, and it is not unimportant how Bill Carmody responds. "I think I know what I have. I think I know what I have," he says. "I have an idea what they can do. It's very surprising, you know, some guys shoot at four (in practice) but don't shoot at eight. But it's very rare when a guy misses at four and makes 'em at eight. So I think I know what to expect from each."
He knows since this season he is guiding a group that itself is grizzled and experienced and filled with veterans who have been tempered by the long march that is any basketball season. The indefatigable Thompson, of course, is one of these, and he returns with 95 starts (out of a possible 95) in his resume and averaging 35.4 minutes per game. He is this team's leader, its motor and its choreographer, and right there to abet him is the junior forward John Shurna, who himself has started all 65 games of his college career.
A year ago he blossomed, finishing with an average of 18.2 and 6.4 rebounds per game, and last summer his hoops education was fast tracked while he was a member of the Select Team that scrimmaged against the NBA stars who went on to win the FIBA World Championship in Turkey. (You can't help but learn something while guarding Kevin Durant.) He is bigger now too and, after work on his dribbling, better at getting to the basket as well. "I'm not driving as much," he groused to Carmody after a recent practice.
"That's because guys are off you now. The first couple weeks (of practice), you were going to the hole all time time," answered the coach, testifying that Shurna now has an inside game to complement his jump shot.
Inside, too, is the place for the sophomore swingman Drew Crawford, a third 'Cat who has started every game (34) of his college career. He is more muscular now, up to 210 from last season's 185, and he is another who has worked on dribbling and posting up and doing damage around the basket since. "I don't want to have him turn into a suburban jump shooter, which he's capable of doing," explains Carmody. "He's got a nice little shot, but he's capable of doing other stuff. I want him to have balance."
Next to him down low is the 6-foot-11 junior center Luka Mirkovic (31 starts, 59 games played), who this season will be spelled by 6-foot-9 junior Davide Curletti (one start, 41 games played). "I don't think that center position, they don't have to dominate or anything," says Carmody. "If we get eight, 10 points, eight, 10 rebounds between them, that's good. They don't have to impact the game so much. Our centers are passers a lot and they have a lot of nice guys to pass to. So it's not that difficult. And the guys they're going to match up with, they can't let them go for 18 and 10. Those guys can't dominate us."
It is now, right here while filling out his hand, that Carmody finds himself blessed with options and the ability to adjust and adapt. He can go with 6-foot-3 sophomore guard Alex Marcotullio (34 games played), who gained international experience last summer playing for England; or he can go with the 6-foot-5 guard JerShon Cobb, the only freshman among this year's 'Cats; or he can slide Crawford out to guard and go big with 6-foot-6 forward Mike Cappoci (66 games played, five starts).
"Cappoci, I think, is going to play a lot more. Marcotullio, I want to get a lot out of him," Carmody muses, but the most intriguing of this trio is Cobb.
"He seems to finish plays," he says of him. "He's a good athlete. I don't think he's an explosive kind of guy. But he's a really good basketball player. He's a hard worker, he seems to get into the lane. He has that 12-footer. He gets in there, then he stops and he goes up. A lot of people say these days it's a layup or a three. I don't know if that's true. But I notice he does that. He gets in there, he doesn't always get to the hoop, but he always gets a good shot off. He has a knack for it. Some guys get in the lane, they can't get a good shot off. He manages to get off a good shot."
"He just brings his overall talent," Thompson says of Cobb. "He can score in many different ways. He has a knack for getting to the rim and making pull-up shots. And he plays defense really well. He's long, he moves his feet really well, he's going to help us a lot, especially in the 1-3-1 playing at the top."
And this flexibility around him, we wonder, how does that make his job?
Thompson flashes a full-court smile. "It," he then says, "makes it a lot easier. A lot."
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Each 'Cat knows the reality, knows it as well as the face that stares back at him from the mirror each morning, and so the subject can be broached without even intoning the words NCAA Tournament. It is the obvious goal. "It's," says Carmody, "what we want to do. I mean, 340 teams want to do it. But it's underscored with us because it hasn't happened. But Drew's been here one year and he got 20 wins. Shurna's been here two, he had 17 and then 20. They know the history, but they haven't been part of it. They've had some success. Same with Marcotullio. Cobb thinks he's good. That's good. I've told them. We've got to have a little chip on our shoulders, a little edge, because we've been through a lot, a lot of these guys."
Is it talked about much, we later ask Thompson.
"The obvious goal is there. But when we're not working as hard as we should, that's just a reminder to us," he says. "Someone will say it. 'We're the only team that hasn't made it to the NCAA Tournament. We need to get back on track.'"
And how often does that happen?
"We've been definitely working harder this year, harder than we have in previous years," The Juice of the 'Cats finally says. "Everyone's pushing each other and holding each other accountable, and that's needed in order for a team to be successful."
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