Northwestern University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
11/19/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 19, 2010
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Northwestern vs. Arkansas Pine-Bluff
Welsh-Ryan Arena
Nov. 19, 2010
Postgame Quotes
Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody
Opening Statement...
"Well, it was a much better start than we've had our first couple games. [John] Shurna had been letting the game come to him a little too much, so we talked about it, and he got some rebounds, got the ball up to Mike [Thompson], and was finding guys in transition. Johnny [Shurna] and Drew [Crawford] got some looks down the sideline and knocked them down. It's great when that happens because then you don't have to run through your offense to get easy looks. We can make shots, and Mike [Thompson] makes good decisions on the break, so we feel pretty confident that if there is something there we'll take it. I think our defense was a lot better tonight than it has been; we sort of packed it in a little bit. We only had one practice last night from our previous game down at [Texas] Pan-Am, but we just talked about it a little bit. Guys watched some tape from previous years, and saw the way things were; we certainly have some work to do in that area. But it was good to get everyone in the game and give our guys some rest, because they've been going pretty good. I'm going to give them the weekend off, certainly tomorrow, and Mikey [Thompson] can have Sunday off too right? Then we have a little break, so from Monday on we can get down to business and work on our defense."
On the defensive performance...
"It is a work in progress, we've got to get better and better. I think tonight was a little bit better, but we'll really go to work on it next week."
On team improvements from the win over Texas Pan-American (11/17) ...
"These guys didn't make shots like Pan-Am did. Pan-Am basically played four guards, and it was a tough matchup for us. They spread the court, and it was hard. I thought we did a better job tonight. [John] Shurna was much better on defense tonight, and he's working at it, but you've got these long-legged guys that have a hard time getting down there. Mike [Thompson] is a solid defender, he has no problem there, but we're going to spend time on our defense. To be really good, that's what you have to have; you have to have two defenses."
On the performance of JerShon Cobb...
"I thought he was very good, he actually practiced last night. He hadn't practiced a full practice in about eight or nine days I'd say. He had some repetitions for a couple practices but not enough. Last night he was sweating; he wasn't happy that he didn't play that much the other night, so he worked hard yesterday in practice and I thought he was very good tonight. He got some rebounds; he was on the floor for some loose balls. He's still got a lot to learn, but I think he's a gamer."
