Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern vs. American- Post Game Quotes
12/16/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Northwestern vs. American
Welsh-Ryan Arena
Dec. 16, 2010
Postgame Quotes
Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody
Opening statement...
"That's a real good team. Three years ago they were in the (NCAA) tournament, two years ago they were in the tournament. Last year they weren't, but I think they will be this year. They're a veteran team of seniors and juniors and a couple of fifth-year guys. I think they're good. The first half was back and forth. It didn't seem like either team could stop the other. But then in the second half there were a couple of timeouts. There was one after six minutes, I think, and they had only scored four points, and then it was eight minutes at least and they had 40 and they had 34 at the half. So the defense tightened up. It was some combination of them missing some shots and our defense, but I just thought that's basically what we talked about at halftime. We're playing this combination and we've got to figure out how it's going to work, and that was the difference. I was just told that they were 3-for-17 coming out of the locker room in the second half. I thought it was a nice team effort. Different guys came in and did well. I thought Luka (Mirkovic) was terrific out there. There was a stretch where he got five or six two-handed rebounds in a row. We've struggled the last few years, not last year as much, with playing good defense and they miss and they get the rebound. We've been telling the team that rebounding is part of defense. They only had six offensive rebounds, which in dog years is great for us. I was really happy with the way the guys played and now we just have to keep it going because I didn't want to go to the 1-3-1 zone and we didn't have to."
On his thoughts about this year's team...
"There's a good feeling in this team. When you're together for four months or so, things are going good and not so good, and you're mad at this guy...You don't have knuckleheads on this team. It's a very coachable team, and that's a good thing. Guys are trying to get better and I'm happy that they hit their milestones and all, but I'm more happy that we're 7-0.
On playing at Madison Square Garden next week...
"It's great. That was the place to play. This is the new Garden, which is now the old Garden, I guess. The Holiday Festival is probably the original Christmas holiday tournament. Great teams have played at the Garden and the Knickerbockers still play there. It's a great place; the mecca of basketball. The history is unbelievable. I think our guys are anxious to do that, just to say you played in the Garden, it's pretty nice."
