Northwestern University Athletics
Myslenski: Shurna's Emergence Helps NU Stay in Contention
2/13/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 13, 2010
NUsports.com special correspondent Skip Myslenski chimes in on the emergence of sophomore forward John Shurna who has played a key role in the Wildcats overcoming early-season injuries to remain in contention for the NCAA tournament.
Bill Carmody, the 'Cat basketball coach, eschews both obfuscation and glib answers that ignore reality. It is no surprise, then, that he says this when asked about his team's game Sunday with Minnesota. "It's an important game, yeah. We have to win this game. And so do they, so do they. That's good. Every conference across the country, you see four teams in the middle of the conference and you have three-and-a-half weeks left (in the regular season) and some are going up and some are going down and you don't even know. That's where we are."
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It is, to its credit, remarkable that his team is in a position to even have an important game in mid-February and to entertain visions of a tournament bid. To understand, think back to the struggles Ohio State endured when it lost its star Evan Turner. Then consider Michigan State's more-recent failures without its own star, Kalin Lucas. That is just the kind of loss the 'Cats suffered when Kevin Coble went down mere days before this season's start, yet they have endured and surprised and on occasion shone in the wake of both his injury and the one that cost them Jeff Ryan in their opener. "It was a tough thing," admits point Michael Thompson, thinking back. "But everyone on the team came together and just that bond off the court is so strong now and it's just a reflection of how we are on the court. Everyone likes each other and feeds off each other and we're just really playing well together."
"I think we as a team felt, well, now we're going to have to come even more together to get this done," says forward John Shurna. "Kevin, obviously played a big part in scoring and things like that. We realized we were going to have to come through and do this together."
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Thompson, a junior, and the senior guard Jeremy Nash were the adhesives that bound these 'Cats together. They, by all testament, stepped forward and figuratively grabbed their teammates by the shirt collar and demanded they take responsibility for their season, no matter how fractured their prospects then appeared. "He," Shurna says of Thompson, "might not yell as much. But he has high expectations and you don't want to disappoint him. He sees things and he'll get you in places where you can finish and where you can make plays. You don't want to disappoint him."
But it was Shurna, the 6-foot-8 sophomore, who himself most metamorphosed and emerged as a most-unlikely looking force whose name is now scattered among the Big Ten's statistical leaders. He is fourth in scoring at 17.7 ppg. He is seventh in rebounding with 6.5 per game. He averages 2.21 threes per game, fifth best in the league, and 35.96 minutes per game, which is sixth best. He is, at tenth, even among its best in blocks. "He's been coming up huge for us," Thompson says of him.
"One thing is, he's playing more minutes," Carmody says when asked to explain Shurna's emergence. "He was in foul trouble (last year) at different times. He was just, you know, he was a freshman. So he had good games and bad games, sort of like Drew (Crawford) this year. A lot of freshmen are like that. But this year, from the get-go in practice, he's just been very good. People have a hard time stopping him. He makes shots. He can score around the basket. He gets to the basket too. So maybe it's just natural maturation."
Is he surprised by that?
"Yeah. Yeah. Just the consistency of it again. He's able to do it game in, game out pretty much and practice in, practice out. Coaches, you say you play the way you practice. With him, it's pretty true. What he's doing in games he's doing in practice."
"I don't know that I've surprised myself," Shurna himself says when asked the same question. "As a competitor, you always feel you can win, you can compete with anyone. I've done well in games this year, which is good. But I'm just trying to help the team win."
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His shot is unorthodox and his manner his meek and his appearance hardly resembles that of a notable baller. Even Shurna himself recognizes that last fact and, with a big laugh, says, "I hear a lot of comments, I hear stuff from other fans. But it's kind of fun."
What kind of stuff?
"I have a baby face, so everyone gives me a hard time about that. 'How's eighth grade?' Stuff like that. I just smile. I think it's funny. I think it's fun when fans are into the game. I don't take it to heart, really. It makes for a better atmosphere."
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You've been playing your butt off, John Shurna is told.
"I think," he says, "it's just been guys have been finding me in position to score. I think other guys trust me to try and make plays."
Does he trust himself more?
"With my teammates trusting me, I've probably been working harder to make sure I can keep their trust. You don't want to disappoint everyone else on the team."
Does that help his confidence?
"You have to play with a certain amount of confidence in order to make things work. People are trusting you and having confidence in you, then you have to have the same amount of confidence in order to get the job done."
Does Carmody see that trust emanating toward Shurna from his teammates?
"We come into the huddle," says he, "this is probably at the beginning of the Big Ten season, and Jeremy and Mike, I always ask those guys, 'What do we want to go with here, fellas?' They're calling his play. 'Post John. Let's run him off that pick.' I try to give my guards a lot of freedom there and I usually go with what they say. So there is that trust. He hears it right there. I do think we have a few go-to guys, in some ways. But he's certainly one of them."
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His nod to his teammates is one reflection of John Shurna's self-effacement in the face of his sudden notoriety. Another arises when he is asked about that attention he is suddenly receiving. "I'm not embarrassed by it," he will say. "But my teammates deserve just as much credit. Juice is one of the most underrated players. He's the one who makes everything work. When he's in foul trouble, our offense doesn't flow as well and everyone has a much tougher time playing. So I think it should just be a credit to our team as a whole playing well."
Does he even think about that attention?
"It's not really my thing. I just want to win. I could care less as long as we keep winning."
"That fits his character," Carmody will say when told of Shurna's reluctance to bathe in the spotlight. "That's exactly how he is. He's a really caring guy, a humble guy, sort of quiet. A little Clark Kent. A little mild-mannered. But he's a competitor. He's a competitor from the word go. He doesn't like to lose."
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He has helped sustain a season that once appeared dead on arrival, has helped carry the 'Cats to their most-important game on Sunday, and so John Shurna is finally asked how it feels to be part that ever-evolving drama he did so much to author. "It's fun," he says. "Before, when I came to visit, what I remember is coming to a Purdue game when I was in high school, it was sold out with Purdue fans. If felt like a neutral court. Now, our Illinois game, it's sold out, it's packed in with our fans, everyone's going wild, we storm the court. It's just fun to have that atmosphere. It's fun to have people excited about our team."
"I think we're really doing pretty nicely," Carmody will conclude when asked about that team. "I guess the expectations were pretty good coming into the season. Then when the guys went down, that changed. But the guys have shown that they can handle it and that they are good and they've accepted responsibility for the wins and the losses. They're doing a great job."
