Northwestern University Athletics
Post Game Quotes
2/18/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 18, 2010
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Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody
Opening Statement...
"I thought Penn State played a good game. Everyone that has been playing them recently has been close. I've been watching them on tape and they look like a pretty good team, just haven't managed to win. It was a scary game for us. They came out right from the get-go and executed offensively very well against our match-up and 1-3-1, which was ineffective for the most part. I thought we had some energy out there and all. At the beginning of the game it was they score, we score, they score, we score, back and forth and we were never able to get any stops throughout the evening. Whatever we did they seemed to have an answer for it. I think in the 1-3-1, we didn't put enough pressure on the ball probably and there were just a little to comfortable against it. Defensively, it was bad and when it's close like that, we even had some open shots in the first half and even in the second half, but guys were missing pretty badly, it wasn't the in-and-out kind of shots, so I don't know what the cause of that was. They out-played us."
On the 1-3-1 zone and Talor Battle...
"I think it might have been a hold over from the Minnesota game when we were a little more flat. In the beginning we were going to play flat, but then [Talor] Battle was passing the ball pretty nicely over the top and they were finding guys in the lane. They just got too many easy looks against us. Usually guys will make threes against us, but they were getting the ball inside, throwing it over the top against us, which teams can do, but if you pressure the ball usually and their back is to the court a little bit it's a lot harder to see the guys that are open. But we weren't able to do that, and I think it was partly my fault. At halftime we tried to change, but it didn't seem like it was effective against them."
On the end of the game...
"Especially a team like Penn State's, they've been struggling at the end of games, and so I think there were six or five missed foul shots, missed three, and a missed two. You have to get them to the point where they're feeling tight, 'Oh this has happened before.' Then you get them within two. How are they going to behave? How are they going to respond? We weren't able to do that. I thought they handled it very well today."
On Penn State's lack of production...
"I've said all along in the last few days that some of these guys are good players and I'm surprised they haven't been more productive. I watch them on tape and the guys I've seen in the last few years, like I thought Battle did a nice job. He didn't force, he played smart...saw that they were going to win. He's been taking a little heat for doing too much. I just thought that he played a really nice full game today."
Penn State Head Coach Ed DeChellis
Opening Statement...
"We have played some good basketball throughout the season but we don't have anything to show for it. Our kids have always maintained great spirit. They've always continued to work hard in practice. We played some stretches where we played very well tonight. We've always had a stretch where, in three or four minutes, we couldn't score, where we couldn't defend well, where a tight game got away from us or somebody broke the game open. But our kids have maintained good spirit and good work ethic. It hasn't been easy for them but we're proud to come in here, play pretty well tonight and have the opportunity to win a game."
On attacking Northwestern's defense...
"Well, I think we made timely shots and that's something we haven't done. I think we made some big shots in critical times and that's something we haven't really done all year. We have to drive to the basket; we haven't been able to do it. I thought tonight we made some timely shots and shared the ball very well. We had 21 assists. That hasn't been a problem for us, but it's been making shots. You know I see the shirts out there "Make Shots" and we made shots. We made timely shots. [Chris] Babb hit a big three. [Babb] hit another baseline and got the two or four and those are timely shots. I thought we had good ball movement tonight."
On Talor Battle's condition...
"[Talor] had the flu today so he had a fever yesterday. [He] didn't do much. Today we worked with the doctors so we tried to nurse him back as best as we could. I thought he was very under control. He tried to do what he could do. He played a bunch. The other guys pitched in and did a wonderful job. It was a great team effort tonight by everybody who played in the game."
On beating the 1-3-1...
"Well, we worked really hard for two days on it. We thought we could sneak in from behind. You see it's not even a secret now. We could go high-low but we needed to get the ball closer. From the half-court line, we really concentrated on our guards pump faking and driving the gaps, getting it into the high post then going down low. Sometimes, I think the 1-3-1 has a tendency to push you out towards half court. We've been saying for two days that you want to go north and south. You want to go towards the basket with a guard shot-fake and drive it into those gaps. Then you can get it into the high post then the low post."
