Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern vs. Eastern Illinois - Quotes
12/18/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 18, 2011
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Evanston, Ill. - Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody
Opening Statement...
"I didn't think we played with urgency defensively in the first half. I thought Eastern played harder than us; they were prepared. They were beating us to loose balls. They did extremely well, and they just seemed quicker. I think in the second half, right from the get-go, we played with a little more edge and hardness there at the defensive end, and that helped us with the offensive end. We were able to throw the ball down to Luka (Mirkovic) all night, which was good. When you can throw it down there and work behind the defense, I think that's very important. And then John (Shurna)-well the odds are he had to make some shots tonight, let's face it. He banged some shots, and people say. 'Did you talk to him or anything?' and, no, of course I didn't talk to him, I wouldn't know what to say. I can't con him into saying, 'you're alright kid,' or anything like that because he'd know I was just trying to fool him. So he came back tonight on his own and it was good to see."
On the play of freshman Dave Sobolewski...
My feeling is, he's playing with a lot of veterans on the front line. These two guys (Shurna and Mirkovic) and Drew (Crawford). So he doesn't have to do too much, and that's what I want. He's really taking care of the ball, and he gets four or five shots a game, maybe, and he's shooting the ball well, which is great. He doesn't turn it over, which pleases me, because I think if we don't turn it over, we're going to get some pretty good looks. I feel confident in our team offensively. I'm happy with his play."
On the second-half spark...
"I really think it was our defense. It just seemed like we played harder, and they had a harder time getting good shots. When we got a little bit of a lead, like 14 points or so, they were still executing pretty decently. But it just seemed like our defense was a little better so that helped our offense."
