Northwestern University Athletics
The Morning After... A Needed Victory
2/18/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 18, 2011
NUsports.com Special Contributor Skip Myslenski takes a look back at Northwestern's 73-70 victory over Iowa at Welsh-Ryan Arena Thursday night.
* Center Luka Mirkovic strolled into the interview room just minutes after Northwestern's Thursday night win over Iowa and then mounted a small stage and finally dropped into a seat. Coach Bill Carmody and point Michael Thompson and swingman Drew Crawford would soon join him, but here he was alone and looking out on a raft of faces. Suddenly, unprompted and with a small grin on his face, he leaned into a microphone and said, "I feel like Brett Favre right now."
"Does that mean you're going to retire?" someone shouted back.
"Yeah. Then I'll make a comeback," Mirkovic cracked, and now this little room was awash in laughter. We recount this scene to prove that it is not only the spoils that go to the victor. They also get the right to crack wise on a legend.
* Often, this season, the 'Cats have pointed out just how important a fast start is to their ultimate prospects in a game. Against the Hawkeyes, they jumped out to a 13-point lead before even eight minutes were gone. Often, this season, fans have walked around Welsh-Ryan Arena fashioning purple tee-shirts whose fronts were emblazoned with the order to "Make Shots." Against the Hawkeyes, the 'Cats made six of their first 10 three-point attempts and this is how they built their lead.
But while all of that was going on, we most remembered an observation we have heard Carmody make countless times in the course of many seasons. The occasion for it is usually a discussion of just what is a good shot, as the talking heads like to say, and here is eyes will twinkle and his wry sense of humor will introduce itself and he will shake his head slowly and say simply, "You know what a good shot is? A good shot is one that goes in." So finally, against the Hawkeyes, the 'Cats took good shots.
* "It was real important for us to get this win," Carmody said Thursday night as part of his opening statement.
We wondered if there was something beyond the obvious that made it so important.
"Well," he said, "we've lost a few in a row. How many have we lost? Too many. Too many. No. This team isn't quitting. There's been injuries and different things, and you like to see them fight, fight, and I thought they came out and did a nice job. Iowa did too. Iowa did too."
* Iowa did indeed fight back and, at the half, trailed by only two. Thompson was on his way to scoring 16 points and handing out nine assists while committing no turnovers in 37 minutes. "I was just trying to attack the basket and find my teammates, and they did a good job of getting open. When everyone found each other, everyone did a good job of making shots," he would later say. Crawford was on his way to scoring 15 points and grabbing five rebounds and handing out four assists and making four steals. "A lot of times before the game, Coach Carmody will tell me, 'stuff the stat sheet' is what he says. That's going out and having energy and being all over the floor. A lot of us did that tonight, so it was good," he would say. The 'Cats were on their way to putting four guys in double figures and making a dozen of their 28 three-point attempts (42.9 percent), but still they could not shake the Hawkeyes.
Now, like a bad odor, they simply lingered, taking the lead 90 seconds into the second half, losing it over the next 40 seconds to a John Shurna dunk and a Crawford layup, then hanging around, hanging around, hanging around and never trailing by more than six as this game entered its final four minutes.
"We talked about having a good start a bunch of times and we got a really good start tonight," Carmody would say. "Opened up a big lead and we told our guys, it's happened throughout the conference this year, a team gets a big lead and the other team makes a run. That's what happened tonight. They really came back on us and weren't able to get over the hump. I'm just glad we were able to make some plays and hang in there at the end."
"We just tried to stay aggressive," Thompson would then explain. "Every team makes their run, just like we did at the beginning. Iowa did a good job of battling back and making it a close game. From there, we just kept our composure, came up with some defensive stops at the end and made some big plays."
* The 'Cat lead was three and the game clock was under two minutes and the shot clock was at something like 20 seconds when the ball reached Mirkovic at the top of the circle. Often, from here, he looks to pass to Thompson and let the point make the play. Often, in this situation, a team looks to milk more time and go when the shot clock is in single digits. But here, calmly and without a blink, Mirkovic squared up and shot a three. It would be the last of those dozen the 'Cats converted this night. "No. Not really," he would say when asked if he had any hesitation in taking it. "To be honest, I've been working on my shot as of late and getting a lot of shots up before and after practice. So I was pretty confident when I shot it."
Did it feel good when it left his hand?
"Yeah. Yeah. It felt pretty good. Again, I just try to work on that a lot so I can help my teammates space the floor. Luckily, it went in."
* The 'Cat lead was three and 3.3 seconds remained and, from under the 'Cat basket, the Hawkeye Zach McCabe threw a Hail Mary down the court toward his center Jarryd Cole. It was long, just a touch long, and from his spot behind Cole, Shurna tipped it away and into the hands of Crawford, who curled over the ball as time expired. Recalling their late-game strategy against Illinois, we later wondered if the 'Cats would have intentionally fouled if the Hawkeyes had inbounded the back in their backcourt.
Carmody, smiling, leaned into his microphone and said simply, "I'm not telling you everything."
* So, yes, the victors get to crack wise on legends and humble scribblers both. But at nine Friday morning, a mere 11 hours after finishing up their win, the 'Cats were back at practice and then it was onto a bus for a 250-mile ride to Bloomington and a Saturday affair meeting Indiana. "It's bad scheduling," Carmody, not smiling now, would say of this quick turnaround. "You're supposed to have a minimum of two days in between for practice. This is just one day and you're traveling four-and-a-half hours. It's not right. I'm not going to let these guys use it as an excuse. But Iowa could have come here last night. So that bothers me."
