Northwestern University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
2/24/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 24, 2011
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Northwestern vs. Penn State
Feb. 24, 2011
Welsh-Ryan Arena
Postgame Quotes
Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody
Opening statement...
"A horrible start to the game; 18 to 2. We started playing defense and that brought us back in to the game so we were only down three at half. But we said all along it's not the defense we can play for 30 minutes or so and it did what it was supposed to do. And the second half, we did okay for a little bit there. We got (the deficit) to three a few times, and we got to one, too. We got some good looks from our shooters. We just couldn't get over the hump. We were 6-for-24 for 3's. But we had a lot of good looks I think Mike [Thompson] was the only one making them I think, though."
On if he thinks if they had been able to take the lead if it would have gotten them over the hump...
"I don't know about over the hump, but if you score there is pressure on the other team. When you're not making shots then they're not tight when they're on offense. There are so many chances to make stops. In that second half it was pretty even. We just need to put the ball in the basket."
On if the team's defensive strategy was different early on...
"It wasn't too much different. We're trying to hold our zone a little more, but they sort of tore it apart."
Penn State Head Coach Ed DeChellis
Opening Statement...
"I was really proud of our kids. I told them the other day that it was a three-game season. We're all fighting for our lives to make the NCAA tournament and we had three games, and you have to take one at a time, but we had to come here and win. Our kids were ready to play. They came out of the gate pretty strong, and then we were ready to hold on and get a win so I'm really proud of them, and now we move on to another day."
On the fast start...
"It was important to us. The last two road games we haven't started very well and it was really disappointing so we just said that we have some seniors and they just have to be ready to play, and I thought that Northwestern would come out and have a lot of juice and a lot of energy and I though that we had to match that that energy and be ready to play, and I thought they did a nice job tonight, and we held on."
On stifling defense...
"We pushed out to three. They didn't get a whole lot of backdoor cuts. We tried stay between them and the basket as much as we can. We don't gap it for this game so we just try to stay between them and the basket. We work on that aspect of things. We try to give ball pressure. We really try to pressure the ball as best we can and get our hands up to discourage the passes, so we try to play the passing hand as much as we can and some days it works and some days it doesn't. Today it worked."
