Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Hold Media Day in Advance of 2015-16 Season
10/27/2015 5:15:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Northwestern hosts Quincy in exhibition play Nov. 5
WATCH: C. Collins | B. McIntosh | S. Lumpkin | V. Law | A. Falzon
NUsports.com Special Contributor Skip Myslenski reports from Media Day for the Northwestern men's basketball team in advance of next Thursday's exhibition game against Quincy.
The very best of basketball programs, programs like those at Duke, are imbued with a culture whose caretakers are the players themselves. They nurture it and fertilize it and teach it to newcomers, they preach it and reflect it and make sure that their teammates do as well. "The good teams that I've had over the years," the legendary Bob Knight once recalled, "have had players on them, I'd just simply say, 'You better make damn sure Jones is straightened out' and, I mean, Jones would be straightened out in a heartbeat."
"Every program talks about culture," 'Cat coach Chris Collins himself say on Tuesday. "For ours, I felt this off-season, coming into this year, our culture was in a good spot as far as guys holding each other accountable for what I want day-in and day-out. To me, those are the best teams. The best teams are the ones where the guys take care of a lot of that stuff, and all the coaches have to worry about is coaching. If a coach has to worry about attitudes and effort and enthusiasm and all those things, then you're taking away time from actually teaching and coaching. Then it's very hard to win."
He, of course, played at Duke and was an assistant there too, and so he knows full well the importance of players owning their locker room, owning their team. It was no wonder, then, that all through this off-season he nudged them to do just that, nudged them to take establish their culture. He had them choose the word they would shout when they broke a huddle. He had them come up with the list of standards that defined the way they went about their business. He had each of them, one-by-one, get up in front of his teammates and define his role, define what he would do to help make the whole successful. "Little things that will hopefully help," explained Collins.
And do the players now own this team?
"I hope so. I hope so," he said. "That's a huge thing. I talk about it all the time. That's when you know you've finally got something good going, when you hear in a film session or hear in a team meeting-- instead of me having to bring up everything, you hear somebody else bring it up."
"I really think we do," the point Bryant McIntosh would later say when asked the same question. "It's a day-to-day process, though. We've put it on ourselves, every day we come into practice, we make sure we're all accountable and we're ready to go. That's different than it's been. But it's a day-to-day process. We take big steps forward, and then we might take a step back and he has to point it out, he has to talk to us about it.
"But I think we have taken a big step toward that."
**********
The 'Cats hosted the basketball media on Tuesday, and over an hour any number of topics were discussed and dissected. Each will certainly be a factor in their imminent season, which they open at home on Nov. 13 against UMass-Lowell. But as relevant as -- and arguably more relevant than -- scheme and strategy is this matter of player ownership, and the answers the players gave when Collins nudged them toward that.
"You figure out what you want to say. You let me know," he said when telling them to choose the word they would shout when breaking a huddle.
That word they chose was, "Family."
"Which I like," said Collins. "They said family is there for each other through everything. Family's not afraid to say tough things to each other. And at the end of the day, family's what you have."
"We are kind of a family here," explained the swingman Vic Law. "A lot of people don't expect us to do much, but we know how we want to play and what we want to do. So what happens here, stays here, and we hold each other accountable for everything that happens. If no one else has you, your teammates will have you."
"We wanted to be a closer-knit team this year, and it was important we established that right from the get-go," added McIntosh. "I felt like last year we were close, but we could have been better about it. We could have understood each other more, could have known how to talk to each other better. This year we've taken a big step forward in understanding how to communicate better with each other."
They took a step too when Collins had them come up with the list of standards that defined the way they went about their business. "Some of those were obviously be prepared for every day, have fun winning the fight every day," recounted Law. "Understand that it's a process. Understand that everyday is not going to go the way you want it to, but that everyday you still need to get better. It's not always going to be easy. It's not always going to be pretty. But when you build something from the bottom up, you need to build a firm base and you need to continue to build. I think we all understand our brand of basketball and how we have to play, and to be a blue-collar team and to be tough, we have to start somewhere. I think we have a good start now."
"And defense does matter. It's our calling card," picked up McIntosh. "And speak the truth. Basically, you've got to be truthful with each other. You can't sugarcoat things. You need to be able to communicate. That was one of our things. If we're going to be a family, we have to be able to communicate with each other on and off the floor. It (the list) was things we was things we wanted our team to be about in order for us to be at our best."
**********
This concept of family, which if the very foundation upon which these 'Cats will be built, is on the surface nothing but that, a concept. But it should not be discounted, and here is why. It can have very tangible effects once play begins. "Chemistry, of course, comes from being a family...and just being really locked in together," explained Vic Law. "When you have a team full of individuals, it doesn't really work. But when you have a team that's a team, a collective unit, everything works much better."
"A family is somebody you trust. They're always there for you," added the center Alex Olah. "That's who we are. On defense, we trust if somebody blows by us, then they're going to be there. I trust that, if I make a move and I don't have a shot, a guy will be there for me (to pass to). I know my guys, my teammates have my back. That's what a family is. We fight together. We win together. We lose together. We take shots. It's not your shot. It's ours."
"The best way I know how to explain it is when you want the guy next to you to do well, that becomes a contagious thing," Bryant McIntosh then concluded. "You want everyone to achieve whatever they're looking to do. Like I want Tre (Demps) to have an incredible senior year, I want him to be able to score. That's kind of what makes him tick, and I want him to be able to do that. I want Olah to be the assertive big man he can be, and I want him to do great.
"When you want others to do great, then greatness just kind of comes out of everyone."
NUsports.com Special Contributor Skip Myslenski reports from Media Day for the Northwestern men's basketball team in advance of next Thursday's exhibition game against Quincy.
The very best of basketball programs, programs like those at Duke, are imbued with a culture whose caretakers are the players themselves. They nurture it and fertilize it and teach it to newcomers, they preach it and reflect it and make sure that their teammates do as well. "The good teams that I've had over the years," the legendary Bob Knight once recalled, "have had players on them, I'd just simply say, 'You better make damn sure Jones is straightened out' and, I mean, Jones would be straightened out in a heartbeat."
"Every program talks about culture," 'Cat coach Chris Collins himself say on Tuesday. "For ours, I felt this off-season, coming into this year, our culture was in a good spot as far as guys holding each other accountable for what I want day-in and day-out. To me, those are the best teams. The best teams are the ones where the guys take care of a lot of that stuff, and all the coaches have to worry about is coaching. If a coach has to worry about attitudes and effort and enthusiasm and all those things, then you're taking away time from actually teaching and coaching. Then it's very hard to win."
He, of course, played at Duke and was an assistant there too, and so he knows full well the importance of players owning their locker room, owning their team. It was no wonder, then, that all through this off-season he nudged them to do just that, nudged them to take establish their culture. He had them choose the word they would shout when they broke a huddle. He had them come up with the list of standards that defined the way they went about their business. He had each of them, one-by-one, get up in front of his teammates and define his role, define what he would do to help make the whole successful. "Little things that will hopefully help," explained Collins.
And do the players now own this team?
"I hope so. I hope so," he said. "That's a huge thing. I talk about it all the time. That's when you know you've finally got something good going, when you hear in a film session or hear in a team meeting-- instead of me having to bring up everything, you hear somebody else bring it up."
"I really think we do," the point Bryant McIntosh would later say when asked the same question. "It's a day-to-day process, though. We've put it on ourselves, every day we come into practice, we make sure we're all accountable and we're ready to go. That's different than it's been. But it's a day-to-day process. We take big steps forward, and then we might take a step back and he has to point it out, he has to talk to us about it.
"But I think we have taken a big step toward that."
**********
The 'Cats hosted the basketball media on Tuesday, and over an hour any number of topics were discussed and dissected. Each will certainly be a factor in their imminent season, which they open at home on Nov. 13 against UMass-Lowell. But as relevant as -- and arguably more relevant than -- scheme and strategy is this matter of player ownership, and the answers the players gave when Collins nudged them toward that.
"You figure out what you want to say. You let me know," he said when telling them to choose the word they would shout when breaking a huddle.
That word they chose was, "Family."
"Which I like," said Collins. "They said family is there for each other through everything. Family's not afraid to say tough things to each other. And at the end of the day, family's what you have."
"We are kind of a family here," explained the swingman Vic Law. "A lot of people don't expect us to do much, but we know how we want to play and what we want to do. So what happens here, stays here, and we hold each other accountable for everything that happens. If no one else has you, your teammates will have you."
"We wanted to be a closer-knit team this year, and it was important we established that right from the get-go," added McIntosh. "I felt like last year we were close, but we could have been better about it. We could have understood each other more, could have known how to talk to each other better. This year we've taken a big step forward in understanding how to communicate better with each other."
They took a step too when Collins had them come up with the list of standards that defined the way they went about their business. "Some of those were obviously be prepared for every day, have fun winning the fight every day," recounted Law. "Understand that it's a process. Understand that everyday is not going to go the way you want it to, but that everyday you still need to get better. It's not always going to be easy. It's not always going to be pretty. But when you build something from the bottom up, you need to build a firm base and you need to continue to build. I think we all understand our brand of basketball and how we have to play, and to be a blue-collar team and to be tough, we have to start somewhere. I think we have a good start now."
"And defense does matter. It's our calling card," picked up McIntosh. "And speak the truth. Basically, you've got to be truthful with each other. You can't sugarcoat things. You need to be able to communicate. That was one of our things. If we're going to be a family, we have to be able to communicate with each other on and off the floor. It (the list) was things we was things we wanted our team to be about in order for us to be at our best."
**********
This concept of family, which if the very foundation upon which these 'Cats will be built, is on the surface nothing but that, a concept. But it should not be discounted, and here is why. It can have very tangible effects once play begins. "Chemistry, of course, comes from being a family...and just being really locked in together," explained Vic Law. "When you have a team full of individuals, it doesn't really work. But when you have a team that's a team, a collective unit, everything works much better."
"A family is somebody you trust. They're always there for you," added the center Alex Olah. "That's who we are. On defense, we trust if somebody blows by us, then they're going to be there. I trust that, if I make a move and I don't have a shot, a guy will be there for me (to pass to). I know my guys, my teammates have my back. That's what a family is. We fight together. We win together. We lose together. We take shots. It's not your shot. It's ours."
"The best way I know how to explain it is when you want the guy next to you to do well, that becomes a contagious thing," Bryant McIntosh then concluded. "You want everyone to achieve whatever they're looking to do. Like I want Tre (Demps) to have an incredible senior year, I want him to be able to score. That's kind of what makes him tick, and I want him to be able to do that. I want Olah to be the assertive big man he can be, and I want him to do great.
"When you want others to do great, then greatness just kind of comes out of everyone."
••••••
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