Northwestern University Athletics
Law Starting to Come Into His Own
2/25/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
He is surely the best player on his team, is usually the best player on any court he graces, and those myriad recruiting services out there fawn over his skills and festoon their reports on him with countless stars. But then that high school senior reaches college and is confronted with this stark reality. He is not the Chosen One. "It's tough to deal with mentally," remembers `Cat senior JerShon Cobb, who was once one of those. "You're so used to being able to do whatever you want to do on the court, to letting your talent make up for mistakes, to not playing as hard, and then you get here, if you don't play as hard, it's going to show. It's going to show with you not playing well."
"In high school, you could come into practice and not practice as hard as you could be, but on talent alone, you could get by day-to-day," echoes `Cat freshman Vic Law, himself one of those just a year ago. "But here you have to prepare the right way. You have to do so many little things time and time again to be able to compete at your best. That's a big part of the process young players have to learn, young players like myself have to learn. It took longer than I wanted it to. But I think I'm finally getting it."
"He is getting that," Cobb will agree. "He can be a great player. I think he can be a special player. And that he's getting that now, it's great. It's not like he wasted this year. He's starting to get it now. He's gaining momentum into next year. I think he realizes what he has to do to be a good player."
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Two weeks ago, after his team dropped its 10th straight, Chris Collins held a team meeting. "He asked all his players to step up, really," remembers Vic Law. "In my mind, I was one of the players ready to do that the most. I feel like I was really struggling and, in the games I struggled, the team also struggled."
"The main thing with Vic was to just keep working. I wanted him to realize that this is a process," Collins will say when asked his message to Law during those struggles. "I talked about it early in the season. I gave him countless examples of guys that are great players in this league right now that struggled as freshmen. The Kaminskys (Wisconsin All-American Frank). The Petteways (Nebraska star Terran). You go down the list. You give tangible examples of guys he plays against that he views as really good and let him know, `Look. This is a process and the only way to get better is you get in the gym and work. And you keep your attitude.' And that's what he's done."
Law did indeed do that during his struggles and then, before the next `Cat game after that team meeting, he did something else as well. He warmed up with a focus and a purpose that had been previously missing. That night, against Iowa at Welsh-Ryan, his minutes were limited by early foul trouble and that approach would not pay dividends. But he encored his new routine three nights later at Minnesota, where he scored nine points on 60 percent shooting, and did the same last Saturday before it met Penn State at home, where he was transcendent while piling up 17 points and 11 rebounds and two steals and a block.
Why did it take him so long to get into that focused pre-game routine?
"That's a good question," he allows.
"I think as a young guy you don't realize how important it is," says Cobb, offering an elder's perspective. "He's a great player. High school, AAU, he's been able to just go out and just play. But when you get to this level, especially in the Big Ten, everybody's good. You're not going to be able to just come out and just play. You've got to get ready. You've got to get ready for a war."
"Guys who come to this level, they're all the best players on their high school teams," adds Collins. "They're All-Area players or All-Staters. No matter what, their talent could always push them through. I think with Vic, it was the first time he got to a level where everybody's good and everybody's as talented as he is. I think that was the thing that knocked him back, and it knocks a lot of freshmen back.
"Then you learn about yourself. You learn what you have to get better at. You learn where you're struggling, then you get to work. That's what's been great about his development. He's kept a good attitude even though his confidence might have wavered at times, and he's gotten in the gym, and he's gotten better. That's why he's being rewarded, and he's going to continue to get better. The thing for him right now is to not lose sight of that formula. Now that you're playing better and your confidence is back, don't revert back to being that guy you were before you got really focused."
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`Cat football coach Pat Fitzgerald often opines, "The hardest thing for a young player coming in is learning just how hard it is to be successful at this level."
"Hit the nail on the head right there," Vic Law says when told that. "A lot of players, coming to college, they might think their athleticism and talent will get them by day in and day out. But they'll find out for themselves that they're surely mistaken. It's hard work and dedication and preparation that go into the game. There aren't people in the stands everyday when you're getting better (at those things) that propel you forward to have a good game when they finally do fill the stands. Now what I'm learning is the more time and the more work I put in, the better games I'm going to have and the more it's going to pay off. So I'm just working hard everyday, just playing the best that I can to help this team."
But back in October you thought you were working hard.
"Yeah."
And now?
"Not hard enough," Vic Law finally says. "I think even today I'm not working hard enough. So I'm going to keep working harder."
NOTES: Cobb will miss his fifth straight game Wednesday when the `Cats face Indiana at Welsh-Ryan, but could play Saturday at Illinois. "We'll see how he's feeling," said Collins. . . Freshman forward Scottie Lindsey suffered a thigh contusion in the `Cat win over Penn State, but should be ready for the Hoosiers.
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