Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Law and Company Return to Welsh-Ryan Arena
11/11/2016 8:30:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Skip Myslenski
NUSports.com Special Contributor
Twelve months ago, after performing in the Wildcats' exhibition game against Quincy University, Vic Law confronted a double dose of agony. There was, first of all, the physical kind, the kind that accompanied the torn labrum he had suffered in his left shoulder some five weeks earlier. He had tried to play through that, but the pain had been searing, and so now he faced another kind of agony, the mental kind that comes with opting for a surgery that would sideline him for a season. "I was really stressed out about making my decision on whether I would have surgery or not," he said this week when asked to compare his feelings then and now. "Now I'm excited to be playing."
Did he ever get depressed during those long months when he wasn't playing?
"Nah. I was pretty happy with my team," he insisted. "Last year was the first year I think that we won 20 games (in the regular season). I was happy with our success. The only time I was slightly upset is when we lost because I always put so much pressure on myself, thinking if I was out there I could help my team win. But, no, I wasn't depressed. I was just hungry to get back out there."
What did he miss most?
"Just the adrenaline of playing. Going to a big stadium or playing here against big teams. Just having that rush when you're playing well and you're hot and you're team's winning. That feeling of excitement and adrenaline is the biggest thing I missed."
Now, on this Friday night at Welsh-Ryan, Vic Law again will have the chance to experience that rush when he and the 'Cats kick off their new season against Mississippi Valley State. Then Monday, again at home, they face Eastern Washington before traveling for a game at Butler and for two in Brooklyn in the Legends Classic. "It's going to be a really important the first couple weeks of the season, and especially here these first two games, for us to come out of the gate and try to play well and take care of our home court before we hit the road," head coach Chris Collins said.
Collins is at the front end of his fourth season with the 'Cats and the cast he now directs is filled with familiar names. There are the seniors Sanjay Lumpkin and Nathan Taphorn.
There are the juniors Scottie Lindsey and Gavin Skelly. "Their production is going to be huge," Collins said of them.
There are the sophomores Aaron Falzon, the marksman, and Dererk Pardon, the big man. "A big key to our success, no question," he said of the latter. "His athleticism and size and activity around the basket, shot blocking — all those things are huge. Last year he had a penchant to get in foul trouble a lot, and I think he's really worked hard, studied film on how to play smarter this year. He knows. He knows we need him on the floor for heavy minutes."
There is their choreographer, the junior Bryant McIntosh. "He's a much-improved defender," Collins said of him. "He's really guarding his position well so far this summer and fall. He's much more instinctive on that end. He's stronger. He's rebounding better. I think those little things, those dirty work type plays, charges, loose balls, long rebounds — we know what he's going to do in the offense. He runs our offense to a T, the maestro of the pick-and-roll, all those things. His next step is to do some of those things I talked about, and if you look at him physically, he looks much stronger. He looks older. He's got more of a man's body now, and I think that will help him with the physicality."
There is one new name that promises to be in the mix, the freshman guard Isiah Brown, whom Law describes as, "A little spark plug. The energy and excitement he brings, I think everybody feeds off it."
Then, of course, there is Law himself. He finally underwent surgery for his torn labrum on November 17, returned to his family's home for just a few days and was then back at school, where he immediately began his rehabilitation. "Staying committed to it, doing it every day," he will say when asked the hardest part of that chore. "Sometimes you just want to go and watch practice or focus on the game. But you've got to do your rehabilitation. It's just as important as being with the team."
He began shooting, he recalled, some four months after undergoing surgery, and then labored with the rest of the 'Cats toward this Friday night and the start of a new season. "They've been working so hard all summer, all fall, then you get in that first game, inherently you're going to be a little bit more nervous because it is the first game of the year," Collins said this week, thinking ahead to that moment. "What I trying to do is talk to them about, throw yourself into the game. That's been a big focus. Trying to play loose. Even though you're locked in and you're serious and you want to win, our group needs to be loose."
"It feels good to finally be back," concluded Law, also looking ahead. "Not playing basketball for a year — I think a lot of people, playing at the rate that college basketball plays, it becomes something you do day in and day out. I'm not saying people lose their love for the game or anything like that. But you do it so much it becomes your routine, and when you don't play for a year or however long the period is that you're not playing, you're out of that routine, you're out of your habit. And when you lose a habit, or break a habit, it's such a big change.
"Watching the game being played without you out there makes you appreciate it a lot more and rethink what your desire for it is. When I wasn't out there, I got so much more hungry to play and be out there with my team."
NUSports.com Special Contributor
Twelve months ago, after performing in the Wildcats' exhibition game against Quincy University, Vic Law confronted a double dose of agony. There was, first of all, the physical kind, the kind that accompanied the torn labrum he had suffered in his left shoulder some five weeks earlier. He had tried to play through that, but the pain had been searing, and so now he faced another kind of agony, the mental kind that comes with opting for a surgery that would sideline him for a season. "I was really stressed out about making my decision on whether I would have surgery or not," he said this week when asked to compare his feelings then and now. "Now I'm excited to be playing."
Did he ever get depressed during those long months when he wasn't playing?
"Nah. I was pretty happy with my team," he insisted. "Last year was the first year I think that we won 20 games (in the regular season). I was happy with our success. The only time I was slightly upset is when we lost because I always put so much pressure on myself, thinking if I was out there I could help my team win. But, no, I wasn't depressed. I was just hungry to get back out there."
What did he miss most?
"Just the adrenaline of playing. Going to a big stadium or playing here against big teams. Just having that rush when you're playing well and you're hot and you're team's winning. That feeling of excitement and adrenaline is the biggest thing I missed."
Now, on this Friday night at Welsh-Ryan, Vic Law again will have the chance to experience that rush when he and the 'Cats kick off their new season against Mississippi Valley State. Then Monday, again at home, they face Eastern Washington before traveling for a game at Butler and for two in Brooklyn in the Legends Classic. "It's going to be a really important the first couple weeks of the season, and especially here these first two games, for us to come out of the gate and try to play well and take care of our home court before we hit the road," head coach Chris Collins said.
Collins is at the front end of his fourth season with the 'Cats and the cast he now directs is filled with familiar names. There are the seniors Sanjay Lumpkin and Nathan Taphorn.
There are the juniors Scottie Lindsey and Gavin Skelly. "Their production is going to be huge," Collins said of them.
There are the sophomores Aaron Falzon, the marksman, and Dererk Pardon, the big man. "A big key to our success, no question," he said of the latter. "His athleticism and size and activity around the basket, shot blocking — all those things are huge. Last year he had a penchant to get in foul trouble a lot, and I think he's really worked hard, studied film on how to play smarter this year. He knows. He knows we need him on the floor for heavy minutes."
There is their choreographer, the junior Bryant McIntosh. "He's a much-improved defender," Collins said of him. "He's really guarding his position well so far this summer and fall. He's much more instinctive on that end. He's stronger. He's rebounding better. I think those little things, those dirty work type plays, charges, loose balls, long rebounds — we know what he's going to do in the offense. He runs our offense to a T, the maestro of the pick-and-roll, all those things. His next step is to do some of those things I talked about, and if you look at him physically, he looks much stronger. He looks older. He's got more of a man's body now, and I think that will help him with the physicality."
There is one new name that promises to be in the mix, the freshman guard Isiah Brown, whom Law describes as, "A little spark plug. The energy and excitement he brings, I think everybody feeds off it."
Then, of course, there is Law himself. He finally underwent surgery for his torn labrum on November 17, returned to his family's home for just a few days and was then back at school, where he immediately began his rehabilitation. "Staying committed to it, doing it every day," he will say when asked the hardest part of that chore. "Sometimes you just want to go and watch practice or focus on the game. But you've got to do your rehabilitation. It's just as important as being with the team."
He began shooting, he recalled, some four months after undergoing surgery, and then labored with the rest of the 'Cats toward this Friday night and the start of a new season. "They've been working so hard all summer, all fall, then you get in that first game, inherently you're going to be a little bit more nervous because it is the first game of the year," Collins said this week, thinking ahead to that moment. "What I trying to do is talk to them about, throw yourself into the game. That's been a big focus. Trying to play loose. Even though you're locked in and you're serious and you want to win, our group needs to be loose."
"It feels good to finally be back," concluded Law, also looking ahead. "Not playing basketball for a year — I think a lot of people, playing at the rate that college basketball plays, it becomes something you do day in and day out. I'm not saying people lose their love for the game or anything like that. But you do it so much it becomes your routine, and when you don't play for a year or however long the period is that you're not playing, you're out of that routine, you're out of your habit. And when you lose a habit, or break a habit, it's such a big change.
"Watching the game being played without you out there makes you appreciate it a lot more and rethink what your desire for it is. When I wasn't out there, I got so much more hungry to play and be out there with my team."
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