University of Minnesota Athletics
Northwestern Post-Game Notes/Quotes
1/20/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Northwestern 55, Minnesota 40
Saturday, Jan. 20, 2007
Williams Arena (Att: 11,194)
Game Notes
• The Gophers now lead the series versus Northwestern 82-56, and are 49-19 at home. Northwestern has won the last six meetings.
• Minnesota Head Coach Jim Molinari is 5-7 as Minnesota’s head coach, and 1-4 in Big Ten play. Overall, his career record is 223-174.
• Dan Coleman had his fourth double-double of the year with 13 points and 11 rebounds. It was the 16th time this season he has recorded a double-figure scoring total this season, and the 38th time in his career.
• Coleman has scored in double figures in six straight games, and has had double-figure point totals in all five Big Ten contests this year for Minnesota.
• Coleman played in all 40 minutes of today’s contest. It was the most minutes he has played since logging 44 minutes in a double overtime loss at UAB.
• Lawrence McKenzie scored in double figures for the 15th game this season, and has done so 43 times in his career.
• McKenzie has made a three-pointer in every game this season, and has hit a three-point field goal in 27 straight games dating back to his final eight games at Oklahoma.
• Jonathan Williams played a career-high 34 minutes in today’s game.
• Minnesota’s six free-throw attempts was its second-lowest total of the season.
• The Golden Gophers outrebounded Northwestern 31-to-28 for the game. Minnesota has outrebounded its Big Ten opponents in three of its five conference contests this year.
Post-Game Quotes
Minnesota Head Coach Jim Molinari
On facing Northwestern’s zone defense:
“It’s difficult for anyone when you have to have an inside threat and be able to hit threes, and unfortunately, we didn’t do either of those today. We tried to go different ways to get scoring from other places. We couldn’t find anything, but I thought Jamal (Abu-Shamala), (Lawrence) McKenzie and Dan Coleman fought really hard today. The other thing that happens when you can’t score is that it effects our defense. Our defense let down because we were so frustrated about not being able to do anything on the other end.”
On when the frustration set in:
“It set in right from the beginning. It was 8-7, but then we had a pretty hard time after that.”
On trying to keep the team’s confidence:
“I just keep telling them that it’s a rough time and they need to have faith in the system and that means persevering. If you keep persevering you’re going to mature and when you mature you’re eventually going to get some breaks. That’s what I keep telling the guys before the game, but let’s make no mistake, this is very hard.”
Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody
Opening statement:
“These are two teams that are struggling right now, and its important when you’re on the road to get a good start. I thought we did that tonight by getting a few steals that led to easy baskets. After that, it seemed like our offense started to click. We didn’t shoot that well, but we got ourselves enough layups and easy shots to offset the fact that we didn’t make a lot of our three-point attempts. Minnesota had a lot of open three-point attempts that they missed which gave us an opportunity to get the lead at the end of the half.”
On having Kevin Coble back in the lineup:
“It’s major. Along with the points he gives, he also opens up opportunities for our other guys to score. He can score in a lot of ways, and it’s too much of a strain on our offense when he’s not in there. It helps (Tim) Doyle to know that he can penetrate and not just look for (Craig) Moore all the time. “
On scoring inside:
“We shot poorly from the outside, although we did make a couple of big ones when it counted. We did well inside and Coble did a good job of posting up. Vince Scott played a great game. A lot of our offense runs through him, whether he’s at the top of key or down low. There was a confidence about his game today that I liked.”
Gopher Players
Jamal Abu-Shamala
On Northwestern’s defense:
“They play a tough zone. It's hard to simulate in practice and hard to play against. They spread out and move so well. They know what they have to do and they did a great job of it. We didn’t execute on offense.”
On playing without Spencer Tollackson:
“It's tough because teams know that we don’t have the same inside presence. We’re relying a lot on outside shooting and, when shots aren’t falling, it's going to be tough. Once we get Spencer back it's going to be better. We just have to keep working and the big guys have to work on getting better to allow us to have more of a presence in there.”
On NU’s 1-3-1 zone defense:
“It's tough when you have 10 eyes on you every time you touch the ball. They know where they’re supposed to be and they’re a very active unit. They have good hands and that's makes it tough to know where your teammates are going to be because they’re so spread out.”
On working through frustration:
“There’s going to be frustration at some point in every game. You just have to keep working through it, stay focused and do the best you can.”
On coach’s advice following a tough loss:
“We just have to take it one day at a time. We have to forget about this game and move on to the next. We can’t worry about what happened in the past. There are going to be ups and downs, and right now we’re not having the best of times but we’re going to keep working and keep getting better.”
Lawrence McKenzie
On playing against NU’s defense:
“It's really tough because they don't let you swing the ball like you want to. Against a zone you really want to move the ball a lot, but the way they play doesn’t let you do that. The way they guard every player makes the guy with the ball guess a lot. If you’re not aggressive against it, it can make you look really bad.
Guys like myself, Dan Coleman and Spencer are going to have targets on our backs and we have to get used to that. Other guys have to step up and that’s something that we have to work on as a team.”
On shooting against NU’s defense
“It's tough to shoot over those guys when you don’t get a lot of open looks off penetration. We need to have more than one or two guys penetrating and passing out to get guys some open shots.”
