University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota-Northwestern quotes
2/23/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
POSTGAME QUOTES
Minnesota 75 Northwestern 42
February 22, 2009
Attendance: 14.625
Minnesota head coach Tubby Smith
Opening Statement:
"We haven't had a reason to smile in awhile. It was a good all-around effort for us. Northwestern was a team coming off a big win. I thought our guys were focused and ready tonight; they understood the urgency and the intensity that we are going to have to play with. If we don't continue to do that, it'll be a tough game at Illinois this week. We had good balance tonight; we rebounded well and we shot the ball well. We did a lot of things well, but we need to work on taking care of the ball better."
On how the team played defense in the win:
"One of the thing that we had gotten away from doing we pushing the tempo and pressuring the ball. We've had four or five games on the road, and doing that effectively is tough to do on the road. We've gotten off to some poor starts, but getting off to a good start like tonight was important. Early on, we weren't as aggressive as we should've been. I brought a fresh group in and they were much more aggressive."
On Devron Bostick providing a spark in the first half:
"Devron did a good job of being active, he got beat a couple of times on backdoor cuts, but other people did too. His biggest challenge is being in the right place defensively - you've got to be able to 'think' the game."
Minnesota G Lawrence Westbrook
On what the team did differently today:
“Our biggest thing was being aggressive. The last two they attacked us and really forced us into a lot of turnovers and we were passing on open shots, but today we concentrated on being aggressive and pressing them, and just taking open shots.”
On shooting success:
“I think shooting success comes from outside of practice. Yesterday I think I shot the ball twice in practice. So it comes from just having confidence in yourself number one, and number two, you have to put a lot of time in outside of practice.”
On the win:
"It’s [the win] huge, because we need all the wins we can get and I think Michigan lost today and Wisconsin, so that puts us right back in the mix of things.”
Minnesota G/F Travis Busch
On the differences between tonight's performances and the team's early loss to NU:
“We passed the ball sharper today instead of just lobbing it over, cause that’s what killed us last timewe couldn’t get any penetration.”
On how the win affects the team's confidence:
“You get kind of down when you start losing games like that, on the road. To come home and get a big win with a huge crowdit was fun, seeing smiles on everyone’s faces too. It was a big weight off our shoulders.”
Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody quotes
Opening statement
“Right from the beginning Minnesota stuck it to us. I didn’t think we were playing incredibly well. We didn’t shoot the ball that well. In the first minute of play [Craig] Moore missed a layup and it was just a sign of things to come as we didn’t play the next 39 minutes well. We didn’t execute, we didn’t run the offense and we didn’t press. Minnesota beat us on the boards, but when you’re missing shots that’s going to happen. Minnesota is a tough team. They’ve gone through a tough stretch, but tonight with the home crowd they performed very well.”
On Minnesota’s defense
“They played man-to-man, which is what they did the last time we faced them. We didn’t turn the ball over that much against the press in the first half. However, Minnesota’s pressure with 25 seconds on the clock didn’t allow us to take good shots.”
On Northwestern’s defense
“Minnesota seemed more confident. We were trying not to play a 1-3-1 defense the whole time and when we did play it, they turned the ball over some. However, that was when Minnesota was up by a lot. We didn’t cause too many turnovers in the first half, which hurt us.”
