March 1, 2003
EVANSTON, Ill. - The following are excerpts from today's postgame press conference, following Northwestern's 85-79 double-overtime win against Penn State.
Penn State Head Coach Jerry Dunn
On his overall assessment of the double overtime battle...
"I thought it was an extremely hard-fought game, and both teams showed an awful lot of guts. I thought Northwestern really hung in there and made big shots when they had to."
On Chicago native Brandon Watkins' career-high 31 points...
"When guys come home, you don't know whether they are going to struggle because they're trying to do too much or force the issue. I thought Brandon Watkins had a phenomenal game. He did a great job of letting the game come to him."
On the matchup problem that Aaron Jennings posed for PSU...
"We had two freshmen playing against a senior, and they knew that so they exploited it. When Jan Jagla got in foul trouble, that was a big problem for us because he's probably one of our better post defenders."
On NU's collective effort...
"NU's guys stepped up when they needed to do so and they had a collective bunch of guys to do that at any one time. Jitim Young made a couple of key baskets. Jennings made a couple of key baskets on post-ups. Winston Blake did a real good job of keeping guys focused and settled when he had to. Jason Burke, while he didn't have a lot of points, showed a lot of intangibles out there."
Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody
Opening statement...
"It certainly was not a pretty game. I thought we had a chance early to put them away in the first half but we let them hang around. They never gave up. They were down 12 after we had a nice little stretch and were up 51-39. Then they outscored us 16-2. Then every time we had a little lead in the overtimes they came back."
On Penn State player Brandon Watkins...
"We should have recruited that guy, although I was not here. He is a Chicago guy, from the Catholic League. I thought we did a good job on Sharif Chambliss. Brandon Watkins just carried the whole team, It was a terrific individual performance."
On the fatigue of the players of the end of the game...
"I was just happy we made our foul shots at the end. We made five or six at the end and that was important. I knew the guys were tired. Jitim was exhausted. I thought he had a pretty good game throughout. He missed some shots early that he usually makes, some set plays that were ran for him. He missed some layups. I was never displeased with his effort throughout the whole game; sometimes you just miss those shots. I thought he played hard the whole game"
On the play of Aaron Jennings...
"I was not happy with the way that he played in the first half. He came through for us in the second half and in the overtime. I just did not think the effort was there in the first half and I told him that. Give him credit for coming through. He has had problems since the Illinois game, and has not practiced very much since then because he sprained his foot."