Dec. 3, 2007
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Northwestern 88 Arkansas State 68
Postgame quotes
Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody
Opening statement...
"Arkansas State certainly came ready to play and the first 15 minutes or so we were behind the eight
ball. I don't know if we didn't come ready to play, but I told them at halftime that the intensity
level to win a game has to be 40 minutes-right from the get go-and sometimes I don't know if the
young guys realize that. With maybe about four minutes to go in the half, it seemed like we started
executing better and our defense got better. Then in the first eight minutes in the second half, we
guarded well, they turned it over and we capitalized on it. Both teams shot pretty well, for us, it
was very well. When you shoot like that at home, you should win."
On the start of the game...
"It's discouraging to me to see us come out like that and get in such a hole. Against good teams, you're not going to make that comeback. I was happy to see us have a little success in Nikola Baran coming around, not just hitting a few shots, but he seemed to be more poised out there. Sterling Williams played very well and Craig Moore's been good all year consistently. He, Jason Okrzesik and Mike Thompson played very well."
On the first-half defense...
"I tried to change it around. I took Sterling (Williams) out, but that didn't matter. When he came back in, he changed the complexion of the game at the top of the zone."
On the team's 3-point shooting...
"(Jason) Okrzesik, (Craig) Moore and (Michael) Thompson are all shooting 40 percent from 3-point range, so if you can have that at the end of the year, you're going to have something. Nikola (Baran) is starting to come around, too."
Arkansas State Head Coach Dickey Nutt
Opening Statement...
"Congratulations to Northwestern on a game well played. They shot the ball like crazy, shooting close to 70 percent in the second half. I thought the first five minutes of the second half dictated the game. I'm very proud of our team. We've been through a lot in the last 48 hours. We lost our number one player. I was very proud of our efforts tonight without him. We played with a lot of passion early on."
On the team's mindset at halftime...
"I felt like the last four minutes of the first half really hurt us a bit. They were able to hit some shots. You could tell it was coming. We were unable to stop them in the last four minutes, which enabled them to get back to a tie ball game.
On the absence of Adrian Banks...
"Whenever you take 21 points out of your basketball team, we feel that at our level it's hard to recover because we just don't have the depth. But I'm very proud of some of the guys that got to play more minutes than usual tonight."