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Northwestern's men's basketball team met with the media on Wednesday at Welsh-Ryan Arena to preview the upcoming 2014-15 season.
NUsports.com Special Contributor Skip Myslenski profiles touted freshman Vic Law with the season about a month away.
A few words from (and about) Vic Law, the 6-foot-7 forward from St. Rita who is one of the centerpieces of the `Cats much-discussed freshman class...
LAW: The school is such a great school and Coach (Chris) Collins himself, his optimism and enthusiasm is something I had never seen before. The first day he got the job he came to Rita to talk to me about Northwestern. I almost felt like he believed in Northwestern more than anybody else has ever done. When you've got someone like that who's coming in on his first day with that much enthusiasm and optimism, it's kinda hard to turn down.
Chris Collins: Obviously, when I got here, we've got to start working right away (on recruiting). You make calls and you get clued in. You find out, "Who do I need to see? Who are some guys?" And they were recruiting Vic, the previous staff had done some stuff with him. So it wasn't like he didn't know about this place at all. Then just from word of mouth and people I trusted, they said you need to get over there. And obviously I got right over there and it took me about five minutes to see that he was a guy who could help us change our program.
COLLINS: Just elite athleticism and talent. You could see. There aren't a lot of guys we have who are 6-8 and long and can run like a deer and are skilled. You could see that in five minutes. Then when you threw in that he was a tremendous student and had great character, he became a guy that I felt we had to have. One of the things that was important to me was to establish ourselves in this area in recruiting. Vic was a guy who I knew was not only a tremendous player, but he was a tremendous student, tremendous family, good guy, local guy, good high school program. So right away you knew he was a guy who was a must-get for us if we wanted to take a step in our program. He and I had discussions. I wanted him to be the first guy. I thought that would be important. A local guy I could lock arms with and together we could build a great class that could be the future of our program.
LAW: There's nothing specifically I can say I want to do (this season). I can say I just want to win. If I can do that, I think a lot of players will start developing and doing more things.
COLLINS: I think the thing with Vic, the thing I love about Vic is his all-around skill set. He can score. But Vic's one of those guys, he's going to stuff a stat sheet.
LAW: Doing whatever you can to win is not necessarily doing any one thing, or doing whatever individual stat you want to build up. I think doing what it takes to win, you've got to do multiple things to be able to bring a lot to the table. So if Coach Collins needs me to rebound, if he needs me to score or pass, I'll do whatever it takes to get the W.
COLLINS: The thing that I've been most impressed with the more I see him everyday is his ability to make plays off the dribble. Not just to score, but to find guys. He can really pass. He can really play with the ball in his hands. He's an unselfish guy. He's got good size. He's got three-point range. He can score a little bit in the post. But his nature isn't to really go for 30. We'll eventually get there. But his nature, he's a guy who would like to get 12 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, three or four steals, three or four blocks. To me, he's just a really good all-around player. I don't want to place on him where he's got to be a 20-a-night scorer. I don't think right now that's what his game is. I think his game is to be a jack-of-all-trades and bring a lot of things to the table.
LAW: In today's basketball game it seems that everybody only wants to put the ball in the basket, from point guard to center. But I think when you actually know basketball, when you actually watch basketball, everyone has that person who's going to score 30 points. But you always need those other players who are there doing everything else to help you win the game. Whether it's scoring or getting 10 assists or 10 rebounds, whatever I gotta do, that's what I'm going to do.
COLLINS: I think that's valuable. I just think he effects the game in so many ways. But so many people are going to say, even last year in high school people knocked him because I think he only averaged about 12 points a game. But if you went to the games, he's getting 15 rebounds, he's getting seven assists and he's blocking five shots. But people are saying, "Oh, he only had 12 points. He can't be that good." He's just one of those guys, he just plays the game. If there's a pass to be made, he makes it. If the play is for him to shoot, he shoots. I just like his skill set. I think he's just one of those guys who can effect the game on both ends in a lot of different ways.
LAW: That's how I've played throughout my whole basketball career. If I've got to score 30, I'm going to score 30. But if I've got 20 rebounds, I'm going to get 20. It's something I pride myself in. I really want to say I'm well-rounded in every aspect.
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