Cat's Survive "Abysmal Performance"-NU 59 TAMCC 51

Some of the NU Wildcats [See Vedran Vukusic above] are looking very tired. Its midterms, and some of the Student Athletes at NU are starting to feel the academic pressure. But Northwestern rose above that academic pressure to finally put away a pesky Texas A&M-Corpus Christi team who just kept knocking down 3 pointers and refused to go away quietly on this Valentine's Day...

Michael Jenkins did hit the final 5 points to put the game out of reach

as the Northwestern Wildcats finally pulled away from Texas A & M Corpus Christi to win 59-51. Of course it didn't hurt that the Islanders missed 4 3 pointers and 3 other field goals in the last 3 minutes. They only scored one basket - 2 points - in the final 5 minutes.

Not that this was a total thing of defensive beauty for NU. TAMUCC jumped out to a 12-3 lead in the first 4 minutes of the game before the Cats answered with a run of their own. they also opened a 37-30 lead to start the 2nd quarter.

But Michael Jenkins stepped up with a career high 11 points, including the final trey and two free throws to end the game. Vedran Vukusic, looking very tired at the end of the game scored 23, but missed 9 of 10 from the arc.

T.J. Parker added 8, Davor Duvancic scored 7. Tim Doyle hit for 5, Vince Scott hit a 3 pointer near the end of the game for his only points, and Mohamed Hachad [right] played a tough game defensively, but only came up with one basket.

Thomas and Travis Bailey scored 14 and 11 for TAMU.

After the game NU coach Bill Carmody reflected on just how tough a game this was tonight...

BC: Well, we've seen tapes, and they've beaten some good teams, but lets face it, the product we put out the first half was abysmal - I was sick to my stomach, and you've got to be straight about it.

It was just a horrible performance and [I'm] just very disappointed.

Why do you think the game was like that? Is there anything you can put your finger on as to why you guys struggled so much?

BC:  The emphasis is on "don't turn the ball over"  and we didn't really turn it over that much - maybe 8 or 9 turnovers? - but the first play of the game, Vedran throws the ball out of bounds to a guy who wasn't even in a position to score. I don't know, I don't want to lay it on Vedran but every single guy.

At Halftime I was - it was disappointing and I don't know what to say, I don't have and answer for it. I'm glad they came back and defended in the second half, we got our hands on a lot of balls - different guys- and that got us back in the game, but we went about 8 minutes in the first half without scoring.

You can't win too many games that way.

It looked like Vince Scott did a nice job on Post defense. Is that something you guys saw on the tape?

BC:  That's why I took Davor out. I was trying to give Vince a little blow, but they kept throwing the ball into Davor's, to 33 [Corey Lamkin - 9 pts], that guys a bull in there and he's tough and Vince stole the ball 2 or 3 times and I told him - Vince said, "should I front him? or play behind him,"

And I said "don't let him get it. What, I got to figure everything out. Don't let him get the ball."

And he did a very good job on that.

What can you say about Michael Jenkins that hasn't already been said. [See the Hot News today]

BC: and does he have to make his foul shots at the end?

And that's another thing. Maybe you're up 5 and we missed 6 or 7 foul shots in the first half so Mike was very good and he's responsible for stripping a lot of guys and getting hands on balls.

Defense tightened up in the second half  -

I don't know, Vedran, we'll have to see. Maybe he needs some B-12 shots, or something like that, because, he just, I don't know. He scores some points - he had a big hoop on a little clear out we had for him but his shot is flat and he's not using his legs, his arm's stiff so we gotta get him some rest I guess.

Are you going to alter your practice schedule at all the rest of the week?

BC: Well, we're going to take tomorrow off and probably Wednesday.  We're not going that long.

But we're down to 9 guys and Coach Robinson and Coach Henderson that are actually out there in practice so that makes it tough.

At this time of the season you're always wondering, are they out of shape, or are they worn out. So when you're scrimmaging - are you doing too much here, but the practices have only been about an hour and a half - hour and 40 minutes and half of that is walk through stuff so I don't think its - that they're worn out.

Again, I know President Beinen's here, and we have midterms here for about 3 1/2 weeks - its not like one week midterms, professors do what they want. They pick midterms this week, this week, this week - it wears the guys out.

So the Coach stands up for his Student Athlete's academic pressure, and the Cats get the win.

Next its a small measure of revenge as the Nittany Lions head for Welsh-Ryan on Saturday afternoon.

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Coach Bill Carmody's Post Game comments [in italics] are taken from
the WGN Post Game Show
with Dave Eanet & Shon Morris
and may have been edited for clarity

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Go Cats
Beat 'em All!

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