Men’s Hoops: Improved defense drives Cats to blowout victory
By Matt Forman
For the last seven practices, coach Bill Carmody preached one thing: defense.
After losing its exhibition season opener 69-62 to Robert Morris (Ill.) College, Carmody knew his team could not allow a team to shoot nearly 50 percent from the floor.
It paid off.
Northwestern (1-0) played suffocating defense against Central Arkansas (0-1) on Sunday, allowing only 25 percent of the Bears shots to fall en route to an 81-39 win Sunday at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
“Every day in practice, that’s our focus. Defense,” junior forward Jeff Ryan said. “All the coaches say it and all the players have to believe, defense is going to win us games.”
After Central Arkansas scored the first two points of the game, NU went on a 22-3 run to build a comfortable lead. As the Wildcats’ defense pressured, their offense came around.
“Your defense helps your offense so much,” Carmody said. “When you defend you can score and press and get more possessions. Things just seemed to be in sync.”
NU forced 23 turnovers and allowed just 11 field goals. The drastic turnaround defensively was a result of defenders keeping their body in front of their man.
“Crazy, right,” Carmody said with a chuckle. “Something simple as that makes a difference, it’s like making shots.”
Four Cats scored in double digits. Junior forward Kevin Coble led the Cats with 15 points and eight rebounds, while freshman Kyle Rowley, sophomore Michael Thompson and Ryan added 10 points apiece.
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