Jan. 27, 2007

Recap |  Box Score

NIU BASKETBALL POSTGAME QUOTES

Kent State (68), Northern Illinois (49) 

January 27, 2007 * DeKalb, Illinois

 

Northern Illinois Head Coach Rob Judson

 

"During our practices this week, we focused on keeping our poise and composure when our opponent goes on a run and I thought we did a nice job of that in the first half.  We combated the Kent runs with runs of our own and at the half, we were in position to win.

 

"We had a rash of turnovers to start the second half and on top of that, it was not a very good shooting performance.  We had four players go a combined 4-of-24 and that's a difficult day.  Now Kent has a lot to do with that, but we've got to have improved ball-handling.

 

"Any turnovers are frustrating and they are frustrating to our team.  If you look at our team statistically, the turnovers jump out at you like a neon sign.  It's the turnovers.  That's the big thing. 

 

"You're seeing a lot of maturity from Mike McKinney his senior year and more vocal leadership than we've seen from him before.  He brings a lot of energy to practice every day.  He's focused on being competitive every play, he's continued to work and we've got to keep Mike going.

 

"[Today's game] was a tale of two halves.  At this point in the season, our confidence, our belief in ourselves*the margin is thinner.  We have to continue to be positive.

 

"They doubled James [Hughes] the whole game.  They ran at our guards and we were prepared for that.  But you have to make plays out of the double teams.    When a team traps it takes you out of what you want to do offensively. 

 

"We've had a great attitude considering the lack of success.  We're going to continue to practice hard every day and try to work on the things that are causing us to break down right now."