NU's Carmody looks ahead with optimism
If Bill Carmody sounds like he couldn't wait for Northwestern's season to end, it's only because he can't wait to see what next season might bring.
Northwestern's winningest campaign came to a quiet close as Rhode Island produced a 76-64 NIT first-round knockout Wednesday night at Ryan Center.
The Rams (24-9) won their 21st consecutive nonconference home game with a monstrous edge at the free-throw line.
Rhode Island canned 26 of 37 foul shots, while Northwestern made 7 of 10. The Wildcats didn't even get to the line until 11:27 remained.
"That's indicative of a team that's more aggressive, I would say," Carmody said on his postgame radio show. "We have to get so much stronger. I'm just anxious to throw these guys in the weight room and lock them in there for a month and don't let them come out."
Junior point guard Juice Thompson led the way with 24 points and 5 assists for the Wildcats (20-14), who didn't have starting center Luka Mirkovic (back injury).
Freshman Drew Crawford (12 points, career-high 12 rebounds) contributed his second consecutive double-double. Sophomore forward John Shurna (15 points) made two 3-pointers early but couldn't find the range thereafter and suffered through a 5-for-16 shooting night.
"He's the main guy that's got to stay in that weight room," Carmody said. "He's a good dribbler, but he's got to do it more. He's not really that confident. He does it as a last resort, and I think he can get so much better. Because certain guys have ability and he certainly has it."
Northwestern held a few brief leads early but never got closer than 4 points after allowing Rams sixth man Akeem Richmond to go berserk late in the first half.
The 6-foot-1 freshman, who entered the night with 73 3-pointers, drilled four 3-pointers and 2 free throws in a three-minute, seven-second stretch.
"The things that showed up during the year seemed to show up tonight," Carmody said. "You have a guy who's a shooter and that's all he does is shoot. He reminds of Hoffarber of Minnesota (and) Bawinkel of Iowa. All we said was, 'Stay close to (Richmond). That's it. He's not going to do much else. Stay close.'
"And the wings just weren't close to the guy and he knocked down shots. It just seemed like we were trying to dig ourselves out of a hole, which - has happened to us on the road often."
Northwestern returns home to finish winter-quarter finals, but the team plans to start prepping for next year soon.
The first encouraging sign should come March 25, when senior Kevin Coble undergoes a quick surgical procedure to remove the screws from the left foot he broke three days before the season began.
Coble, fellow redshirting senior Jeff Ryan and freshman guard JerShon Cobb join the 2010-11 active roster with only senior guard Jeremy Nash saying goodbye.
NU continues to scour the high school senior class to find a point guard and perhaps a center who could be groomed for the future.