Press conference notes from Northwestern's win over Penn State

Northwestern turned in another solid performance Saturday afternoon in a rout of Penn State. The win was the Wildcats' fourth Big Ten victory of the season and third-straight. Here are some of the more notable snippets of the press conference following the game:

- Pat Chambers, head coach of the Nittany Lions, didn't have much to say but he did praise Northwestern for shutting down his star scorer D.J. Newbill, who was held to just three points in the game, significantly less than his 21.1 scoring average would indicate. He also heaped compliments on the Welsh-Ryan atmosphere and Northwestern student spirit and noise.

- Predictably, Chris Collins had much more to say and was much happier with the day's festivities. He summarized the importance of this win: "The win in Minneapolis (against Minnesota) doesn't mean as much if you don't come back home and get this win."

- He was very pleased with how his team defended Penn State's leading scorer: "Our guys did a great job in knowing where [D.J.] Newbill was at all times." Mentioned how Newbill only took six shots and had trouble even getting the ball on offense.

- Also, he was very complimentary of Vic Law, who posted 17 points and 11 rebounds. Talked about how he has dedicated himself in the gym recently and how he's finally starting to reach the potential heaped on him due to his highly touted recruitment status.

- Collins, always quick to give notice to under-the-radar plays, said the most important play of the game was a charge taken by Sanjay Lumpkin when the score was 38-34. He said how that play turned the second half around.

- He discussed how good the 2-3 zone has been for his defense: "The zone allows us to be more aggressive and force turnovers to get out on the break."

- Collins focused on how the work doesn't stop here for Northwestern, even with the recent winning: "The guys need to keep working because this is big-time college basketball." Collins mentioned Law specifically, who he says has been building up his confidence for awhile and it finally showed today.

- Scottie Lindsey banged his hip and missed about half of the game. Lindsey also received praise from Collins though. Collins mentioned how he has "high hopes" for Lindsey, as well as the other freshmen on his team.

- "We've been hard on all of those guys," Collins said with regards to his young players. "But since the Michigan State loss, we've been ultra-positive with those guys to build them back up after they were knocked down."

- Collins said the zone does make it harder to rebound, but when players like Law and Lumpkin hit the glass well, it pays off: "Sometimes it's harder to rebound out of the zone because you don't have a man...but to have those two forwards flying in for rebounds, that takes the pressure off Alex [Olah]."

- Dave Sobolewski also answered questions. He mentioned how, early in the game, Northwestern had trouble staying with Penn State's three-point shooters.

- He talked about his career at NU ending as well: "It's definitely gone quickly because I feel like I just got here...I'm gonna miss it but I'm looking forward to the next step."

- Star of the game, Law, was the other Wildcat who spoke after the game. He said how "I'm starting to get used to college basketball now, I'm taking things a lot more seriously now than I did at the beginning of the season." He said how each practice is really important and how necessary effort and energy is at all times."