Northwestern basketball media availability notes: Collins, McIntosh talk Ohio State, Illinois

Coming off a tough loss at Ohio State, Chris Collins and Bryant McIntosh with Inside NU Friday afternoon. Here's what they had to say about the game in Columbus and the meeting with Illinois on Saturday.

Chris Collins

- Collins said he "felt great about 35 minutes" of the game against Ohio State. "We should have won the game. We controlled the game."

- As the game wore on, as Collins noted, the team stopped getting the good looks it got throughout the majority of the game. "We were taking great shots," Collins said, "and we kind of reverted down the stretch to taking the shots we took against them in the first game where we — instead of driving in there and kicking — we were trying to shoot over their shot blockers, which was not a wise thing to do."

- Collins thought his players lost composure against the press, a result of not only the full-court defense but also the crowd noise and the dwindling lead the Wildcats were trying to defend.

- Alex Olah "is getting his game rhythm" back according to Collins. The Romanian big man scored 11 points against the Buckeyes. "He's not on a minutes restriction."

- Collins said Malcolm Hill and Kendrick Nunn are two very talented scorers. "You can't allow them to both go nuts on you, and they've done that at times."

- Collins also explicitly mentioned Jalen Coleman-Lands and Michael Finke as guys that can cause problems because of their shooting ability.

- After benching him against Michigan State, Collins has been pleased with Scottie Lindsey's recent run of play. "We need him, there's no questions about it. We need his scoring punch, we need his energy. With his length, we need him to play defense and rebound."

- Collins thinks the team has been better about identifying and finding shooters better, but it hasn't been the result of anything in particular.

- Coleman-Lands is a third scorer that the team has focused. "You can't let him get to his spots and expect him to miss.".

Bryant McIntosh

- McIntosh echoed Collins' words about the Ohio State game, saying the offense down the stretch was "probably the most disappointing thing."

- "It's going to be extremely important [to communicate]," McIntosh said regarding Hill and Nunn. "We can't lose those guys." He also listed Coleman-Lands and Finke as guys who have to be keyed in on.