Nov. 08--The plan was to give his young players an opportunity to become acclimated to playing in game conditions at Welsh-Ryan Arena during Friday night's exhibition game against McKendree.
As it turned out, coach Chris Collins' young Wildcats made themselves right at home during a 102-52 demolition of the Division II Bearcats.
"First of all, when you have so many new guys, you know, getting over some of those first-game jitters is important because it means a lot to them," Collins said before the contest. "I think it's great to be able to play the exhibition game with people in the building and getting the routine of a home game and what that's like. The pregame...getting ready to play...and then for me, we're starting to get a rotation in practice because everybody is playing the whole time.
"So when you get out there and you are one team, you know, who do you start? Who do you bring off the bench? Who subs for who? How do you manage a game? I think it's good to have that exhibition to kind of give me a little bit of a feel before we get going with the regular season."
Freshman point guard Bryant McIntosh was particularly impressive, scoring 15 points and dishing 11 assists. Center Alex Olah scored a game-high 18 points and Tre Demps added 16 as Northwestern shot an astounding 72 percent from the field (41 of 57).
"We have a lot of guys who are really good players," Collins said. "I am really proud of our group. I thought our intensity was really good. It was our goal coming into the game first and foremost to learn how to win. And secondary to that was to give everybody a chance to get their feet wet."
John Murphy and Matt Holmes each scored 10 points to lead McKendree.
Northwestern preps for regular season with 102-52 win
