By Ben LarrisonThe Daily Northwestern
After four years, two teams and one transfer, to say that Tim Doyle is ready for his senior season would be an understatement.
“I’m definitely going to embrace it,” Doyle said. “And I’m looking forward to it. This is my last year; I’ve milked it long enough. I’m probably the Van Wilder of college basketball.”
Doyle insists he’s ready to step up in his final season for the Wildcats, and he certainly talks the role. The proud New Yorker has long been a vocal leader for Northwestern, fueled by the quiet leadership of the Vedran Vukusic era.
Now, Doyle is expected to lead with his words and his play.
Gone are the days of Vukusic and Mohamed Hachad, who accounted for over 60 percent of NU’s points last season. After averaging 8.0 points per game his junior year, Doyle must become the Cats’ primary scoring threat.
“Everyone says that I’m not a big time scorer, but that was just the role I was put in,” Doyle said. “We had an NBA-talented guy in Vukusic and Mohammed was his slasher, and I was kind of a third, sometimes a fourth guy out there.
“Now this year the focus of the offense is going to run through me.”
But it’s not just Doyle who’s looking for an escalation in his contribution. According to NU coach Bill Carmody, the 24-year-old senior is the key to the Cats rebounding from the loss of their top-two scorers.
“He’s the man,” Carmody said. “He’s got to rebound, he’s got to score – he’s got to make us win. Besides any kind of stat, he’s got to make us win. He’s got to put the ball in the right hands of the right guy, and make the guys who are confident they can play, and he’s definitely capable of doing that.”
Over the summer, Doyle, who Carmody has called the hardest worker on the team, spent time preparing to be NU’s first option. He ran in the mornings, stayed in at night and organized practices and pickup games for his teammates in Evanston.
For the first two weeks of the summer, Doyle was in Australia with the Big Ten Foreign Tour. As he and other players from around the conference traveled the country, Doyle got an inside look at how the rest of the league viewed him and his team.
His summer teammates told him he played like a “YMCA player,” a description Doyle says he embraces.
While he said no one liked facing the Cats’ Princeton Offense, they didn’t view NU as a true threat this season. But don’t try telling Doyle that the Cats are headed for a down year.
“I think I earned the respect of the other players in the league,” Doyle said. “But honestly, going on that trip ticked me off, seeing what the guys were saying about how we’re going to be this year – you know, being picked last. I think that’s just a bunch of B.S.”
According to Carmody, the influence of veterans like Doyle on this season’s newcomers is essential to their comprehension of the Princeton Offense.
“He helps keep you focused at practices and off the court,” freshman Jeff Ryan said. “He’s just a great leader from Day 1.”
Reach Ben Larrison at [email protected].
