In the first season without Michael “Juice” Thompson at point guard, few expected a freshman to fill the former Northwestern star’s role. After a few preseason injuries, however, that’s exactly what happened: freshman Dave Sobolewski took charge of the position in camp and immediately entrenched himself as the starter.
“He came in as a freshman and basically just took over, right from the get go,” says head coach Bill Carmody. “His transition has been about as smooth as I think it could be.”
Sobolewski grew up in Naperville and played for Benet Academy in high school, which went a combined 55-5 during his final two years. Following a 29-1 senior season, Sobolewski finished fifth in the voting for the 2011 Mr. Basketball of Illinois.
Even though injuries to his Northwestern teammates are what gave him the opportunity to play, Sobolewski’s talent has been apparent from the start.
“Dave was going to play 25 minutes a game no matter what, injuries or no injuries,” Carmody says. “He was thrust into the position, but he was sort of winning the position too.”
Sobolewski is averaging nearly 35 minutes per game, two fewer than Thompson's average from last season and good for fifth in the Big Ten. And, although he’s less of a scorer than Thompson was, Sobolewski currently leads the conference with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.3. With his starting role now firmly secured, North by Northwestern sat down to meet the local star.
What was the recruiting process like?
It was pretty stressful actually. I didn’t really know where I wanted to go until I got this offer from Northwestern. That really made it a lot easier. I chose here in July before my senior year, so it was nice to have the whole process over with before my senior season.
Having lived nearby, was Northwestern always on your radar?
Yeah, I had always known a little bit about [Northwestern] and I knew that Drew [Crawford], coming from Naperville, was doing well here. It was definitely a school that I was looking at hard and I jumped on the scholarship when they offered it to me.
What kind of impact did you expect to have coming out of high school?
I don’t know what I was expecting actually. I just knew that I wanted to work as hard as I could in the offseason to give myself the best shot I had to help the team. I got lucky that some guys were hurt so I got a lot of reps early and the older guys had a lot of confidence in me, and that really helped.
How do you think you’ve transitioned to the college game?
I was more of a scorer in high school than I am now, just because I have a lot more talent around me now. We’ve got some really good scorers, with Drew and [John] Shurna and some of the other guys too. I had to change my game a little bit to become more of a conventional point guard as opposed to a scorer.
Were you surprised to come in and play such a big role right away?
I wouldn’t say I was surprised. I didn’t know what I was walking into and I didn’t know what to expect. But, I knew that with Juice leaving, there was an open spot so I just took it day by day and worked as hard as I could.
What is the biggest key for the team as you push to make the NCAA tournament?
Just staying together and running through our offense a lot better. Sometimes our offense breaks down pretty early in the shot clock and we need to focus on running through our stuff and getting from one action to the next.
Is this the year you guys make the tournament?
We have a lot of work to do and our eyes are on that goal. We still think we can do it, even though we’ve struggled a little bit in conference play. We’ve got a lot of big games ahead and we think we can take care of business.