Postgame Quotes - Indiana at Maryland
2/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Head Coach Tom Crean |
“That was a tremendous college game and a great environment. Two teams that are learning to have a lot of respect for each other. I know the coaches have a lot of respect for each other. I think Mark [Turgeon] and his staff do a tremendous job, and have for a long time. It was a very hard- fought game. They executed really well, we executed well. We made mistakes, they made mistakes and at the end of the day, they just made one more play then we did and probably the way our guys competed in this game, we knew it was a tremendous opportunity to come in here in this environment and play. Our guys had great confidence, I was really proud of the way they prepared and took their level of preparation up another notch this year which is a really good sign for us for our maturity. We always prepare, they always grasp it, but this is one where they even did more themselves. So I was proud of that and we withstood some poor shooting, we withstood some excellent shooting from them, and at the same time we made plays, we just made one less. It was a great win for them, tough loss for us, and a great battle all around.”
On what he said to junior guard Kevin Yogi Ferrell after he missed the final two shots...
“When he plays that way, we are going to win a lot of games. He played outstanding and we’d do it again.”
On Yogi Ferrell’s last two shots...
“I thought it was in. I thought the last one was in. It was an option out of a timeout, and he had the option off the ball screen. If he was free off it, we were going to get the best shot, and certainly you want to shoot it early enough that you have a chance for an offensive rebound, which we did. It was a matter of putting our players in their spots, we had a little twist action off the top screen, and we got a look and then we crashed the glass and it just didn’t go.”
On Maryland winning after a tough stretch of games...
“It’s this league and everyone here in Maryland is learning that. This league is tremendous and this is not an anomaly. This is the way the league is all the time. It’s why the Big Ten gets the credit it deserves and sometimes doesn’t get enough credit because there is absolutely no team that you can look at and say ‘We’re going to feel better after this; we can just bring our B game’. You can’t, you have to bring it every night. There are great home environments, tremendous teams, a lot of great coaches in this league, and Mark has done a great job with that team. It’s hard to go on the road in any league; it’s extremely hard in this league. We had no doubt that they would play well. I think what happens in this league too is you know the percentages, you might game plan for it a little bit with the free throws, but you don’t put too much on that, especially when they’re at home."
"There is a lot of risk and reward that goes into your game planning because you know that you make some mistakes. Most teams are going to have people that can make you pay. Maryland, to have 20 wins, with the offseason that Mark had, and to deal with that the way he did. To come into this season and get those guys better the way that he has. Mark is one of the best coaches in the country, and that’s not just because we played them tonight. I know him pretty well, and I have unreal respect for him. It is not easy to withstand and deal with adversity like that and he’s done it and they’re better because of it.”
On how Yogi Ferrell played...
“I think he’s playing very well, with room to get better. I think he wants to get better. He plays well on both ends and tries to cover as much ground as he can. He’s as tough and nasty of a competitor as he could be but has a desire to improve constantly and I think he will. I think his best basketball is certainly ahead of him this year and certainly beyond.”
On the play of Maryland’s role players...
“I don’t look at guys at this level as role players. Everyone has a role, and I learned a long time ago that you can’t move onto another role until you master the one that you’re in. the bottom line is, when Maryland puts you on the floor, you can play. With guys coming off the bench and what they can do, they have four guys that play the five spot. That is really unique. They have all the pieces; the front line, they have an impossible matchup with Dez Wells. We don’t have a guy like that that we can match like that, but a lot of teams don’t. I thought Melo Trimble played like one of the top league guards around. Those guys make lot of things happen and I would like to think when we bring guys in it will happen too.”
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Indiana Player Quotes |
On the last possession...
"It was probably the best shot I took all game that felt like it was going in. It hit the back rim, I got a second shot and saw that I had about 2.5 seconds so I tried to flip it up in and it just didn't go in.
On if the last shot was his best shot all game...
"Yeah, I'd say so. The best look where I was pretty much wide open basically for that shot. That shot's going to be in the back of my mind for a while now. It felt good, looked good, it just didn't go in."
On what was going through his mind at the end of the game...
"I let my guys down not making that last shot. I made a couple threes the entire game but if I had to make a three I'd definitely want it to be that last one for the game winner."
On what has taken his game to the next level...
"I'd say not using as much energy trying to dribble the air out of the ball and being more efficient. In just talking with my dad just being more efficient; driving in, drawing two guys, kicking, and taking the open shot when I have it. Just trying not to use as much energy on the court."
On the last shot...
"Coach drew up a play for a screen. I figure my defender would play the screen or try to switch it. I didn't want to get switched on to Smotrycz, he's about 6'9 or 6'10; I just wanted to refuse it and hit the game winner."
On guiding the underclassman when they struggle...
"Out there, every shot they took I kept telling them 'great shot, great shot; make the next one'. So you know I'm not trying to get down on them about that shot, I need them to make the next one. If they miss it, that's what I told them; if they make it I say 'great shot'. That's just the main thing with them, you can't always take a jump shot when you go to an away game. They're great shooters, I know James (Blackmon) is going to burry about 30 in a row so I'm not too worried about that."
On his mindset during Ferrell's last shot...
"I mean that second chance, we could've either tied it up or won the game off of Yogi's three. There's a lot of things that I'll go over in film like I missed a block out on a free throw rebound and they turned around and got a three so I have to change that. I had some missed plays on defense. I missed two dunks so there's a lot of things I could've done better."
On the feeling going into the last six games...
"If we come out with the same tenacity we did tonight, we have a great chance. We have some things we could fix. We'll just go through film, go through practices, and just fix it. It's fixable things."
On learning from losing a close game...
"You can still learn from those games (blowouts) on how you lose a lead, how you go in such a deficit but in these types of games you say to yourself, I missed a free throw block-out, I missed two dunks, I went fifty percent from the free throw line. It's those types of things where if I just make them or change on defense it would be a whole different change in the game."
On what makes it so hard to win on the road in the Big Ten...
"Once the home team gets momentum of the game they get the crowd behind them and then the crowd pushes them so that's one thing. But we have to take that and then have things like James' (Blackmon) dunk that took the momentum away from the team. We just have to know how to change that."
