Postgame Quotes vs. North Carolina

Indiana vs. North Carolina
Postgame Quotes
Nov. 30, 2016

Indiana Head Coach Tom Crean
COACH CREAN: Before I start on the game, it's hard for me to respect, personally, me, to respect somebody more than I respect Coach Williams.

He's always treated me that way. But when you play against their team, you know certain things. You know that they're going to be at an incredibly high level in their transition game. You know that they're not going to beat themselves with turnovers and bad shots. You know that they're going to be incredible on the weak side board, with rebounding the ball, amongst the many other things they do.

And the bottom line is you've got to be able to match every bit of that if you have a chance to beat them. It's not easy to do. And our guys did that tonight. They matched it.

We had a tremendous crowd, obviously, that brought a ton of energy to everyone. But our guys, they are absolutely spent. And I would bet Coach Williams' guys are as well. I mean, our guys, they're in a great frame of mind, but they're absolutely spent. And this is one of those games where they left every bit of it out there.

And that's why I'm so proud of them. We overcame. The injury with James (Blackmon, Jr.). We had a short bench tonight. We're playing a great team in the fact that we were able to defend the way that we did with the way that they were shooting the ball. They were shooting 55 percent, 52 for 53 percent overall. And to keep that field goal percentage down below 40 was huge. We knew going into the game it was going to be as big as anything.

And especially that five-foot area on all sides of the rim and in front of the rim, what we call the alley, because they do such a great job of getting to the weak side. And it was even, which was huge. We knew we couldn't turn the ball over at a high level without them being able to capitalize on it. I think the points off turnovers were three. So those are the statistical things.

But the bottom line is I thought both teams absolutely competed. We're committed to the competing. We're committed to each other, and we were fortunate to get the win inside of 40 minutes. So go ahead.

Q. OG Anunoby, it seemed like maybe as good of a two-way game he's had this year both offensively and defensively and to tack on to that --
COACH CREAN: Yeah, I haven't even thought about that part of it yet. I'm more concerned about his ankle right now. He did a good job. We were spent tonight.

And I'm going to have to figure that part of it. We didn't overly stretch. We didn't practice on Monday. We knew it was going to be a battle. Plus we play on Friday and Sunday. So our preparation was a lot mental. It was a lot of a walk-through detailed way. It was a lot of film.

There were some mechanical detail type things. We practiced yesterday. We knew energy going into this game would be huge, with him coming off the illness. Even though he played well on Sunday, I didn't think he was anywhere close to healthy. Like I said, I don't think any of us realized how sick he was last week because of the fact that it continued to linger with him.

But I'll save the tape for how I feel about the two-way part. But as far as tenacity and continuing to play, these guys were on second, third, fourth wind early. And I think Carolina's guys might have been, too.

It was an incredible atmosphere in there. And they did a great job with this. The thing I'm proudest maybe with all of them on the court, especially in this environment, is talked. It was the best we communicated on the court. It was the best that we kept each other in the spots.

We had a couple of mistakes defensively, went zone. Couple of guys not in it at certain points. We made some mistakes there.

Bull that's big for OG. When OG is a big part of the communication process on the floor, especially with as loud as it was in here, that's big for us. Those are the things I'm looking at more right now even in the grading of the game.

Q. Where is the ankle?
COACH CREAN: He's getting evaluated in there. He couldn't go back and play. So we'll see.

Q. That's what I wanted to know.
COACH CREAN: Seems like it's high. I haven't gotten an update yet. As far as he's in the training room. So we'll see. We'll see. His spirits are good. So we'll see how that turns out. But he couldn't have gone back in the game, according to Tim.

Q. How does a night like this happen, every night, bring it every night, how does it happen these guys brought what they brought?
COACH CREAN: I think it's learning. I think, again, this is a team with no seniors. And Josh Newkirk is a senior in school but he hasn't played in so long. It's the responsibility that they've got to learn to have for one another. I think if we learned anything valuable from last week, it was that you've got to have an edge every night, because the other team does.

And it's not easy every night. That's why the togetherness and the responsibility for one another in the being able to be demanding with one another becomes really, really important. So we're going to grow in that.

We've had major 15-round fights and with Kansas and Carolina won it, and we had one that we didn't necessarily fight 15 rounds in. We didn't get started on time last week, and still came back and had our chances. We'll go through some of that with this team, because I think the big thing for them personally we've got good players, we've got good people. They've not been in a role where they have to be responsible for being able to play. There were always other people. Yogi (Ferrell) was there and Troy (Williams) became a leader last year and you had Max (Bielfeldt) and Nick (Zeisloft) and Collin (Hartman), the way he grew into it. They've got to continue to grow with that and hopefully we'll get more consistent as we go.

Q. How important is a night like this combined with 15 rebounds?
COACH CREAN: That was big. Guard rebounding, I didn't realize that. Our guard rebounds were going to be huge. And I wasn't -- I was very -- I put a lot of thought into whether we were going to start James (Blackmon, Jr.) or not. Not that we weren't going to start him, managed his conditioning. He practiced some yesterday. Other than that he hadn't practiced. Rehabbing, hydro therapy pool and things like that. So I was not worried about his minutes as much as his energy to finish. And I decided, you know, what we're going to ride with the three guards tonight. I said if we don't rebound, we're not winning.

We knew the guard rebounds would be huge in this game. Hadn't seen what the breakdown was with their guards, but they are so physical when that shot goes up, that if you don't match that, if you're not fighting them for that position, okay, you have no chance. Well, that means somebody's gotta come in and get the ball. So the guard rebounds were going to be absolutely a paramount number for us.

Q. A team that scored 93 or more. You held them under 40. What was the key?
COACH CREAN: We were locked into their personnel. We didn't guard the dribble a couple times. When we did a real good job with our post defense plan, we were good. A couple times that we let them get to that left shoulder, get that left foot across the lane. They're quick.

They know what they're doing, right? So it's very, very hard to guard those guys with one person. But if you come off and you're continually doubling and you're rotating, all of a sudden they've got enough drivers and shooters to create problems. So we needed to be really, really good with our post plan.

We did a good job of that. We never wanted them to let them be comfortable. The other big thing is we wanted to make their inside players have to play both ways, up and down the court, play two-way constantly as much as possible.

And we had every intention of running, just like they did. But the key to running was the recognition. If we had the numbers, if we had the advantage, take something with it. But if we didn't, let's get the ball reversed. And we did a lot of different things tonight with having our forwards out even more extended than what they usually are, try to create more space around the basket. So I think that had something to do with it. But we guarded pretty well. I'll be surprised if we didn't guard pretty well and have good shot challenges and things of that nature.

Q. Curious if you had the '81 guys, if they came in and talked to the team?
COACH CREAN: Well, they did. I missed some of it. Landon Turner was talking to them when I came in pregame. But some were in our walk through, we weren't on the court very long today we watched a lot of film and we stretched on game day and we were probably on the court for 30 minutes. But some of them were there before the event.

Every one of them were in the locker room before the game. So the presence of them was there. They met them. And I'm not sure who else talked, but when I walked in, Landon was speaking to him. And he's done it before. But it was big time. And we'll talk even more about it tomorrow. There was so much going on with preparation of the game. But Randy Wittman is standing in there.

And there's so many guys and I haven't seen Isiah yet. I'm not sure if he was in there after or not. But it's just -- and I want them to watch the video. At some point in the halftime. We could hear it. We could hear what halftime sounded like. So we certainly were out there when Kyle Schwarber got his intro. That was kind of cool. It was great all around. It was great to have those players and their presence.

Q. De'Ron Davis played 13 minutes, two blocks, how important was he in terms of guarding the paint?
COACH CREAN: Very, very important. And I think Roy (Williams) was -- I don't know this -- but it seemed like every time we checked around here came Kennedy Meeks. And this was a great -- I talked about this with De'Ron after the game briefly.

I think this is the difference now. Like they were attacking in the pick-and-roll. That's a high level team. That's why the foot speed, the technique, you know how you guard that pick-and-roll, how you get around in post, all those things are so important.

And we've got to continue to get him, because when he spreads out and posts up, he's -- he covers a lot of ground. He creates a lot of space.

Now we've got to get him to cover a lot of ground. And he's going to get better and better. He's going to get better and better as he plays his way into the conditioning that he's got to have. His attitude is great. And I think we'll have even more upside on our team each day down the road.

Q. Carolina cuts the lead to four late. What does it feel like were the keys for weathering that storm?
COACH CREAN: We made timely baskets. We made some timely plays. We were winded. Right? We were definitely winded. And I wanted to save the timeout because we could -- because we knew it was coming down the stretch. One of the final things we did today was to prepare for how to close the game, because Roy (Williams) is so good, so good at playing from behind and coming back and keeping the press on and looking for the 2 traps in the back court and getting you right across mid-court.

So we needed to make sure we had enough ammo left for that at the end. I didn't think too much about that because I thought they made a couple of tough shots. We made a couple of tough shots. And, again, I don't have the recollection of -- I think Blackmon hit a big 3, didn't he? That was big.

I didn't get too uptight. Our confidence was good. I was just worried about our wind. I was worried about our fatigue level at that point.

Q. Rob Johsnon defended a lot of different guys tonight, including Justin Jackson. You talked before about his growth as a defender. But how far has he come?
COACH CREAN: Rob was at another level tonight. He really was. His speed. His defense. He was really locked in. The fact that he had a really good game on Sunday helped him.

He's one guy that I was definitely concerned about overuse, because he's played a lot of minutes already for us. And he looked like he had a week's vacation. He looked great. And he really did. He was moving. He was flying around. And then the one – (James) Blackmon. He made big shots. He attacked. He got the ball off his body tonight. Sometimes when he struggles the ball's sitting on his hip. We try to continue to work with him constantly on getting the ball off his body, attacking with both feet, both hands. He did better with that.

He's got a lot of pride. And Carolina was a recruiting process, it was one of the final two or three when we signed him. And he's from that area in there. And so I mean both teams, I think -- I sensed a great deal of respect from one another. And it wasn't like anybody went out there and knew we couldn't play anything less than 100 percent.

Q. The fastbreaks for North Carolina, what were the keys there?
COACH CREAN: I think the biggest thing is start of the game. We didn't give them any fastbreak points in the first half. That was huge. And the key was we were going to continue with that.

They're so good with that. And sometimes they're just -- feet are so good. Because Joel Berry can get across the court so well. He was really good the last tournament. I thought he was just the key to why they went -- Brice Johnson, great numbers, and Marcus Paige was on a roll. But I thought Berry took his game to another level in parts of February and certainly in March, into the national championship game. And he's even better now.

And after playing them in March and playing them tonight, they missed some guys, with some different guys, they're really good. I mean, they're really, really good. You can see the experience of them. They're not going to deviate from what they want to do.

And we had to get back and respect that, because not only do you have to stop him in transition, you have to stop it coming down and trailing big, and getting their shots, up. They're so good at offense rebounding. And so good at rebounding that miss, whether it's on the rim or weak side. So we were locked into that and I thought for the most part we had good rim coverage.

Q. You hold him to eight, three for 13. How important was it for you guys to keep him from getting --
COACH CREAN: He's a great player. He's a great player. We've played against some excellent guards. Mo Evans is really good. And obviously Frank Mason and Devonte' Graham, those guys are good.

And so the key is we didn't want to let him get in a rhythm, whether it was different matchups, whether it was different defenses.

I thought our guys did -- film on this, but I thought our guys were really locked into the two or three key takeaways in this game with him, really with the majority of the players.

But this wasn't -- in a short week like this and with this group, it wouldn't be good for a young team to spend so much time on 30, 35 different things. We had to have a couple of things locked in, which is different for us because usually we want to have an answer for everything.

And sometimes you have an answer for nothing when you try to do that. We really wanted to be locked into key characteristics with their personnel. And I thought we were.

And Jackson's first step was better than I thought it was, and I thought it was the best I'd seen by anybody all year. I haven't seen everybody play. But that first step is absolutely lethal. He got us a couple times with that. So Berry, for his size, does a really good job of getting that foot turned and getting around it. We wanted to make sure we made that hard.

Q. How about did Dick Vitale talk to you guys before the game?
COACH CREAN: No, he was at the walk-through. He was up in our office for a little while. And we had a lot of different people that walked through today and so he was around for that and he didn't come in after. But they all knew he was here. But we've got a lot of baseball coaches here right now. NFL, major leagues, country music star back there, David Nail. It's cool. It's cool to have people around and it's cool when they can meet those people. But this is important -- this is something with Kyle (Schwarber) that I reached out to him in July. He was going through that rehab process, and because he was such a great young man here.

He loved baseball obviously, right, and he was around. And it was so easy to talk to. It's so great to watch him have his success. He was going through such a tough time with the rehab. So I just wanted to throw something out to him for the season. And it ended up being this. And he took it and I'm glad that he came. Everybody will remember that ovation.

Q. Everybody thinks they have a home court advantage. You guys have won five straight here in conference. What happens here in the biggest moment?
COACH CREAN: Well, that's a good question. I think the energy is so high. They certainly bring a lot of confidence. But like on a night like tonight, it just never gets quiet. And you worry about that, because there were students sleeping across the street last night. And there were thousands and thousands of them out there this morning. So I'm worried about our energy, I'm worried about their energy. Right? Are they going to have enough energy?

So it's a great place, it's an even better building now with what the Simon Skjodt family has done. There's a lot of pride here. But we have to play well. Right?

We have to defend. We have to put the ball in the basket, those type of things. But there's a great comfort level playing with them. And I think it helps build confidence all the way around. But we have to be able to play in any environment. And we've got to continue to learn that.

Indiana Players – Thomas Bryant, James Blackmon, Jr. and Robert Johnson
Q. Thomas, talk about what this game meant.
THOMAS BRYANT: It means a lot. Just means that, taking a step forward. We're getting better each and every day. And we went out there and proved it.

Q. James, could you talk about the start you guys got off to and how you got the crowd into the game and really kind of took off.
JAMES BLACKMON, JR.: Well, we just wanted to bring the energy with us so we just wanted to be collective, communicate, because it was so loud. And the fans really helped us with the energy.

Q. Thomas, talk about keeping Kennedy Meeks limited down low.
THOMAS BRYANT: We had key things we wanted to try and get done, just taking away certain things those guys love to do or do on a consistent basis. That's what we tried to do throughout the game, throughout the whole 40-minute game.

Q. James, you talked about communication. You mentioned in the aftermath of Fort Wayne last week. Do you guys feel wake-up isn't the right term, but did you feel it was a reminder of that's what you needed?
JAMES BLACKMON, JR.: Definitely. After that game, that's what we talked about a lot. We weren't out there together and we weren't communicating. Even though it was so loud tonight, I feel like our guys talked to each other and everyone knew what spot to be in at all times.

Q. Rob, keeping them off the offensive glass, eight second-chance points. They were second or third in offensive rebounding --
ROBERT JOHNSON: I think it all started with the mindset that we came out with. From the tip, I think we were aggressive on the glass, and when we carry that mindset into the game, it was really good for us.

Q. Talk about the offense. This is a team that scored 93 or more five of seven games. You held them to a season low, shot less than 40 percent. What were the keys?
ROBERT JOHNSON: Just taking away their strengths. Coach Judson did a great job with the game plan. And he gave us a breakdown of everything each guy liked to do and all of our strengths and things like that. So we just wanted to take those away and make it tough for them.

Q. Thomas, how much do you feel and enjoy the intensity in an atmosphere like this?
THOMAS BRYANT: You feel it before you even step on the floor for the pregame warmups. You feel the intensity, like the day before, you just want to go out there and play your best in front of the greatest fans in college basketball.

Q. James, you didn't play the last game. Was there any question you would play tonight, and how close were you to 100 percent?
JAMES BLACKMON, JR.: There was no question. I was just a little bruised, banged up from that game. Rested and felt really good. And I was ready to go right after that game that we played.

Q. Question about Joel Berry. What were the key things?
ROBERT JOHNSON: Just containing him early. He's a guy that likes to get into transition, get to his spots, something we wanted to contain him from the jump. And I think we did a good job of taking that away.

Q. James, you had a home court advantage. In this case how big is it to you guys --
JAMES BLACKMON, JR.: It's definitely helpful with these fans that we have here. They're so great when they bring that energy. At the same time, we always have to know where the energy starts. We want it started with us. If we don't bring it, it can be hard to get that energy.

Q. How big was OG Anunoby tonight? Good defensively on the boards. How important was he tonight against teams like this, how important a dynamic?
ROBERT JOHNSON: The way he played tonight, it's something we want to count on him doing on a consistent basis, because it's nothing that he can't do on a consistent basis. So I think the way he played with the energy that he came out with, establishing that he was going to get on the glass and lock down defensively, I think that really got him going.

Q. How important was rebounding tonight?
THOMAS BRYANT: Just the mindset that we had out there. We know that their bigs are the best in the country, some of them, and we knew that we had our work cut out for us at the beginning. So we wanted to establish that mindset and get out there and get after them.

North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement…
"That was a great college basketball atmosphere. The home team really played right from the get-go, the second did not, and that was us. We were not ready for the intensity and enthusiasm, or anything you want to talk about in the first half. It was a wonderful crowd, gosh I would like to play in front of a crowd like that in the Smith Center every night other than the Duke game. Congratulations to them, their fans and the students. It was a big time crowd, but I've got to coach better and the players have to play better. The first half was about as ugly as it could be. Take a few things, make a few free throws, don't allow a guy to get behind Isaiah (Hicks) at the basket and throw down a dunk. There were so many silly mistakes, and again congratulate them because they were by far more aggressive than we were, quicker, more aggressive driving the ball to the basket. Every phase of the game they were more aggressive and competitive than we were. The second half, I did not think our guys would quit, and they didn't. We got it to five one time, Kenny (Meeks) had a pretty good shot and missed it, and then James (Blackmon Jr.) made three on the other end. It was a very difficult shot, and that is what big players have to do. I think if you go back and look at it, he was covered very well. It was almost like he threw both legs out split-wise just trying to get the shot of, but it went in the basket. That is what big time players do. It was very hard for us to get anything going because we were on our heels, and that is no pun intended, they were more aggressive than we were."

On what went wrong…
"Everything. We were not ready to play; I cannot say we did line up correctly. We did not shoot free throws, we didn't rebound the basketball, we didn't get the loose balls, at the half they had more second chance points – they had five or six fast break points – and we had none. Everything, everything."

On difficulties getting the ball inside…
"You've got to be more aggressive. I mean Isaiah Hicks I think is a great, great player, and I think at the half he had zero shots and three turnovers. They were more aggressive and I'm not talking about fouls or anything. They were more aggressive than we were. Even in the second half, he kept turning to his left shoulder and that is where they were playing him. I told him one time he could turn around lay it up underhanded, and the next time he turned to the baseline side and dunked it. So I am frustrated, but there is not one thing we did in the first half we can be proud of."

On what he expected coming in tonight…
"I thought it would be that kind of game. I mean we were up here four years ago and it was a tied game with 4:14 to play (in the first half) and then I took Marcus (Paige) out because he had two fouls and they out scored us nine points in the final 4:14 of the first half. They just kicked us. Cody (Zeller) was fantastic that night, and Victor Oladipo, they are both playing the game for a living, they were great. That was a team I thought we got much better at the end of the year, so I expected the same kind of thing. We came up here in 2004 and we had a really good team and we won the game. I don't think our kids understood what we were talking about when we said how emotional it is going to be, how much they are going to be in the game. I mean they lost two games ago. They did not correct everything from Mississippi Valley State. My guess, and purely a guess, Tom wished they didn't even have Mississippi Valley State, he probably wanted us the next game after that. I feel like I'm saying the same thing, but they were more aggressive in ever phase of the game. We backed up, they challenged us, and we backed up."

Players Mentioned

OG Anunoby

Thomas Bryant

De'Ron Davis

Robert Johnson

Josh Newkirk

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