Postgame Quotes: Indiana vs. Arkansas State

Indiana vs. Arkansas State
Postgame Quotes

Indiana Head Coach Archie Miller
COACH MILLER: A good win for our team. Arkansas State did a lot of things that challenged us, put us in transition defense quite a bit and you could see our inability to really get back tonight. And that was disappointing.

I thought that Simms and Cockfield were tough matchups that got below us and behind us and drove us a lot which was part of our problems. We were too spread out.

But I think offensively we did a great job on the offensive glass. Continues to be a strengths for us the last couple of games. And Juwan has clearly stood out in terms of what he's bringing to the team.

And all in all, to be able to play with eight turnovers and make 16 free throws to their 15 attempts, I think we did enough to win the game. And especially late in the last five, four minutes we capitalized on some really good opportunities.

So good win. Very concerned about our turnaround and our next opponent in Eastern Michigan, trying to get our team two feet back on the ground and ready to go for what I think is going to be a very difficult game.

Q. As the team tries to really put together that complete performance, how meaningful is it to have Juwan kind of follow up Sunday night with the kind of night he had tonight?
COACH MILLER: That's good. He's playing with some great confidence right now. And it has nothing to do with jump shots or anything like that. He's playing hard. He's got the ability right now to really get on the glass.

And I thought just in general he's finished better. And he's kind of done that not only this game. I thought we saw signs of it Seton Hall as well, where he was able to really mix it up and get on the glass and finish.

We gotta keep him going. He's obviously very important. He got off to a little bit of a slow state through the exhibitions and our opener, what not, but I think he's worked his way back. I think if we can get more consistent play with some other guys, game in game out, that's what we're hoping for.

Q. You talked about Juwan being a potential breakout player through the season. What has he shown you the last few games?
COACH MILLER: Energy. He's brought a lot of energy to the table. He's a versatile defender for us. He's done a nice job there. I think just in general right now his physicality on the glass and in the paint is much different than it was earlier in the season.

I think he's taken -- I don't know what he took last game, but you're looking at possibly 20 free throws in the last two games. You get 20 free throws in two games you're mixing it up pretty good.

And we're not seeing many man-to-man either. We're playing against a lot of zones, so he's doing a good job in tight spaces. And I think as we get going here he's going to be a big factor for us.

Q. How did you feel like you attacked the zone tonight?
COACH MILLER: I guess just from a percentage standpoint, if you look at what we did, I thought we shot a good percentage. We didn't turn the ball over. The one thing that is standing out is obviously our 3-point shooting. I think you gotta make a couple of open ones to make that thing really start to feel funny for the defense. I think Rob had a couple of good ones.

I think a couple of other guys got some good looks. They just didn't go in. You make a couple of 3s it can really balloon the game. I thought we worked the ball into the paint pretty good. They played a couple different types of zones. They weren't giving us the same look every time down, whether they were spread out or whether they tried to match up in the middle.

For the most part I thought we did all right. I have to watch the film to see but the zone we'll see on -- what day is it, Friday -- the zone we'll see on Friday will be the best zone we see all season.

Q. Juwan has also talked about being more of a leader. How much have you seen maybe being able to demand from his teammates and be more vocal?
COACH MILLER: He's been more vocal. He's one of the guys out there that has a good feel for what we're trying to do. And I think he's playing the right way. So guys are going to listen to him. Juwan has got to stay focused on the job at hand, which is obviously to bring great energy and do what he's got to do. The more he has a voice, the better off we are.

Q. You mentioned earlier you'd take 20 free throws in the last two games, he actually hit 19 of them. I think he's only hit two field goals in each of those games. Earlier you said he was trying to force things and be things that he wasn't and now he's kind of refocusing.
COACH MILLER: Yeah, I think we tried to center him on the game for him starts inside out not outside in. And I think that's a big part of it, whether you're playing against South Florida or playing against these guys here tonight, he's pretty much duplicated the performances, which starts with energy, tough plays, able to finish in and around the basket. And he hasn't taken very much jump shots. Hasn't had the ability to really even look at it.

But he's driving the ball better. We're going to be able to put him in good spots and that's what we want to do.

Q. How would you assess the play of your bench in terms of the depth you have?
COACH MILLER: Well, we're throwing a lot of guys in there. And we're getting a lot of different contributions, depending on the game, which is a good thing. You're not counting on every guy. Al and Justin have been pretty consistent for us in making sure they're impacting the game in a big way.

Al has played basically the last two games maybe with seven assists and one turnover, which is good. And Justin has done a nice job on the glass. Freddie got in there tonight and really did a good job more for us as well. Much more so in the first half when he was rebounding the ball. Getting 10 rebounds in 12 minutes, it's incredible. Some were zone but still he brought a presence and gave us something in the first half that we didn't have, and you need them all hands on deck. I'm not sure this will be the rotation as it keeps going.

We're still trying to tweak it and figure some things out on how we can get some guys in. You still have Collin who is going to be added to the mix. Zach, I'd love to find a way to make that happen. But it's hard to play 12 guys.

And especially when you're kind of going against a lot of different types of lineups to guard as well. But our bench has to develop. We have to be able to get something out of it almost every night.

I thought Curt had some really good plays at the end of the game, especially in the last four or five minutes, where he made a couple of drives to the basket and a couple lay-ins, whatnot.

Q. A little bit of a slow start both halves. Is that trend a little concerning at this point?
COACH MILLER: It is. First four minutes of each half haven't been good to us, especially out of halftime. Coming out of halftime tonight was disappointing, some of the lackadaisical plays and inability to stop the ball from being driven into the paint and score. We weren't as dialed in.

So the start is something that we're looking at. Changing up the lineup and all that stuff, you can do all that stuff you want, but what we're trying to do right now is get a chemistry and trying to get guys to feel like they know when they're going to be in there and what they're doing. That will help us more so than changing things every other game.

Q. There were a couple times you were pretty animated defensively?
COACH MILLER: Really? You noticed that?

Q. A little bit. What were the things that weren't happening defensively?
COACH MILLER: Transition defense. Didn't get back. Didn't get back, and there's just a lack of communication. They subbed a lot. They had a lot of different combinations of players in there. We were switching matchups on Simms quite a bit. When you are at the free-throw line -- and there's no communication from the bench on matchups. I thought that struggled tonight.

Our transition defense wasn't good. Just in general, if you look at our ball screen defense, probably one of the more confusing games that we've had.

We have been getting better and better and better, and tonight it was almost like they're coming downhill, coming right by us. We didn't have any resistance.

And part of it was very quick guards, but the other thing was very spread out, getting completely -- hit way too high on the floor, and we weren't able to adjust on that.

So, yeah, there were some plays out there that were mind boggling. The ones that are really getting us right now that drive you crazy is when there's a loose ball on the ground and you have it and for whatever reason it ends up back in their hands and they shoot it.

You reach; they don't, and you foul. First-to-the-floor type of plays. Loose balls, stuff like that that, we're not coming up with them. Whether that's a long rebound that bounces and they're just faster to it. But that's how you win tough games. You're able to get those 50/50 plays every time. You're able to tie the guy up on the floor and he doesn't get a foul on you or he doesn't shoot it.

And that's just the identity and some of the things that we have to keep working on.

Q. How critical is it going to be to get Robert to be more consistent? He had a great game last time, and tonight he struggled, 2-of-4 and 0-of-5 with about five minutes to go, then knocks a 3-pointer down and a couple of buckets.
COACH MILLER: It's going to happen. You want guys to obviously be there every single night. I think Rob had some good looks tonight that didn't go in. That's going to happen. But he had eight defensive rebounds, two assists, one turnover. He made big timely plays in the last four minutes, which is what you want your best players to do, regardless how they're playing. Felt he did a good job. Played a lot of minutes. Asking him to do a lot. He's a better shooter than he's shooting right now. That's the one thing. I think the law of averages hopefully will come back around and he'll start to dial.

Indiana Players – Postgame Quotes
De'Ron Davis and Juwan Morgan
Q. What do you credit your career game for tonight?
JUWAN MORGAN: Hustle, I think just getting on the offensive glass, getting fouled, things that I've had success with in the past, I think just emphasize more on those things and with that came a good night.

Q. Juwan, the turnover and the foul, 11:41 in the game, what do you account the success of that to?
JUWAN MORGAN: Just, like I said, last game, in the second half, just hitting singles. Every time they trap, we just got somebody in the middle, hit that person. We weren't trying to throw it all the way down the court like we had been in the past. We weren't trying to make home run plays, just making the simplest plays as possible, and those turned out to be the best plays.

Q. De'Ron, I imagine you spend a lot of time working against Juwan in practice. As somebody who knows his game from that perspective, what do you think allowed him to have the kind of night he had tonight, and the double-double?
DE'RON DAVIS: Just his work ethic. He's always pushing us in practice, our defensive drills, our rebounding drills, we gotta make sure we have eyes on Juwan. Just his hustle. I feel like Juwan is a real simple point, he does the dog points, and he's a big help to our team.

Q. How important was Rob Johnson down the stretch, despite his tough shooting start?
DE'RON DAVIS: I know personally they started to really double down on me second half pretty hard. And Rob not hitting those first five shots kind of gave them that leeway, okay, we're going to double the post. But I just kept telling him to shoot it.

And that last shot he hit allowed me to get the last four or five buckets I did because they had to respect his shot. So him shooting out there opened up a lot for the post.

Q. De'Ron, talked about dog points, dog points meaning what?
DE'RON DAVIS: Dog points is everything -- everything we need as a team, rebounds, loose balls, 50/50 balls, things of that sort.

If a ball -- if I tip a ball out, then Juwan is going to get it. If there's a loose ball, Juwan is picking it up, kicking it out. So those are the dog points that I'm talking about and that leads to the double-double my boy got.

Q. Juwan, you looked really comfortable at the line. I think you're 19 of 20 the last two games. What's made you all of a sudden look like Jordan Hulls?
JUWAN MORGAN: To be honest, it's from watching Kevin Durant, like his whole shimmy and everything. I got that and I just felt comfortable doing that. So I give credit to him.

DE'RON DAVIS: Wow. [Laughter]

Q. You seemed very relaxed out there and not worried, going through the motions, making passes?
JUWAN MORGAN: Yeah, I think early on I was just trying to force things. I was trying -- I would say in a few words -- be something I wasn't.

I just knew the things I was great at. Just keep emphasizing on those. I knew I could go get just about every offensive rebound if I really wanted to.

I kept telling myself go get it, go get it. And as I did that, everything else seemed to flow.

Q. Juwan, following up on that, how much do you take pride in being this kind of guy, being the dog point kind of guy who is just hustling end-to-end?
JUWAN MORGAN: I've always taken pride in it. Coming from my high school here, I knew right away I wasn't going to be the man just playing with Yogi, Troy and then the year after, James, Rob, OG, Thomas. I just knew I was going to be in the background, but that's just find with me.

And if I can get us extra possessions and everybody else shines, as long as the team is winning I'm fine with that.

Q. You also talked a lot in the summer about how leadership was something that you were determined specifically that this team is never not going to have. I guess what's that been like for you trying to be in that role, as De'Ron talks about, not just on the court but in practice and driving guys and just continuing to push them that way?
JUWAN MORGAN: At first I was just trying to lead by example. I felt if the younger guys saw that, oh, one of the leaders of the team is getting on the floor, getting after us in practice, then why shouldn't we do. We (indiscernible) play too.

And after they saw that, I think I started to be more vocal and every time they mess up I try to help them with whatever it is because, of course, we've all been there, too. Me and De'Ron, we try to talk them through it, get them through the points.

Even though I wasn't a guard like Al (Durham), I still tried to help him, like, say, this is the easier pass. He doesn't have many turnovers, so that really wouldn't work. But just saying like being here in the gap instead of being there, can make a world of difference and things like that.

Q. You mentioned Al Durham. He's averaging like 27-something minutes a game. He's got two turnovers so far this season. Where does that come from, that level of ball security in a guy so young?
DE'RON DAVIS: That's just us going hard in practice. We have -- as a team we go red and white and we have seven -- we have seven turnovers for the whole practice, each team, and once you reach a limit, we run for it.

So I feel like Al came in as a very smart guard and just that going into the practice and how we practiced and how hard we practiced, makes the game easy for him.

JUWAN MORGAN: To add to that, he's probably one of the more poised people I've seen at such a young age, especially coming in playing in the big games he's not rattled at all. I think that's credit to who he is as a person.

Arkansas State Head Coach Mike Balado
You guys were on a run then it kind of got away, how did you see the game?
"Well, first of all when you get in a hole like that on the road it's tough to come back. You're always fighting to get back into the game. I thought our guys came out in the second half kind of resilient for 14 minutes. They made some shots, we missed some defense assignments, Johnson got open one time, Devonte hit one, and the next thing you know it goes from a 4-6 point lead to a 12 and it's hard to come back like that on the road. I think they did an excellent job on the offensive glass and we knew that that would be a problem coming in, so we should have done a better job at blocking them out. I blame the guards for that. I think the guards need to help them rebound more, but overall Indiana is a good team. They're going to be good, they're big, they have guys inside that can score and they have good guards."

How did Juwan Morgan seem to be everywhere and all over the place?
"He is an excellent player. When I was at Louisville we scouted him and I knew Juwan would be a great player for them. I knew tonight that it would be one of the games that he came out and play well. He has played well all year. But he is going to be a big player in the Big Ten. He is mobile, very skilled and plays hard."

What surprised you about Indiana today that maybe differed from the game plan?
"Not much. I think their guards did a good job at controlling the pace. We try to speed it up a couple of times. It was them speeding it up on us in the first half. I wasn't expecting that. They really did a good job at pushing the ball up the floor and scoring quickly against our press. Their guards did a good job at controlling the pace. So, that surprised me. I thought it would be of a more slowed down pace, but they really took it to us for the first 10 minutes."

Indiana University Athletics

Players Mentioned

De'Ron Davis

Juwan Morgan

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