Postgame Quotes: Indiana vs. Duke

Indiana vs. No. 1 Duke
Postgame Quotes
Nov. 29, 2017

Indiana Players - Robert Johnson and De'Ron Davis
Q. For both you guys, in what ways do you feel like this team grew up a little bit tonight?
ROBERT JOHNSON: Well, I think to start the game out, we were locked in offensively and defensively. I don't think we had a lot of lapses on either side of the ball this game. So, if anything, I think that's two areas where we improved.

DE'RON DAVIS: Like Rob said, played hard. Team's improving in every aspect of our game. We rebounded the ball. We were playing longer stretches. Just gotta finish the tenth war.

Q. You averaged, I think, 1.1 points per possession tonight. You just about matched them in paint points, despite everybody talking about their length inside. What was working particularly at the offensive end that was getting you guys so many good looks around the rim?
DE'RON DAVIS: Well, I think we did a good job of getting shots every time and executing. When we saw things that we could take advantage inside with our bigs, De'Ron did a good job of -- and other guys did a good job of finishing around the basket and getting fouls. So that was something that was good for us.

Q. You mentioned De'Ron, just how big was he for you guys tonight, particularly in that second half; it sort of felt like you kept feeding him?
ROBERT JOHNSON: Very, he's a big weapon for us. That's something we'll continue to do. Whenever we feel he has an advantage inside he has to get the ball. That's something we'll continue to do.

Q. Rob, I think the final 15 minutes of the first half, without De'Ron you guys played some interesting lineup combos. How important was it to get some of those guys playing together, cohesive basketball without De'Ron?
ROBERT JOHNSON: Yeah, I think it takes a whole team to compete with a team like that. And guys did a good job of being ready when their names were called. And I think we have to continue to do that moving forward.

Q. Last 5:26 you didn't have a field goal. What was maybe different down the stretch from the first 35 minutes?
DE'RON DAVIS: I think towards the last, the last part of the game, we started getting fouled more, and that's on us to hit our free throws. Although we didn't match bucket for bucket we was getting fouled. We knock down our free throws, we're right there.

And that plays a big part of me, and the team just got to get better. And I feel like we hit most of the free throws that we missed, I don't know how many we missed as a team, but we hit most of those we're right there, instead of a ten-point game, it's a four-point game, five-point game.

Q. You guys have kind of a tough stretch coming up. This was the beginning of it. You've got Michigan, Iowa, Louisville, Notre Dame. I know you would have liked to have gotten this win, but does the way that you played tonight give you guys a little bit more confidence moving forward when you're playing these opponents coming up?
ROBERT JOHNSON: You have to give Duke a lot of credit. They're a good team. But I think we did a lot of good things, and I think it gave us sort of an identity and a standard to which a baseline level of we need to play that hard and that intense every night.

And I think if we get better from here, day-by-day, drill by drill in practice, I think we'll be right where we want to be at the end of the season.

Q. De'Ron, they've got one of, if not the best front lines in the country. You get 16 points in 21 minutes. Why were you so effective? What do you need to do to replicate this throughout the season?
DE'RON DAVIS: I just need to keep being aggressive. It's not just on me. We have a lot of 3-point threats on our team and that opens the paint up for me. Rob constantly tells me one, two, dribbles, if no one's coming and I can go to work. And then that second dribble if you see someone diving down on me, kick it out, it's a three.

So I think overall as a team, with our 3-point threats it opens up the paint for me a lot. And I think that's what got me so open in the post.

Q. Rob, seemed like there were times when you guys did a really good job of post, kick it out, repost, get it back to De'Ron, sometimes Juwan. Was that a big emphasis and is that something you'll emphasize going forward?
ROBERT JOHNSON: That's something we talk about a lot playing inside/out. I think when we do that and establish that we're going to have an inside game, it makes those 3s and kick-outs a lot easier and it's a lot better shot. It's definitely something we'll continue to do.

Q. Rob, also your thoughts on the way Juwan Morgan played. He had to go against Bagley during that stretch when De'Ron was in foul trouble. What did you think of Juwan's play tonight?
ROBERT JOHNSON: I felt like Juwan did an excellent job on him, especially with Bagley's length. I felt like he got a couple little iffy calls on him, especially towards the end of the second half when I wasn't in, the first half when I wasn't in.

But Juwan played his part. Coach had a real good game plan on what we needed to do, and just kind of got some little nicky knack fouls, but overall I think Juwan did an excellent job.

Indiana Head Coach Archie Miller

COACH MILLER: Well, number one, I want to thank our fans. Assembly Hall was all it's cracked up to be tonight, and hopefully we can provide them with a win in that type of environment. They deserve that for an absolute incredible night.

Give Duke credit. They're No. 1 in the country for a reason. They've been in some hostile games here in the last two weeks and they've been able to come through. And they have terrific players and obviously well-coached.

For us, I thought we really competed. I thought we really battled. And it was tough for us at times in and around the basket just due to the lack of size and depth. But at the same time I thought we did some really good things as well, especially in transition, and some offense where we were able to really be right there with them step for step.

Free-throw line is disappointing. As a team, you have to be better than that to win games like that. And also I think shooting the ball from the perimeter, although it was not our night, we need to make a couple of those open ones and at the end of the day find a way to win that game. But proud of the guys. We're on to Michigan.

Q. Just having a game like this where they can go through and actually feel it, does it give you guys maybe a new standard to kind of aspire to moving forward?
COACH MILLER: Like you don't want to give anybody anything. I don't care who you play; if you play Duke or if you play Arkansas State. I think that's the next step for this team is to bring what we brought tonight and be better at it and be ready to do that against Michigan on Saturday.

That's what it's about right now. Like I told them, each and every night, man, we're going to play against a really good team, and it's not going to go away.

We have to keep getting better. We have to keep improving. We have to learn from tonight and be better for it from the next one. Staff has to be better. I have to be better.

And I think if we just keep concentrating on teaching and getting better and learning, we'll be fine. But the intensity level, the physicality that was in there tonight, that's what it's going to be like every night. And it should give us some confidence that if we can compete like this for 36 or 35 minutes, you know, let's put it together for 40 and execute a little better, make a couple of free throws and see if we can't win by one.

Q. People talk so much about their length and their size and Carter and Bagley but you were only minus-2 in points in the paint. And it felt like you were creating a lot of good looks. What in particular was maybe making that work at the offensive end around the rim? And how important was De'Ron in particular in that second half?
COACH MILLER: De'Ron plays three minutes in the first half. So we didn't have that ability to post it. But I think offensively in the first half, especially playing through Collin, he's really almost like a quarterback out; he really knows what he's doing. So we're able to get some really good possessions in the first half as well with our spacing. And I thought we capitalized.

Second half, clearly having De'Ron as a presence in the second half was a real benefit. They played a couple of different styles on their ball screens where they're switching. They played a couple of different styles of defenses in terms of sometimes they were chin on shoulder.

They made it harder. That's what they've done really in all their comeback wins. If you watched them play, they turn it up another level, their talent, their size, their athleticism can really get in to you.

So being able to play through De'Ron in the second half one-on-one in the post, he's tough to deal with, with that type of spacing, and he delivered for us. He really played well.

He has got to continue to work at the foul line, because I think he's a much better shooter than that. But, yes, he definitely gave us a different look there in the second half.

Q. No field goals in the last five and a half minutes. What was different at that part of the game?
COACH MILLER: Like I said, I think they turned it up. They made things very hard. Some switches, keeping our guards in front of them.

And then when we did get fouled, went 0-for-2, 0-for-2, like a turnover. If you get fouled, go make two free throws, it's a different story. Get fouled again and make two free throws, it's a different story. The free-throw line killed us as much as anything. So when you say no field goals in five minutes, we got fouled.

You've got to be able to knock those in. And that's the name of the game. I thought we got a little stagnant. And I thought they made us play one-on-one a little bit too much, but that's what they're able to do with their length and size. They switch. They deny. They don't give you the normal catches there late in the game and weren't able to convert.

Q. When De'Ron was on the bench for most of the first half, how important was the play of Juwan, Freddie and Collin keeping you guys in the game?
COACH MILLER: They did a really good job. I think Collin, in particular, you're starting to see him to get back to form and how important he can be for this team.

Juwan and Freddie have been doing it together here for four or five games, giving us good effort. And I thought just for the most part those guys are fine right now. They're confident.

Q. They went up by double figures early in that second half. You were able to come back, take a lead. What allowed you to make that run?
COACH MILLER: First of all, them to start the second half, they really bullied us one-on-one. And we had three or four plays. I think a couple of conventional and-ones on 7-foot jumpers or whatever.

They were going one-on-one went right at us. And we weren't ready to absorb the punch. I thought once we got calmed down, we came right back, dug ourselves slowly but surely out of it, with a some good possessions couple on offense. And we were able to at that point in time sort of be right there, nip and tuck.

But definitely the start of the second half was disappointing out of the gates. We knew they were going to come out and go right at us. We weren't able, especially on the perimeter, able to get like a challenged two-point shot to miss. We fouled them and they made it.

Q. You talked about just how important Collin was in the first half. But you've mentioned since he's kind of been back how important he is in doing a lot of different little things. How critical was he in both halves tonight, maybe just cleaning up a lot of details for you?
COACH MILLER: We haven't had him, so he hasn't played. But literally I think today he played 16 minutes and he practiced for the first time back to back leading into this game all season.

He's a big, big part of what we're doing because of who he is as a teammate, his leadership, his experience level; he's fearless. I think once you started to see him get in there, more and more you'll see our team get a little bit better and look a little bit better.

But that's not to say that guys like Justin and Al and Clifton and Curtis Jones and Zach McRoberts, all those guys aren't going to help us win, they've got to keep developing as well.

But, definitely, Collin, you can see he's a big-game player. You can see right now, just in terms of him being back engaged because he's with the guys, it's a whole different locker room with him.

Q. Just in general, because I think a lot of people in here are impressed with how the team played. What are you impressed in general with just how the team played against Duke tonight?
COACH MILLER: I thought in general our guys were ready to play. They weren't scared or afraid of the moment. And I think you saw throwing punches, they got knocked down a few times. They came back. And just learning how to win, learning how to win that type of game. It's just so important to your program as you keep going, finding ways to win those type of games. Because if you do, it spearheads the belief in sort of what you're doing. But make no mistake, it's about winning the game.

Q. It's about winning, I get it. At the same time, at the end of every game you play you want to see proof that we're going in the right direction; we have something here. Tonight, how much proof did you see compared to other games?
COACH MILLER: I would say as competitive an environment we have been in, and we were ready to compete, that's a positive.

From an execution standpoint, I think for the most part we took care of the ball and we played with poise. Clearly we were in a big-time disadvantage inside. Thought we did some good things to maybe try to help us, but I think everybody is going to deal with that kind of problem when you play Duke.

What we weren't able to do tonight was the simple ABC things, which is knock two free throws down, hit the open shot, and get that one stop where there's a loose ball or a loose ball rebound that helps you get the next play.

Winning plays in the last four minutes, if you look at Duke and you just look at the winning plays that they made at the end of the game with either a challenge shot stop, a blocked shot that led to something with -- Grayson Allen hits a heck of a step-back, well, yeah, those are winning plays.

You have to find a way to step up as individuals, and as a team you have to expect to make them.

But I will say this: If we continue to grow up and continue to keep getting better, tonight should be the norm in Assembly Hall. And if it's not, then it's on me.

But we're getting ready to go to Michigan. And I think the point being is Michigan, it's got to be the same approach here tonight. We're going to deal with a hostile environment against a good team, and we've got to be ready to battle.

And I've been on it a long -- not as long as obviously some coaches, but if you get 81 points at home, you've got a win. Period.

You get 81 points in your building, you've got a win. And that's where that ability to get stops and hold a team off in your home court and win the game with defense as well, not that it's just offensive plays, but 81 points at home should be good enough in Assembly Hall tonight with that crowd.

Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement:
That was a heck of a game. I thought Indiana played great. You could see in watching their tapes how they just have gotten better every game. How they are buying into Archie's foundation work defensively and offensively. You can see how they are getting better and we knew that. I thought they played really well. I think their coach can talk about their team better than I can, but I though they played really now, shared the ball, they were a tough team to defend for us.

For us, I can't tell you how proud I am of my team. We are exhausted. They have such a will to win. This is our ninth game in 20 days. Ten of those days we've been on the road and five road games and they're dead right now. They certainly played those five minutes at the end with an incredible will to win. I got a special group, but I also know they need tomorrow off to get going. Marquis made the play of the game, getting that loose ball, I just thought it was similar to Grayson's loose ball in the national championship in 2015. He just lit a spark into the whole team. Ironically, we said it at halftime if we dive for a loose ball at halftime we'll win. I wouldn't have bet on Marques being the guy to do it but he did. You could just see the energy that was there.

We executed really well at the end. We tried to get Grayson and Marvin working together. Those are two pretty good guys to work together. Grayson's 3 that step-back was the biggest shot of the game. That was something that he's done for four years and hopefully he'll continue to do that.

Indiana was pretty hot to start the second half, most of the second half. You turned it up at the end. What was the difference?
Our defense in the last 10 minutes of games or eight minutes has been better than before. We have four freshmen out there all the time. They are just learning how to manage a game as far as the effort, the intensity. And when they learn how to play in four minute stretches, we will improve. We kind of pace because they know they are going to play minutes. And they have played a lot of games. So they are a little bit tired, but at the end, they know there is not another four minutes. Those are the last four minutes. In our games, we've been the better team in the last for minutes of our games and it's a good four minutes to be the better team in.

Like Gary Trent, he could not hit a shot. Then he got that steal, then he got fouled and hit two free throws. And then when we were going to Marvin and Grayson, Marvin had the ball in the low post, opposite of our bench, they were not watching. Gary just flashed into the middle and got a big three-point play. I'm proud of him because freshman if they not hitting right, they can go that's it, it's not a good day. That's not him. We have a really good group.

Players Mentioned

De'Ron Davis

Robert Johnson

Zach McRoberts

Juwan Morgan

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