Postgame Quotes: Indiana vs. Maryland
1/22/2018 9:38:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Postgame Quotes
Indiana vs. Maryland
Jan.22, 2018
Indiana Head Coach Archie Miller
COACH MILLER: Heck of a win for our team against a really good Maryland team. It was a great environment. I thought our crowd, without a doubt, couldn't have done it without them in that last six to eight minutes. But I thought our guys really competed and played hard. And sometimes that's not easy when you come off the road, especially when you don't play well.
But I thought we had great concentration. I thought our leadership in the last few days was really good. And being able to get Juwan sort of back up and going again was a big key.
Q. Defensively seemed like you guys were a lot better in the second half. What was --
COACH MILLER: I thought in the first half, just in general, they started to play a smaller lineup, which we really hadn't seen a ton.
I thought they were running some motion rather than some of the stuff that we had normally seen. They got some looks. They spaced the floor a lot better.
And Cowan and Huerter are very good players. They got going, I think they had the first half, I think they had 18 or 20 of their team's points.
I thought in the second half we were much better on the ball. I thought we challenged things at the basket. It was a very physical game.
And defensively our percentage-wise, they shot 31 percent in the second half. And I thought our activity level with eight blocks and 10 steals kind of shows you how active we were.
Offensively, in the second half, it was a little bit of a grind. We were having a hard time getting out of our own way with some illegal screens, missed free throws and some things. But you take it any way you can get it.
Q. They hit that kind of 9-0 run, a few things there in the middle of the second half and there was a timeout. What I guess, you guys come right back out, I think hit them with a 7-0 run coming the other way.
COACH MILLER: It was a tough stretch for us. It was a tough stretch for us at that time. And I thought, like I said, give our guys credit, they bounced right back. Came back, I think, Juwan with a big basket. And there were some loose ball plays out there we got on the floor for, which was great to see. Then they got the building going which worked in our favor.
All in all, a game like that, a game of runs, you know, when you're playing against a very talented offensive team like Maryland to be able to hold them to 68 points, especially in the second half not let them get going. But it was a good night for us.
Q. When did you know that Juwan was going to play? And I guess how were you preparing the last few days of practice without him practicing?
COACH MILLER: Just in learning what his injury was at Michigan State, which was an ankle. He wasn't going to be able to play the rest of the Michigan State game. They took the second half and really just treated him. He started treatment right away.
Obviously Tim does an amazing job. But Juwan was detailed. I thought he showed improvement on Saturday, didn't practice. Tim thought maybe some walking noncontact stuff yesterday would be apparent.
I didn't want him to do that. We held him out again. And figuring that full nother round of treatments today that we would know by game time.
And Juwan said he felt pretty good. So obviously he played like it, which was good to see. If he didn't play, we would have been prepared to play with the guys on our team that had to play the bulk of the minutes. If he wasn't going to play, we had to maybe find a combination where Justin and Collin could play together at times, which hasn't happened all season as well.
Q. Looking for alternatives, Justin had a great day with Juwan in there. But great complement there, really efficient.
COACH MILLER: He was really good. They played small. So they switched a lot off the ball, which we thought he had an advantage. He's getting more comfortable. He's getting more confident around the basket. I thought you saw that in the first half. He had a jumper, had a nice countermove, where he was able to score with his left hand. Second half, made a couple off back screen, got a nice layup. But he's doing a nice job. Justin played well tonight.
Q. Your ability to win close games. What's the key to that?
COACH MILLER: Winning close games is about getting stops. If you can get stops and you can find a way to hang in tough games and get stops and your team is believing that you can win a game without scoring points, that's step one.
Being a tough-minded group, being a team that wants to battle all the way through, I think that's been good. I also think we have a really good player in Juwan Morgan that you can go to in the last four minutes of the game and he can get some things done for you, which was the case tonight.
Q. A guy like Juwan, an injury, can't practice, first game back he gets 25 points.
COACH MILLER: We were sort of waiting for him in the first half to see if he was going to feel his way through the game. Thought he had an advantage from his mobility standpoint but just wasn't sure he was going to be able to do it.
I think as he sort of got more comfortable in the first four to eight minutes, I think at that point in time it was a non-issue.
You turn your ankle, and a lot of guys handle it different ways. I think Juwan just played through the adrenalin tonight. And I'm sure he'll be sore as we head to Illinois on a quick turnaround. So hopefully, if anything, he gets some more rest before he plays again Wednesday.
Q. Kind of recurring theme, but Rob Johnson had eight rebounds, six of them maybe in the defensive end. Something like 33 rebounds in the last five games. Is that representative of what you need?
COACH MILLER: He's really taken it to another level in terms of what we're asking him to do. And I think his play speaks volumes. You're not worried about him shooting anymore.
He's an unbelievable defender right now for us. And he's really bought into the defensive rebounding by our guards because we're small.
And if he gets eight defensive rebounds, and our number is usually 12 -- I think we had seven at Michigan State. Seven total guard rebounds.
And there's a big reason why we weren't able to win any 50/50 balls or anything. I thought tonight was a little bit different. Rob had eight. Zach got three. Devonte got a couple. So we were up over our number.
But Rob is as coachable of a guy and he wants to do well. And I think at the end of the day he's just trying his but off to finish his career off the best way he can.
Q. You mentioned that the quick turnaround -- I think in the next eight days you have two two-day turnarounds.
COACH MILLER: Are you reminding me or are you trying to get me into trouble or something (laughter).
We're on an incredible run. It's an unprecedented run. Seven games in 17 days. Three times two times in three days in three consecutive weeks with the second game being on the road.
That's a tough task. You have to get a little bit healthy. You have to get a little bit lucky in terms of the health. That's the thing you care about the most this time of year is having everybody available.
But it's definitely going to be one of the more challenging runs we've been on. When you look at the games at home and when you look at the travel, it's going to be one of those deals where, in February 1st, when you look up, you like to see where you're at.
But Wednesday night, sometimes you make too much of it. Sometimes you see guys play their best games on back-to-backs or two games in three days. It's tough. The thing you're concerned about is the wear and tear on your guys' bodies. That's the big thing.
Q. Devonte's defense in the second half. How were you impressed with him, having a guy that could come in?
COACH MILLER: We needed some help. Josh had a rough night with fouls tonight. He wasn't in a rhythm. We needed another guy to step up and Devonte, I thought, did that. He did a decent job with them in the second half keeping them out of the lane.
Couple times I think he stripped them and whatnot. Devonte has just got to stick with it here. I think offensively some of the decision-making, some of the shots, obviously are questionable. But when he's out there for long stretches, we're better. And hopefully on Wednesday we're going to need him versus Illinois' pressure.
Indiana Player - Juwan Morgan, Zach McRoberts and Justin Smith
Q. Juwan, you guys were down like 7:52 you scored maybe like six or eight points, what turned it around at that point?
JUWAN MORGAN: It was really just hunkering down on the defensive end. As we continued to get stops we just got more and more run-outs and that opened up some things for our offense. And also just playing to our strengths -- everybody, nobody was trying to do anything out of character. And as we got further into the game we just kept getting those big stops.
Q. Juwan, what were the last two or three days like for you? We're you in pain? Was there any doubts you would play? Take us through the last 48, 72 hours?
JUWAN MORGAN: The first day I was in a lot of pain. I didn't think I was going to be able to play. But just continuous treatment and being here with training staff and just getting all the things I needed to get done. And it started to feel good and it hurt not being in practice because the guys were going hard in practice, so it was the least I could do going out tonight and giving it my all.
Q. Zach, Juwan Morgan, what's he bring, what's he do?
ZACH MCROBERTS: He played great for us tonight, on defense, offense. That big rebound towards the end after the missed free throw was huge for us. Just a little bit of everything. Obviously you see how important he is for us. It was good he could be out there tonight.
Q. That stretch when Maryland goes on a 5-0 run, and I think Coach calls timeout and you hit 'em back with a 7- or a 9-0 run. Is there something different in this team that maybe you wouldn't have been able to respond so quite directly that way maybe a couple of months ago? Did you see growth in the team that way?
JUWAN MORGAN: I definitely see growth. Before he called timeout, just walking back -- because I think it was a dead ball turnover when we were walking back before he called timeout and we just knew we had to get a stop and turn it around before things got out of hand. When he called that -- it was pretty much a player-driven timeout. He didn't have to say much; we knew what we had to do and we got it done.
Q. Juwan, so you don't practice early this week, 70 percent, 80 percent, and what drives you to play?
JUWAN MORGAN: It was at 100 percent tonight. And like I said, it was just the least I could do for my team. The way they were just going at it in practice and just really giving it their all then, it was the least I could do for them tonight. And I just went out there and showed what I could do.
Q. Was that something where they were going to watch you in warmups and make a decision or when did you know you were going to play tonight?
JUWAN MORGAN: I pretty much knew this morning just coming in and the trainer, Timmy G., was having me walk around and do some cutting in the training room. And I kind of knew it felt good. I knew I was going to be going.
THE MODERATOR: The team is now 4-0 in five games, five points or less, three of those were in Big Ten. They're 4-0 now in games five points or less.
Q. Justin, everybody seemed to play well tonight and you had a great night as well playing very effectively. Everybody seemed to play efficiently tonight. What led to that?
JUSTIN SMITH: I mean, I would say just how we prepared in practice. We really got after it and we really focused on the details. Because against Michigan State we kind of let the little things that make a good team go, we let that go. And that's what we really focused on in practice and we really went out there and showcased that tonight.
Q. There was a tangible dip in their points per possession right after halftime. Was there anything specific in terms of adjustment or maybe things said at halftime that really kind of keyed a strong defensive effort coming out of the break.
ZACH MCROBERTS: I don't think it was anything specific, just going in the locker room saying we need to lock guys up, play better defense. And then just focus on that in the beginning of the second half was a big focus for us. So just coming out there, locking guys up, playing team defense.
Q. Juwan, talk about the follow-up on the missed free throw there. What -- did you see where it was going to come off or sense where it was going to come off? Talk about that.
JUWAN MORGAN: I thought it was about to roll in and I jumped before it came out. And then by the time I came back down it was coming off. I knew I had enough time to get it off the ground before -- I think it was No. 10 who was blocking me out, and I just reached over him and got it and it was wide open.
Q. Take us through this dunk. What did you see and how did it feel?
JUSTIN SMITH: I mean Zach made a great play stealing the ball and I was running with him. I honestly didn't think he saw me. And he kind of just threw it back to me. I caught it and I dunked it and, I mean, it was nice. It was fun. Crowd liked it, I guess. But that's basically all it was, to be honest.
Q. How tough is a player like Cowan to defend, especially with the way you limited him in the second half, what does it say about this team defensively?
JUWAN MORGAN: It was pretty much a team approach on him. We knew any one guy wasn't going to be able to keep him scoreless tonight. He was going to get his.
But just being able to help when we're in the gaps when he's trying to drive or shots just putting three on the ball, like we try to do when he's coming off the screens. Just an all-around effort.
Q. Juwan, you have another quick two-day turnaround and talk about how big Illinois will be dealing with that?
JUWAN MORGAN: It will be tough. It's never easy just going two-day turnaround, but at the same time we have to prepare because they're playing the same amount of games as we are. And it's very important in the Big Ten especially on-the-road games, to get all the road wins that you can.
Q. Juwan, your thoughts on why do you feel you guys are 4-0 in games decided by five points or less?
JUWAN MORGAN: A credit to what Justin said earlier, it's the way we prepare in practice. We put ourselves in a position to win the game in tenth war, and when it comes down to it, we made winning plays, when it comes down to five or less points.
Q. How big was it, the hustle play, Zach rebound, defensive end, closing out in the defensive end, how big --
JUWAN MORGAN: They're huge, that's what he does in practice every day, too. It just translates to the game. I know guys hate getting guarded by Zach. And that kind of takes them out of their zone, takes them out of their game. And every stop he gets, even if it's just a little deflection that goes out of bounds and they get the ball back, that's enough for us to get in their head and try to get them to turn the ball complete next time.
Maryland Head Coach Mark Turgeon
"We played hard. We competed our tails off in a tough environment. We had a stretch that we couldn't score, but we never stopped trying. We just have to play a little bit better and play our smartest game. But give them a lot of credit. They were great defensively, but I told the guys 'We battled' We tried hard. We had Bruno go down and Cekovsky was in foul trouble. You know were limited, but we kept battling."
Q: In terms of the end of the game, is it just a matter of guys making the right play at the end, or no or doing too much at the end? In general.
COACH TURGEON: We didn't execute well enough to get shots we wanted and their defense was great and it's tough on the road. We didn't execute well enough, to be successful offensively."
Q: Just how did (not having Bruno) change the direction of the game?
COACH TURGEON: Bruno was playing pretty well. He made Morgan guard a little bit, put a little pressure on him and try to wear him down a little bit. He was the only one who could make him guard. So that's big. It puts foul pressure on him. Then Cekovsky picked up 3 and 4 pretty quickly after that so we were pretty limited.
Q: In terms of Anthony Cowan Jr. and the end of the game, he was obviously trying to will the team, carry them on his back, was there times where other guys were open?
COACH TURGEON: We're not great when Anthony has to do that. You've seen it so you know we're not great. We'll watch the film. He's young, sophomore, never going to come out. We can't take him out. You could have a thousand turnovers and he's going to stay in and that's part of the problem. He's been terrific all year. He was visibly frustrated and therefore he wasn't playing like how Anthony has played for us all year, but he battled."
How tough has this been? You had Michigan beat, you had Indiana right here at the end. These are two close losses on the road.
Coach: "Yeah, my kids battled. That's all I ask. If we were laying eggs it would be tougher, but we're battling. It's a tough year for us. We just have to keep battling. We just got to keep battling. We're getting better. We just weren't good enough tonight offensively on our execution to win this game, but we battled hard enough."
Maryland sophomre G/F Kevin Huerter
"Juwan (Morgan) is strong and athletic. He was a tough mismatch for us and made some big plays. He had the big rebound and put back and that was the play of the game for Indiana."
Indiana vs. Maryland
Jan.22, 2018
Indiana Head Coach Archie Miller
COACH MILLER: Heck of a win for our team against a really good Maryland team. It was a great environment. I thought our crowd, without a doubt, couldn't have done it without them in that last six to eight minutes. But I thought our guys really competed and played hard. And sometimes that's not easy when you come off the road, especially when you don't play well.
But I thought we had great concentration. I thought our leadership in the last few days was really good. And being able to get Juwan sort of back up and going again was a big key.
Q. Defensively seemed like you guys were a lot better in the second half. What was --
COACH MILLER: I thought in the first half, just in general, they started to play a smaller lineup, which we really hadn't seen a ton.
I thought they were running some motion rather than some of the stuff that we had normally seen. They got some looks. They spaced the floor a lot better.
And Cowan and Huerter are very good players. They got going, I think they had the first half, I think they had 18 or 20 of their team's points.
I thought in the second half we were much better on the ball. I thought we challenged things at the basket. It was a very physical game.
And defensively our percentage-wise, they shot 31 percent in the second half. And I thought our activity level with eight blocks and 10 steals kind of shows you how active we were.
Offensively, in the second half, it was a little bit of a grind. We were having a hard time getting out of our own way with some illegal screens, missed free throws and some things. But you take it any way you can get it.
Q. They hit that kind of 9-0 run, a few things there in the middle of the second half and there was a timeout. What I guess, you guys come right back out, I think hit them with a 7-0 run coming the other way.
COACH MILLER: It was a tough stretch for us. It was a tough stretch for us at that time. And I thought, like I said, give our guys credit, they bounced right back. Came back, I think, Juwan with a big basket. And there were some loose ball plays out there we got on the floor for, which was great to see. Then they got the building going which worked in our favor.
All in all, a game like that, a game of runs, you know, when you're playing against a very talented offensive team like Maryland to be able to hold them to 68 points, especially in the second half not let them get going. But it was a good night for us.
Q. When did you know that Juwan was going to play? And I guess how were you preparing the last few days of practice without him practicing?
COACH MILLER: Just in learning what his injury was at Michigan State, which was an ankle. He wasn't going to be able to play the rest of the Michigan State game. They took the second half and really just treated him. He started treatment right away.
Obviously Tim does an amazing job. But Juwan was detailed. I thought he showed improvement on Saturday, didn't practice. Tim thought maybe some walking noncontact stuff yesterday would be apparent.
I didn't want him to do that. We held him out again. And figuring that full nother round of treatments today that we would know by game time.
And Juwan said he felt pretty good. So obviously he played like it, which was good to see. If he didn't play, we would have been prepared to play with the guys on our team that had to play the bulk of the minutes. If he wasn't going to play, we had to maybe find a combination where Justin and Collin could play together at times, which hasn't happened all season as well.
Q. Looking for alternatives, Justin had a great day with Juwan in there. But great complement there, really efficient.
COACH MILLER: He was really good. They played small. So they switched a lot off the ball, which we thought he had an advantage. He's getting more comfortable. He's getting more confident around the basket. I thought you saw that in the first half. He had a jumper, had a nice countermove, where he was able to score with his left hand. Second half, made a couple off back screen, got a nice layup. But he's doing a nice job. Justin played well tonight.
Q. Your ability to win close games. What's the key to that?
COACH MILLER: Winning close games is about getting stops. If you can get stops and you can find a way to hang in tough games and get stops and your team is believing that you can win a game without scoring points, that's step one.
Being a tough-minded group, being a team that wants to battle all the way through, I think that's been good. I also think we have a really good player in Juwan Morgan that you can go to in the last four minutes of the game and he can get some things done for you, which was the case tonight.
Q. A guy like Juwan, an injury, can't practice, first game back he gets 25 points.
COACH MILLER: We were sort of waiting for him in the first half to see if he was going to feel his way through the game. Thought he had an advantage from his mobility standpoint but just wasn't sure he was going to be able to do it.
I think as he sort of got more comfortable in the first four to eight minutes, I think at that point in time it was a non-issue.
You turn your ankle, and a lot of guys handle it different ways. I think Juwan just played through the adrenalin tonight. And I'm sure he'll be sore as we head to Illinois on a quick turnaround. So hopefully, if anything, he gets some more rest before he plays again Wednesday.
Q. Kind of recurring theme, but Rob Johnson had eight rebounds, six of them maybe in the defensive end. Something like 33 rebounds in the last five games. Is that representative of what you need?
COACH MILLER: He's really taken it to another level in terms of what we're asking him to do. And I think his play speaks volumes. You're not worried about him shooting anymore.
He's an unbelievable defender right now for us. And he's really bought into the defensive rebounding by our guards because we're small.
And if he gets eight defensive rebounds, and our number is usually 12 -- I think we had seven at Michigan State. Seven total guard rebounds.
And there's a big reason why we weren't able to win any 50/50 balls or anything. I thought tonight was a little bit different. Rob had eight. Zach got three. Devonte got a couple. So we were up over our number.
But Rob is as coachable of a guy and he wants to do well. And I think at the end of the day he's just trying his but off to finish his career off the best way he can.
Q. You mentioned that the quick turnaround -- I think in the next eight days you have two two-day turnarounds.
COACH MILLER: Are you reminding me or are you trying to get me into trouble or something (laughter).
We're on an incredible run. It's an unprecedented run. Seven games in 17 days. Three times two times in three days in three consecutive weeks with the second game being on the road.
That's a tough task. You have to get a little bit healthy. You have to get a little bit lucky in terms of the health. That's the thing you care about the most this time of year is having everybody available.
But it's definitely going to be one of the more challenging runs we've been on. When you look at the games at home and when you look at the travel, it's going to be one of those deals where, in February 1st, when you look up, you like to see where you're at.
But Wednesday night, sometimes you make too much of it. Sometimes you see guys play their best games on back-to-backs or two games in three days. It's tough. The thing you're concerned about is the wear and tear on your guys' bodies. That's the big thing.
Q. Devonte's defense in the second half. How were you impressed with him, having a guy that could come in?
COACH MILLER: We needed some help. Josh had a rough night with fouls tonight. He wasn't in a rhythm. We needed another guy to step up and Devonte, I thought, did that. He did a decent job with them in the second half keeping them out of the lane.
Couple times I think he stripped them and whatnot. Devonte has just got to stick with it here. I think offensively some of the decision-making, some of the shots, obviously are questionable. But when he's out there for long stretches, we're better. And hopefully on Wednesday we're going to need him versus Illinois' pressure.
Indiana Player - Juwan Morgan, Zach McRoberts and Justin Smith
Q. Juwan, you guys were down like 7:52 you scored maybe like six or eight points, what turned it around at that point?
JUWAN MORGAN: It was really just hunkering down on the defensive end. As we continued to get stops we just got more and more run-outs and that opened up some things for our offense. And also just playing to our strengths -- everybody, nobody was trying to do anything out of character. And as we got further into the game we just kept getting those big stops.
Q. Juwan, what were the last two or three days like for you? We're you in pain? Was there any doubts you would play? Take us through the last 48, 72 hours?
JUWAN MORGAN: The first day I was in a lot of pain. I didn't think I was going to be able to play. But just continuous treatment and being here with training staff and just getting all the things I needed to get done. And it started to feel good and it hurt not being in practice because the guys were going hard in practice, so it was the least I could do going out tonight and giving it my all.
Q. Zach, Juwan Morgan, what's he bring, what's he do?
ZACH MCROBERTS: He played great for us tonight, on defense, offense. That big rebound towards the end after the missed free throw was huge for us. Just a little bit of everything. Obviously you see how important he is for us. It was good he could be out there tonight.
Q. That stretch when Maryland goes on a 5-0 run, and I think Coach calls timeout and you hit 'em back with a 7- or a 9-0 run. Is there something different in this team that maybe you wouldn't have been able to respond so quite directly that way maybe a couple of months ago? Did you see growth in the team that way?
JUWAN MORGAN: I definitely see growth. Before he called timeout, just walking back -- because I think it was a dead ball turnover when we were walking back before he called timeout and we just knew we had to get a stop and turn it around before things got out of hand. When he called that -- it was pretty much a player-driven timeout. He didn't have to say much; we knew what we had to do and we got it done.
Q. Juwan, so you don't practice early this week, 70 percent, 80 percent, and what drives you to play?
JUWAN MORGAN: It was at 100 percent tonight. And like I said, it was just the least I could do for my team. The way they were just going at it in practice and just really giving it their all then, it was the least I could do for them tonight. And I just went out there and showed what I could do.
Q. Was that something where they were going to watch you in warmups and make a decision or when did you know you were going to play tonight?
JUWAN MORGAN: I pretty much knew this morning just coming in and the trainer, Timmy G., was having me walk around and do some cutting in the training room. And I kind of knew it felt good. I knew I was going to be going.
THE MODERATOR: The team is now 4-0 in five games, five points or less, three of those were in Big Ten. They're 4-0 now in games five points or less.
Q. Justin, everybody seemed to play well tonight and you had a great night as well playing very effectively. Everybody seemed to play efficiently tonight. What led to that?
JUSTIN SMITH: I mean, I would say just how we prepared in practice. We really got after it and we really focused on the details. Because against Michigan State we kind of let the little things that make a good team go, we let that go. And that's what we really focused on in practice and we really went out there and showcased that tonight.
Q. There was a tangible dip in their points per possession right after halftime. Was there anything specific in terms of adjustment or maybe things said at halftime that really kind of keyed a strong defensive effort coming out of the break.
ZACH MCROBERTS: I don't think it was anything specific, just going in the locker room saying we need to lock guys up, play better defense. And then just focus on that in the beginning of the second half was a big focus for us. So just coming out there, locking guys up, playing team defense.
Q. Juwan, talk about the follow-up on the missed free throw there. What -- did you see where it was going to come off or sense where it was going to come off? Talk about that.
JUWAN MORGAN: I thought it was about to roll in and I jumped before it came out. And then by the time I came back down it was coming off. I knew I had enough time to get it off the ground before -- I think it was No. 10 who was blocking me out, and I just reached over him and got it and it was wide open.
Q. Take us through this dunk. What did you see and how did it feel?
JUSTIN SMITH: I mean Zach made a great play stealing the ball and I was running with him. I honestly didn't think he saw me. And he kind of just threw it back to me. I caught it and I dunked it and, I mean, it was nice. It was fun. Crowd liked it, I guess. But that's basically all it was, to be honest.
Q. How tough is a player like Cowan to defend, especially with the way you limited him in the second half, what does it say about this team defensively?
JUWAN MORGAN: It was pretty much a team approach on him. We knew any one guy wasn't going to be able to keep him scoreless tonight. He was going to get his.
But just being able to help when we're in the gaps when he's trying to drive or shots just putting three on the ball, like we try to do when he's coming off the screens. Just an all-around effort.
Q. Juwan, you have another quick two-day turnaround and talk about how big Illinois will be dealing with that?
JUWAN MORGAN: It will be tough. It's never easy just going two-day turnaround, but at the same time we have to prepare because they're playing the same amount of games as we are. And it's very important in the Big Ten especially on-the-road games, to get all the road wins that you can.
Q. Juwan, your thoughts on why do you feel you guys are 4-0 in games decided by five points or less?
JUWAN MORGAN: A credit to what Justin said earlier, it's the way we prepare in practice. We put ourselves in a position to win the game in tenth war, and when it comes down to it, we made winning plays, when it comes down to five or less points.
Q. How big was it, the hustle play, Zach rebound, defensive end, closing out in the defensive end, how big --
JUWAN MORGAN: They're huge, that's what he does in practice every day, too. It just translates to the game. I know guys hate getting guarded by Zach. And that kind of takes them out of their zone, takes them out of their game. And every stop he gets, even if it's just a little deflection that goes out of bounds and they get the ball back, that's enough for us to get in their head and try to get them to turn the ball complete next time.
Maryland Head Coach Mark Turgeon
"We played hard. We competed our tails off in a tough environment. We had a stretch that we couldn't score, but we never stopped trying. We just have to play a little bit better and play our smartest game. But give them a lot of credit. They were great defensively, but I told the guys 'We battled' We tried hard. We had Bruno go down and Cekovsky was in foul trouble. You know were limited, but we kept battling."
Q: In terms of the end of the game, is it just a matter of guys making the right play at the end, or no or doing too much at the end? In general.
COACH TURGEON: We didn't execute well enough to get shots we wanted and their defense was great and it's tough on the road. We didn't execute well enough, to be successful offensively."
Q: Just how did (not having Bruno) change the direction of the game?
COACH TURGEON: Bruno was playing pretty well. He made Morgan guard a little bit, put a little pressure on him and try to wear him down a little bit. He was the only one who could make him guard. So that's big. It puts foul pressure on him. Then Cekovsky picked up 3 and 4 pretty quickly after that so we were pretty limited.
Q: In terms of Anthony Cowan Jr. and the end of the game, he was obviously trying to will the team, carry them on his back, was there times where other guys were open?
COACH TURGEON: We're not great when Anthony has to do that. You've seen it so you know we're not great. We'll watch the film. He's young, sophomore, never going to come out. We can't take him out. You could have a thousand turnovers and he's going to stay in and that's part of the problem. He's been terrific all year. He was visibly frustrated and therefore he wasn't playing like how Anthony has played for us all year, but he battled."
How tough has this been? You had Michigan beat, you had Indiana right here at the end. These are two close losses on the road.
Coach: "Yeah, my kids battled. That's all I ask. If we were laying eggs it would be tougher, but we're battling. It's a tough year for us. We just have to keep battling. We just got to keep battling. We're getting better. We just weren't good enough tonight offensively on our execution to win this game, but we battled hard enough."
Maryland sophomre G/F Kevin Huerter
"Juwan (Morgan) is strong and athletic. He was a tough mismatch for us and made some big plays. He had the big rebound and put back and that was the play of the game for Indiana."
Players Mentioned
Guard
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