Postgame Quotes: Indiana vs. No. 3 Purdue

Postgame Quotes
Indiana vs. No. 3 Purdue
Jan. 28, 2018

Indiana Head Coach Archie Miller
Hats off to Purdue. Tough environment to come in to and probably didn't shoot the ball as well as they have in the past. Give them credit. That's what really good teams do. They find a way when it's not their day, in a tough environment, and they are able to get the job done.

For our guys, played really hard. Our guys really competed for the most part. We're in a catch 22 there with the big fella (Haas), he's a tough cover, especially for our guys in terms of the size differential. But, we battled, we gave ourselves a chance to win the game and like I told the team afterwards, I'm very disappointed we didn't come through. Our last two minutes, we squandered possessions, especially offensively. You can't do that in a big game like this against that type of team that'll make you pay.

For us, we have to have short term memory loss. We'll be on the plane tomorrow to Columbus and we play Tuesday against another ranked team, so we are going to have to be ready to roll on the road against obviously a team that has been sitting around for a few days waiting on us. And they are having a great year as well.

Q. On Purdue's difficult game on perimeter shooting:
Like I said, we didn't do a good enough job in our post coverages. At times, we had to stay in between him and the basket and make him earn tough baskets at times when we trapped. But when we post trapped tonight, it really cost us. I mean it really cost us. Our perimeter guys were completely non-existent on post traps. I think they scored probably nine points on us. So we couldn't establish a rhythm to continue to post trap. We weren't good enough at it and it hurt us. We needed to be able to do that more against him. We got to go back to work on that a little bit.

From a three-point perspective, they had been shooting the ball at an unbelievable level that at some level you would hope the numbers would come back. They missed some good ones. But I thought for the most part our guys did a good job of being on shooters and challenging shots when we could.

Q: On what happened in the final two minutes with squandering opportunities…
It was just organization. You can put it on me. The last two minutes, I probably should have gotten ourselves into a few timeout situations, where it could have helped out our team. Purdue is obviously tough to score on anyways. But Rob (Johnson) had a tough finish, I though it was rushed, we had a turnover in transition on a ball screen, and then late in the game when Rob had a curl and drive and ended up losing it. So those plays, you can maybe put those on me. I could have had our guys more organized in the last couple minutes and call a timeout and make sure we get a shot. We didn't do that, that killed us.

Q. On changing things to force Edwards to do things differently offensively:
I thought in the first half, clearly he was around the perimeter. He's been shooting the ball really well from three. He had some good looks that didn't go. Second half, he was much more of a driver, much more of a physical presence on the glass and in the post. They put him up against our forwards at times and he made some really good drives. He's maybe player of the year in the league to be honest with you as important he has been to their team. He's a great competitor.

I thought for the most part we hung in there pretty good. A couple of their other guys we didn't let them go off as much. You look at Mathias and Edwards, those guys didn't kill us from three like they have been coming into the game. The big fella was the difference. He neutralizes the game. Matt (Painter) does an unbelievable job of just getting him the ball where he doesn't need to do a lot to catch and score. He's so big. And we knew that coming in and that was going to be a problem.

Q. Freddie had some nice finishes and guarded Hass for long stretches. What did you see from him today?
COACH MILLER: Freddie did a really good job. He played strong. Obviously I thought he battled. I thought he really competed; he battled.

Then from an offensive perspective he gave us some great activity on the offensive glass withe some taps and a couple finishes.

So Freddie really came and helped us today. He's going to need to. I think Collin will be out for an extended period of time, so we'll need to move J-Mo back maybe to the small forward position and have Freddie in there a little bit more with Justin.

Q. What are some positive takeaways?
COACH MILLER: Positive?

Q. Yeah.
COACH MILLER: About today's game or just...

Q. Yeah.
COACH MILLER: We competed.

Q. In general.
COACH MILLER: It's big time. This is February. You're playing against the best teams in your conference. The stage is big.

I thought they rose to the occasion in front of an amazing crowd at our disposal tonight and guys really competed, played hard, and fought. That's all you can ask for right now.

As you get ready to go into another gauntlet like we're going to go Sunday, Tuesday, Saturday, Monday, four games in about eight days, you just really have little time to practice.

What you're relying on is film and energy and doing a better job of teaching through some days where you're not going to work a whole lot on the floor.

Without question, I thought we played extremely hard. I think you're looking at a team that understands this type of competition level, what you have to do.

I don't think anybody left the arena tonight and said those guys didn't bring it. I thought we played really, really hard today, so that's the positive.

Disappointing thing is it's about winning.

Q. Follow up on Collin. When did you know he couldn't play? How long do you think he'll be out?
COACH MILLER: You know, he had an awkward landing in practice yesterday towards the end. Really wasn't a foul or anything, just an awkward landing on a catch.

I think more than anything he got nervous. Just going through the docs and the checkups and whatnot. We'll leave it is as a lower-leg injury that's probably going to take him some time here. Hopefully not more than a couple weeks.

I suspect he probably be out moving in probably to the next couple games, especially having to play in such short order with recovery times.

We got to be careful with him, but I do think he'll be back.

Q. Not to beat a dead horse, but the free throw shooting...
COACH MILLER: Yeah. Just got to keep working on it. It's cost us. I mean, it really hurt us at Illinois, and again even tonight. You're in a 1-point game with about two minutes to go and you leave 7 at the board. We just have to keep working at it.

It's one thing not to dwell on. Just keep working at it, putting our guys in situations where they're clearly practicing the right way and getting in there.

Yeah, it's frustrating. You got guys that go to the line every day in practice and make them, and then in the game it just becomes that first miss sometimes I think that gets everybody a bit edgy.

Definitely hurts.

Q. Talk about Rob's play today.
COACH MILLER: Rob is really ready to play. He's a great leader; wants to do well; wants our team to do well. He's about all the right things.

I thought he really set the tone very early about how aggressive he was going to be. He made big shots, tough shots for us throughout the game. His defense for 36 minutes was really, really good. I thought he really battled defensively.

To me, Rob is an Iron Man for us. I think he is just a senior who has been doing things the right way. I think he just wants to finish as strong as he can.

Watching him today I thought he did a great job. We'll need him as we keep coming to play big minutes down the stretch against some of these teams.

Q. With Collin out, all your starters log really big minutes. How do you handle that with the schedule ahead?
COACH MILLER: Yeah, it's about recovery. We have a quick turnaround, as you said, to Tuesday night. We also have Saturday, Monday. Tonight really stuck with I thought a group that was really competing.

Our court rotation is really slim when you take a guy out. I thought the guys did a really good job. They logged heavy minutes, but I though we had a good group out there. They had good chemistry for the most part.

We kind of stuck a little bit with those guys. We tried to use our bench as much as possible.

Q. Last couple weeks Rob has really steadied his game. Guys like Josh and Devonte still kind of up and down, how do you kind of ride the highs and lows?
COACH MILLER: We're 22 games in; been riding it 22 games. Just keep trying to make him better and get guys to play their best ball at the right time. February is when you want to start to find guys in a rhythm.

No question: consistency and productivity from our guards, that's been something that when we've had it we've been good.

Obviously Rob answered the bell today. We didn't get much scoring from anyone else. Hopefully as many games continue to pound, we'll get some guy that can give us better minutes.

But it's been an issue all year, just consistent play, you know what you're getting. For the most part we were pretty good in that area tonight. Just got to find more guys playing their best at the right time of the year as I said.

Part of it is you got to learn from this, but you got to move on quick and get ready for Tuesday.

Indiana Players – Juwan Morgan and Robert Johnson
Q. Juwan, you guys seemed to do an effective job; seemed like you were giving up a little bit to Haas, let him have his.
JUWAN MORGAN: Yeah, going into the game we just knew that with the size disadvantage we knew that we couldn't panic. We couldn't just foul them; didn't want to give them 3-point plays.

We just knew that if we could just wall up between him and the basket and try to get as many as we can rebounded, and then we just tightened up as far as everywhere else.

That's what we tried to do.

Q. Just how tough was Edwards? I think 13 points in the second half. Was he creating matchup problems? How was he getting more effective after halftime?
ROBERT JOHNSON: I think just did a good job finding other ways to score. I think we did a good job of limiting his perimeter shots and not giving him open looks that way, but I think he did a good job of finding out a way to score.

Q. Robert, I think it was 65, 64; what was the key, the difference down the stretch?
ROBERT JOHNSON: I think we just never got that one stop that we needed to try to make a run and get a 4- or 5-point lead.

That's what it comes down to at the end of the game.

Q. Rob, to play the way you did today in your final Purdue game, do you feel like you left it all out there to the a court?
ROBERT JOHNSON: Yeah, I definitely do. Disappointed that we weren't able to get the win. I think we played well enough and hard enough as a team.

But just disappointing, and at the end of the day we just got to try to find a way to get better and bounce back for the next one.

Q. Last three minutes or so I think you had a turnover. Did you get rushed? What do you think happened there?
ROBERT JOHNSON: Yeah, yeah. I just think we didn't do a good job of executing. That's a part of executing down the stretch. You know, that's something that we have to get better at.

Q. Rob, what was it like having Victor here? Did you get a chance to talk to you guys before the game?
ROBERT JOHNSON: Yeah, it's always great when legends like him come back and try to give us a word of encouragement. He talked to us before the game. It was definitely exciting. It was something we really enjoyed.

Q. Purdue is third in the country; been on top of the Big 10 all year. Seeing them and then actually playing them, what's the most impressive thing?
JUWAN MORGAN: Just the way they play off each other; really how they use their big guys. They're just shooting the ball at a tremendous rate. Just the way they play defense, they're really tight, connected to one another on that side of the ball.

Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter
Q. Do you take certain pride that you guys in the fact you didn't shoot real well from the three but you guys were still able to gut out a victory?
COACH PAINTER: "Anytime you can get out on the road and be able to grind out a victory, especially in a physical game like this. I though Indiana's defense was great, caused us a lot of problems, and I thought our guys made some plays down the stretch, obviously going to Isaac is a huge weapon for us, being able to make our free throws and getting stops, but I thought Indiana played really hard. Like I said earlier they gave us a lot of problems."

Q. These past two wins, are they particularly satisfying because you faced your opponents' best or close to it. What does that say about your team?
COACH PAINTER: "In a rivalry game you're always going to get that. I think anytime you win the league the year before, you're going to get everyone's best shot and anytime you lead the league currently, you're going to get everyone's best shot. It's a combination of a lot of things. They are good players; Juwan Morgan is the most improved guy we have seen all year. He is unbelievable from where was to where he is now. Sometimes that happens between opportunity and natural growth, but man he's good. I've always been a huge fan of Robert Johnson."

Q. What is different about Morgan's game this year compared previous seasons?
COACH PAINTER: "I think a lot of time its opportunity, you can say that about our team. We went to the well a lot the last couple years with Hammonds and Caleb Swanigan are pretty good players, but a lot of people have talked about the improvement about our other guys. Well they have a more opportunity. I'd say that with Morgan. Morgan has more of an opportunity. He gets the ball a lot, he took 18 shots tonight. I don't know if he ever took eighteen shots in a game last year. So, he's the focal point of what they do and he's a mismatch nightmare. Everyone always thinks ultimate size, Isaac Haas was an advantage for us tonight, but Morgan was still an advantage offensively. He gave our two big guys fits. When you get that combo for to go against seven footers, that's a tough match up on both ends.

Q. Talk about the seniors' being able to win three in a row in this building?
COACH PAINTER: "It's a huge feather in the cap. That's an unbelievable environment. Anytime anybody ever asks me what's the toughest place to play, it's an easy answer for me. This is the toughest place to play in the league. If you think about how tough it is to win at East Lansing, how tough it is to win at Illinois, some of those environments, Michigan, are big time, Ohio State, but this has always been the toughest place to play for us."

Q. What do you think about Morgan's defensive efforts against Haas?
COACH PAINTER: "I thought he did a good job. I think it's you have a decision to make. Some people, three games ago, Isaac Haas took one shot, but we had made 20 3's. Today he shoots the ball 17 times and so I thought, 10 for 17 when he's getting the ball five feet from the basket, a lot of times he's one on one, but he didn't always guard him. They had McSwain on him some and they tried to mix guys up. The number one thing they want to do is keep Morgan in the game. You got to try to balance it best to your ability, but I though he did a really good job. You're giving up five or six inches down there and you have to battle that guy, you can let him get deep. So, you have to do your work early and that takes a lot of imagery out of you, especially when you're a guy that needs to score on the other end. I thought he was great."

Indiana University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Robert Johnson

Juwan Morgan

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