Postgame Quotes: Indiana vs. No. 5 Michigan State
2/3/2018 11:14:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Postgame Quotes
Indiana vs. No. 5 Michigan State
Feb. 3, 2018
Indiana Head Coach Archie Miller
COACH MILLER: Hard-fought game. Credit to Michigan State on being able to pull it out. And also a credit, I think, to our guys. I thought we played extremely hard and we brought the fight to the game that we needed.
Offensively they had a lot to do with the numbers, just in terms of impacting the rim and the field goal percentage offense with their shot blocking and their size, made it hard on us. And clearly we weren't able to dial it up from 3 again.
But credit our guys. I thought they really fought hard and played hard. We're getting, especially against some really good teams right now, you know, the last two to three minutes just having to find a way to make a couple of plays. And I think that's what teams who know how to win do, teams like Michigan State and Purdue. With two minutes on the line they know they're going to win.
And right now we're still trying to figure out how to make those, how to make those dagger plays to find a way to win it, and just wasn't able to do it tonight. And our whole focus right now is being able to start the game at Rutgers a heck of a lot better than we did at Ohio State.
Q. In Juwan's words, he said that they felt like they got punked the last time up at Michigan State. Tonight, was their response on the boards much better than the first game?
COACH MILLER: Without saying. We had a hard night up there. Playing in front of this crowd, it's hard not to be ready. And I thought we rebounded really well. The numbers, it's hard for me to imagine that we were able to rebound the ball like that. But Freddie in particular was really active. And I thought a lot of guys made a lot of hustle plays and played hard, just went after it.
And it's probably one of the things that helped us being able to get those extra shots. And being able to outrebound them is one of the reasons we probably hung around.
Q. Kind of a big-picture question, but you talked about winning plays, and it feels like these guys are making more of those but still, maybe, as you said, still need to find a way to make a couple more. Do you feel like this team is figuring it out behind the scenes in practice every day, maybe getting a little closer to that?
COACH MILLER: We're getting better. You're not able to play against the competition level like a Michigan State or Purdue. Those are home games and it helps to play at home. With our crowd and our fans, it's tough on opponents to come in here.
But it's the easy ones that bother you. It's coming up empty on a pair of free throws. It's missing a wide-open 3. Those are the plays you've got to make when you're playing against these type of teams. You have to be able to make the ones that are easy because you know the rest of them are going to be hard.
And open shots around the basket and behind the line and some key free throws again just kind of hurt us. But we'll be back at it. We'll be back at it on Monday, hopefully we'll have a chance to play better.
Q. Jared Jackson had seven blocks tonight. Why was he so effective down low?
COACH MILLER: He's really good. I don't think he just emerged tonight and said look at me. He's been doing it all year. He's a dominant defensive player. He leads our conference in shot blocking. He had seven blocks himself tonight. And to be honest with you, one of the reasons we were able to hang in the game in the second half is I don't think he played as much because when he was out there it was very difficult on us in terms of around the basket.
He just clears up every drive, every mistake that you make he's there. And we talked a lot about it before the game, though. We had a couple of stubborn guys there early in the game that tried to challenge him. And they have to be able to make those spray kick-out passes when he's running around. And when we did do a couple of those I thought we got a couple of easy ones. But he's very, very good.
Q. Didn't score the way you did at Ohio State, but Devonte Green was key to your big man down low, in the second half helped you get going.
COACH MILLER: Devonte's playing a really good floor game for us. He's the one guy right now that can deliver the ball from an assist standpoint. He's the guy that when he wants to distribute, he's the best guy on our team at that. And he got with it at Ohio State. He carried it over a little bit today.
And it's good. We need guys that are hunt and assists rather than shots, and six assists tonight, I think he had five or whatever he had at Ohio State. Even at Illinois he made some good passes. He's starting to come around a little bit for us, which is a good sign.
Q. You inserted Freddie into the starting lineup tonight and he obviously responded -- 16 rebounds. As a matter of fact him and Juwan combined, only two less than Michigan State as a team. They battled hard out there against those guys.
COACH MILLER: They did and part of starting Freddie tonight was, one, he's playing better and he's giving us some production. He's giving rebounding effort, he's giving us another physical guy out there that can play in the post a little bit from a defensive perspective.
But we want to avoid Juwan maybe picking up a quick one early one on Nick Ward. That's why we did it. Moving forward I don't know if we'll change back or not. But clearly the amount of minutes that he's played and how hard he played tonight the it's hard to duplicate 16 rebounds in a game like he did. He gave great effort. It's a credit to him, he played very hard tonight.
Q. Being as shorthanded as you guys are in the front core with injuries how hard is it to go against a team that's physical?
COACH MILLER: It's tough. You're outmanned a little bit in terms of the amount of bodies they can throw at you; that's why they're very good.
Clearly the inside play here lately has really taken its toll on us quite a bit, to be honest with you. The last couple of front lines we've played have obviously been very good. So you're getting a taste of what really good depth and big and size can do to you if you don't have enough bodies. But we had enough in the tank tonight.
Q. On the team's confidence.
COACH MILLER: Go to work. There's nothing to talk about right now. We're coming down the home stretch. We're trying to fight and claw for every win that we can. We have been on a tough stretch. Everybody knows that. It's all about Rutgers right now. We've got to get ready to go.
Q. You shot 17 percent in the first half, almost 42 percent in the second half. What did you tell the guys at halftime and what did you do offensively?
COACH MILLER: I thought we played inside out a little bit more through Juwan. I thought he did a nice job. Thought we were also able to get some, our defense to offense a couple times.
I thought some loose balls, some offensive rebounding got us going a couple times as well. We were active. We tried to fight it out. There wasn't a whole lot of changes going on out there in terms of us being able to get scores.
We had some good looks and we need to make those. But we also were a little better especially from two-point range in the first half.
First half everything around the basket. I think a lot had to do with Jaren Jackson maybe not playing as many minutes in the second half and us being able to score on a couple of their other guys.
Q. Same thing last week, short turnaround, on the road. Rutgers and a late game here tonight on top of that. And Rutgers had a great game today against Purdue, two-point game.
COACH MILLER: Rutgers plays very hard. They're a tough out any single time that you play and we've got our work cut out for us getting up there. Biggest deal is no excuses. It is what it is. We have to get off this floor, up, ready to go and find a way Monday night to play well.
That's the big thing. It's going to start with our leadership, start with our players being focused. I wasn't in a locker room tonight where everyone was disconnected or down. It was a locker room right there, if we could have played another one tonight, we would play another one. That's what you want to have. As we get through this Monday, take a deep breath, look, see there's a little bit more space between what we're doing. But we have to be ready to go on Monday night. That's a big game for us.
Q. Juwan talked about leadership. People talked about, points, rebounds, the way he's emerged both ends of the floor as a player. But he talked about leadership this year. When you talk about a locker room that's connected and guys really being ready to rebound, is he maybe a key to that?
COACH MILLER: He's a big key to it. Obviously he's one of the best players in the conference right now. I think he's showing that.
But our older guys, our older players that are coming down the home stretch, they have to stay engaged and positive. And at the same time they have to be really, really ready to go. And right now, you take a look, you know, the back court of Newkirk, Rob and Devonte, those numbers, from shooting the ball, those guys have to be more accountable. They've got to play better at times.
But it's not because of lack of attitude or lack of want to. It's just we're not that good right now in terms of making shots and being able to make plays. We've got to get a little more confidence.
But at the end of the day, the leadership comes from older guys, best players, and those guys step up in big moments when things aren't looking good. And that's an opportunity on Monday for all these guys right now to sort of help everyone get off the mat and be concentrated on our trip and be concentrated on Monday night.
I think, if anything, being able to take the Ohio State game and the lack of fight and the lack of energy at the beginning was a big reason why we didn't get the win. If we do it again, that's shame on us.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
Indiana Players - Juwan Morgan and Freddie McSwain Jr.
Q. Down the stretch seemed like you were, like a couple other games, couldn't get over the hump. What was the difference down the stretch not being able to get the lead?
JUWAN MORGAN: Down the stretch, they just made a couple more winning basketball plays than us. I know the ones that stand out are going to be baseline for the drift 3, that was a huge make on their part. And then a couple easy layups they got down in the last two wars. And those are just things we can't give up if we want to get over the hump.
Q. I know it's kind of a cliché thing, but this team has been so close. Maybe you could point to maybe one or two plays. But how do you maybe turn those two plays in your favor?
JUWAN MORGAN: That's just an everyday approach. Just going at it in practice, making sure everyone is being held accountable for things in practice that will translate over to the game. And just when it comes time for those plays, you just have to buckle down and do it.
Q. Freddie, you had 16 rebounds tonight. You were really active on the offensive glass. What was your mindset coming into this game? What were you trying to accomplish?
FREDDIE MCSWAIN, JR.: It wasn't really no accomplishment. I just wanted to really, just going out every day and just playing my hardest. Every time opportunity is called, start or coming off the bench, I say just come in help the team do whatever to help the team win, really.
Q. Freddie, you played 25 minutes against Ohio State and (inaudible). What's been working for you back to back (inaudible), more energy or (inaudible)?
FREDDIE MCSWAIN, JR.: Just being ready every day, every day at practice, before the game, just want to just go out there and help the team.
Q. How as a team do you rebound mentally and try not to lose focus to get back on track?
JUWAN MORGAN: We just have to get up off the mat and keep going at it. We can't keep saying we lost another one. We have to be ready to attack another day, another game and that's the mindset we're going into New Jersey with. We're ready to go.
FREDDIE MCSWAIN JR.: We're ready to go.
Q. Juwan, you had four points in the first and 19 in the second half. What happened?
JUWAN MORGAN: I kept attack mindset. In the first half I was getting blocked a couple times. I was just missing some easy bunnies. I didn't let it derail me from going into the post, doing what's been working for me all year.
Q. Juwan, your thoughts on Freddie, -- 16 rebounds in 29 minutes is an insane rate. What did you think of his performance? Why do you think he was so effective on the boards?
JUWAN MORGAN: That's what he does every day. He attacks the glass relentlessly. The way we see it, nobody can keep him off the glass. As a result that's what the 16 boards looks like.
Q. Looked to me, after halftime, Devonte helped get you guys going. Talk about his play.
FREDDIE MCSWAIN JR.: He's a key player on our team. When he gets going, playing well, we all play well. And he works just like that every game. If he keeps going like that, we'll be a good team.
JUWAN MORGAN: And just going off that, making the simple plays. He wasn't trying to hit any home runs or anything like that. Locking down the defense and hitting open man on offense.
Q. You were battling, blocks 13 overall. You guys owned the rebounds. You two combined for just two or three less than they did as a team. How (inaudible) rebounds, although they weren't as happy as --
JUWAN MORGAN: In East Lansing they punked us. In a few words, that's what happened. We came to this mindset, I know me, Freddie, Collin and Justin, we talked amongst each other and we were, like, this can't happen. Like, the guards are going to have to do what they have to do, get their 12 boards amongst them, but we need at least one or two of us to go get 10. And that's what we did.
Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo
Opening Statement:
IZZO: I'm probably going to sound a little bit like an IU fan but I do want to publicly thank IU. I want to thank their president, A.D., coach, players, fans, and students. Whatever they sent out was very classy and well done, and very much appreciated, handling themselves without some of the things that needed to be said. I take my hat off to them.
As far as their team: I've had some incredible wins and disappointing losses over my career, and I've had a few wins that I didn't feel very good about. Sometimes we turn the ball over a zillion times, like at Michigan with 26 points off turnovers to our seven. That bothers you. Sometimes back in the day you'd shoot 20 percent from the field, and that bothers you. But very seldom does one of our teams get out-worked or out-hustled the way Indiana did it. The 25-3 difference on offensive rebounds is an insult to me, my players, and anybody who ever played here, I was very disappointed in that. To find a way to win on the road against a team that took Purdue right to the wire, took Duke right to the wire, and the place was hopping here tonight. I think that's an accomplishment. We had a 10-point lead most of the game, but didn't do any of the little things we needed to do to go on and be a great team. This program has been built on heart and toughness, and tonight we weren't the tougher team. I'm going to try to take the blame for that myself, and maybe we'll get to bring the shoulder pads out again or something fun, have a little fun with our guys. I thought Cassius [Winston] played a pretty good second half; Nick [Ward] played a pretty good second half when we got him in there because of foul trouble; and [Matt] McQuaid was our star tonight. Other than that, we had a lot of guys that just existed out there, and I was disappointed.
Commented on a day when a lot of ranked teams again don't figure out a way to win. Even with a way the stat sheet looked, is it kind of one of those nights where you are glad to at least get out of there with a win?
IZZO: I'd say yes, normally I'd feel that way if we would've turned it over 100 times or shot 20 percent. To go against what our program stands for—the rebounding and toughness—it's hard for me to do that. I'm sure that by the time I get on the plane or get home, I'll feel different about that because I'll appreciate the fact that we won a game in a hostile, great atmosphere and place. I can't speak enough about that; Archie did a good job and his kids played so hard. When he started McSwain, it reminded me of me starting Antonio Smith where maybe he couldn't shoot or do this or that, but he played so damn hard it was impressive.
What do you want to see from Miles Bridges over the next month? Where would you like to see him take his game?
IZZO: Tonight was an oddity. Miles has had five big games in a row where he has, for the most part, played very well. Tonight he starts out and scores five points early; but for the first time I was a little disappointed in Miles in the rebounding part and a lot of different parts. He gets eight rebounds, but no offensive rebounds. I don't know, maybe we are a little tired. We've had a rough stretch here of games, some of them close together, and we've been on the road a little bit more and we're back on the road on Tuesday. I need him to be more into it but it wasn't his lack of motivation. They just did a good job and we did a poor job of putting him in a position to score. As always, it's not all his fault; his fault is every loose ball that was there, we didn't get any of them. I don't think we got any of them. That's our fault. Some of the things offensively are probably my fault.
Indiana vs. No. 5 Michigan State
Feb. 3, 2018
Indiana Head Coach Archie Miller
COACH MILLER: Hard-fought game. Credit to Michigan State on being able to pull it out. And also a credit, I think, to our guys. I thought we played extremely hard and we brought the fight to the game that we needed.
Offensively they had a lot to do with the numbers, just in terms of impacting the rim and the field goal percentage offense with their shot blocking and their size, made it hard on us. And clearly we weren't able to dial it up from 3 again.
But credit our guys. I thought they really fought hard and played hard. We're getting, especially against some really good teams right now, you know, the last two to three minutes just having to find a way to make a couple of plays. And I think that's what teams who know how to win do, teams like Michigan State and Purdue. With two minutes on the line they know they're going to win.
And right now we're still trying to figure out how to make those, how to make those dagger plays to find a way to win it, and just wasn't able to do it tonight. And our whole focus right now is being able to start the game at Rutgers a heck of a lot better than we did at Ohio State.
Q. In Juwan's words, he said that they felt like they got punked the last time up at Michigan State. Tonight, was their response on the boards much better than the first game?
COACH MILLER: Without saying. We had a hard night up there. Playing in front of this crowd, it's hard not to be ready. And I thought we rebounded really well. The numbers, it's hard for me to imagine that we were able to rebound the ball like that. But Freddie in particular was really active. And I thought a lot of guys made a lot of hustle plays and played hard, just went after it.
And it's probably one of the things that helped us being able to get those extra shots. And being able to outrebound them is one of the reasons we probably hung around.
Q. Kind of a big-picture question, but you talked about winning plays, and it feels like these guys are making more of those but still, maybe, as you said, still need to find a way to make a couple more. Do you feel like this team is figuring it out behind the scenes in practice every day, maybe getting a little closer to that?
COACH MILLER: We're getting better. You're not able to play against the competition level like a Michigan State or Purdue. Those are home games and it helps to play at home. With our crowd and our fans, it's tough on opponents to come in here.
But it's the easy ones that bother you. It's coming up empty on a pair of free throws. It's missing a wide-open 3. Those are the plays you've got to make when you're playing against these type of teams. You have to be able to make the ones that are easy because you know the rest of them are going to be hard.
And open shots around the basket and behind the line and some key free throws again just kind of hurt us. But we'll be back at it. We'll be back at it on Monday, hopefully we'll have a chance to play better.
Q. Jared Jackson had seven blocks tonight. Why was he so effective down low?
COACH MILLER: He's really good. I don't think he just emerged tonight and said look at me. He's been doing it all year. He's a dominant defensive player. He leads our conference in shot blocking. He had seven blocks himself tonight. And to be honest with you, one of the reasons we were able to hang in the game in the second half is I don't think he played as much because when he was out there it was very difficult on us in terms of around the basket.
He just clears up every drive, every mistake that you make he's there. And we talked a lot about it before the game, though. We had a couple of stubborn guys there early in the game that tried to challenge him. And they have to be able to make those spray kick-out passes when he's running around. And when we did do a couple of those I thought we got a couple of easy ones. But he's very, very good.
Q. Didn't score the way you did at Ohio State, but Devonte Green was key to your big man down low, in the second half helped you get going.
COACH MILLER: Devonte's playing a really good floor game for us. He's the one guy right now that can deliver the ball from an assist standpoint. He's the guy that when he wants to distribute, he's the best guy on our team at that. And he got with it at Ohio State. He carried it over a little bit today.
And it's good. We need guys that are hunt and assists rather than shots, and six assists tonight, I think he had five or whatever he had at Ohio State. Even at Illinois he made some good passes. He's starting to come around a little bit for us, which is a good sign.
Q. You inserted Freddie into the starting lineup tonight and he obviously responded -- 16 rebounds. As a matter of fact him and Juwan combined, only two less than Michigan State as a team. They battled hard out there against those guys.
COACH MILLER: They did and part of starting Freddie tonight was, one, he's playing better and he's giving us some production. He's giving rebounding effort, he's giving us another physical guy out there that can play in the post a little bit from a defensive perspective.
But we want to avoid Juwan maybe picking up a quick one early one on Nick Ward. That's why we did it. Moving forward I don't know if we'll change back or not. But clearly the amount of minutes that he's played and how hard he played tonight the it's hard to duplicate 16 rebounds in a game like he did. He gave great effort. It's a credit to him, he played very hard tonight.
Q. Being as shorthanded as you guys are in the front core with injuries how hard is it to go against a team that's physical?
COACH MILLER: It's tough. You're outmanned a little bit in terms of the amount of bodies they can throw at you; that's why they're very good.
Clearly the inside play here lately has really taken its toll on us quite a bit, to be honest with you. The last couple of front lines we've played have obviously been very good. So you're getting a taste of what really good depth and big and size can do to you if you don't have enough bodies. But we had enough in the tank tonight.
Q. On the team's confidence.
COACH MILLER: Go to work. There's nothing to talk about right now. We're coming down the home stretch. We're trying to fight and claw for every win that we can. We have been on a tough stretch. Everybody knows that. It's all about Rutgers right now. We've got to get ready to go.
Q. You shot 17 percent in the first half, almost 42 percent in the second half. What did you tell the guys at halftime and what did you do offensively?
COACH MILLER: I thought we played inside out a little bit more through Juwan. I thought he did a nice job. Thought we were also able to get some, our defense to offense a couple times.
I thought some loose balls, some offensive rebounding got us going a couple times as well. We were active. We tried to fight it out. There wasn't a whole lot of changes going on out there in terms of us being able to get scores.
We had some good looks and we need to make those. But we also were a little better especially from two-point range in the first half.
First half everything around the basket. I think a lot had to do with Jaren Jackson maybe not playing as many minutes in the second half and us being able to score on a couple of their other guys.
Q. Same thing last week, short turnaround, on the road. Rutgers and a late game here tonight on top of that. And Rutgers had a great game today against Purdue, two-point game.
COACH MILLER: Rutgers plays very hard. They're a tough out any single time that you play and we've got our work cut out for us getting up there. Biggest deal is no excuses. It is what it is. We have to get off this floor, up, ready to go and find a way Monday night to play well.
That's the big thing. It's going to start with our leadership, start with our players being focused. I wasn't in a locker room tonight where everyone was disconnected or down. It was a locker room right there, if we could have played another one tonight, we would play another one. That's what you want to have. As we get through this Monday, take a deep breath, look, see there's a little bit more space between what we're doing. But we have to be ready to go on Monday night. That's a big game for us.
Q. Juwan talked about leadership. People talked about, points, rebounds, the way he's emerged both ends of the floor as a player. But he talked about leadership this year. When you talk about a locker room that's connected and guys really being ready to rebound, is he maybe a key to that?
COACH MILLER: He's a big key to it. Obviously he's one of the best players in the conference right now. I think he's showing that.
But our older guys, our older players that are coming down the home stretch, they have to stay engaged and positive. And at the same time they have to be really, really ready to go. And right now, you take a look, you know, the back court of Newkirk, Rob and Devonte, those numbers, from shooting the ball, those guys have to be more accountable. They've got to play better at times.
But it's not because of lack of attitude or lack of want to. It's just we're not that good right now in terms of making shots and being able to make plays. We've got to get a little more confidence.
But at the end of the day, the leadership comes from older guys, best players, and those guys step up in big moments when things aren't looking good. And that's an opportunity on Monday for all these guys right now to sort of help everyone get off the mat and be concentrated on our trip and be concentrated on Monday night.
I think, if anything, being able to take the Ohio State game and the lack of fight and the lack of energy at the beginning was a big reason why we didn't get the win. If we do it again, that's shame on us.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
Indiana Players - Juwan Morgan and Freddie McSwain Jr.
Q. Down the stretch seemed like you were, like a couple other games, couldn't get over the hump. What was the difference down the stretch not being able to get the lead?
JUWAN MORGAN: Down the stretch, they just made a couple more winning basketball plays than us. I know the ones that stand out are going to be baseline for the drift 3, that was a huge make on their part. And then a couple easy layups they got down in the last two wars. And those are just things we can't give up if we want to get over the hump.
Q. I know it's kind of a cliché thing, but this team has been so close. Maybe you could point to maybe one or two plays. But how do you maybe turn those two plays in your favor?
JUWAN MORGAN: That's just an everyday approach. Just going at it in practice, making sure everyone is being held accountable for things in practice that will translate over to the game. And just when it comes time for those plays, you just have to buckle down and do it.
Q. Freddie, you had 16 rebounds tonight. You were really active on the offensive glass. What was your mindset coming into this game? What were you trying to accomplish?
FREDDIE MCSWAIN, JR.: It wasn't really no accomplishment. I just wanted to really, just going out every day and just playing my hardest. Every time opportunity is called, start or coming off the bench, I say just come in help the team do whatever to help the team win, really.
Q. Freddie, you played 25 minutes against Ohio State and (inaudible). What's been working for you back to back (inaudible), more energy or (inaudible)?
FREDDIE MCSWAIN, JR.: Just being ready every day, every day at practice, before the game, just want to just go out there and help the team.
Q. How as a team do you rebound mentally and try not to lose focus to get back on track?
JUWAN MORGAN: We just have to get up off the mat and keep going at it. We can't keep saying we lost another one. We have to be ready to attack another day, another game and that's the mindset we're going into New Jersey with. We're ready to go.
FREDDIE MCSWAIN JR.: We're ready to go.
Q. Juwan, you had four points in the first and 19 in the second half. What happened?
JUWAN MORGAN: I kept attack mindset. In the first half I was getting blocked a couple times. I was just missing some easy bunnies. I didn't let it derail me from going into the post, doing what's been working for me all year.
Q. Juwan, your thoughts on Freddie, -- 16 rebounds in 29 minutes is an insane rate. What did you think of his performance? Why do you think he was so effective on the boards?
JUWAN MORGAN: That's what he does every day. He attacks the glass relentlessly. The way we see it, nobody can keep him off the glass. As a result that's what the 16 boards looks like.
Q. Looked to me, after halftime, Devonte helped get you guys going. Talk about his play.
FREDDIE MCSWAIN JR.: He's a key player on our team. When he gets going, playing well, we all play well. And he works just like that every game. If he keeps going like that, we'll be a good team.
JUWAN MORGAN: And just going off that, making the simple plays. He wasn't trying to hit any home runs or anything like that. Locking down the defense and hitting open man on offense.
Q. You were battling, blocks 13 overall. You guys owned the rebounds. You two combined for just two or three less than they did as a team. How (inaudible) rebounds, although they weren't as happy as --
JUWAN MORGAN: In East Lansing they punked us. In a few words, that's what happened. We came to this mindset, I know me, Freddie, Collin and Justin, we talked amongst each other and we were, like, this can't happen. Like, the guards are going to have to do what they have to do, get their 12 boards amongst them, but we need at least one or two of us to go get 10. And that's what we did.
Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo
Opening Statement:
IZZO: I'm probably going to sound a little bit like an IU fan but I do want to publicly thank IU. I want to thank their president, A.D., coach, players, fans, and students. Whatever they sent out was very classy and well done, and very much appreciated, handling themselves without some of the things that needed to be said. I take my hat off to them.
As far as their team: I've had some incredible wins and disappointing losses over my career, and I've had a few wins that I didn't feel very good about. Sometimes we turn the ball over a zillion times, like at Michigan with 26 points off turnovers to our seven. That bothers you. Sometimes back in the day you'd shoot 20 percent from the field, and that bothers you. But very seldom does one of our teams get out-worked or out-hustled the way Indiana did it. The 25-3 difference on offensive rebounds is an insult to me, my players, and anybody who ever played here, I was very disappointed in that. To find a way to win on the road against a team that took Purdue right to the wire, took Duke right to the wire, and the place was hopping here tonight. I think that's an accomplishment. We had a 10-point lead most of the game, but didn't do any of the little things we needed to do to go on and be a great team. This program has been built on heart and toughness, and tonight we weren't the tougher team. I'm going to try to take the blame for that myself, and maybe we'll get to bring the shoulder pads out again or something fun, have a little fun with our guys. I thought Cassius [Winston] played a pretty good second half; Nick [Ward] played a pretty good second half when we got him in there because of foul trouble; and [Matt] McQuaid was our star tonight. Other than that, we had a lot of guys that just existed out there, and I was disappointed.
Commented on a day when a lot of ranked teams again don't figure out a way to win. Even with a way the stat sheet looked, is it kind of one of those nights where you are glad to at least get out of there with a win?
IZZO: I'd say yes, normally I'd feel that way if we would've turned it over 100 times or shot 20 percent. To go against what our program stands for—the rebounding and toughness—it's hard for me to do that. I'm sure that by the time I get on the plane or get home, I'll feel different about that because I'll appreciate the fact that we won a game in a hostile, great atmosphere and place. I can't speak enough about that; Archie did a good job and his kids played so hard. When he started McSwain, it reminded me of me starting Antonio Smith where maybe he couldn't shoot or do this or that, but he played so damn hard it was impressive.
What do you want to see from Miles Bridges over the next month? Where would you like to see him take his game?
IZZO: Tonight was an oddity. Miles has had five big games in a row where he has, for the most part, played very well. Tonight he starts out and scores five points early; but for the first time I was a little disappointed in Miles in the rebounding part and a lot of different parts. He gets eight rebounds, but no offensive rebounds. I don't know, maybe we are a little tired. We've had a rough stretch here of games, some of them close together, and we've been on the road a little bit more and we're back on the road on Tuesday. I need him to be more into it but it wasn't his lack of motivation. They just did a good job and we did a poor job of putting him in a position to score. As always, it's not all his fault; his fault is every loose ball that was there, we didn't get any of them. I don't think we got any of them. That's our fault. Some of the things offensively are probably my fault.
Players Mentioned
Guard
/ Men's Basketball
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