Indiana University Athletics
Head Coach Mike Davis Quotes
11/18/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 18, 2005
Head Coach Mike Davis
Post-game Statement
"We got of to a slow start tonight, maybe first game jitters, but I thought guys played the way we played against St. Joe's the first exhibition game - gave up too many points in the first half, but in the second half we held them to 23 points, which I thought was good. A lot of guys who played tonight played well. [Roderick] Wilmont will be back on Monday night, Cem Dinc hurt his toe, that's why he didn't play, and Ben [Allen] got off to a really slow start, and I didn't want to put him in against smaller guys. But, other than that, I thought we rebounded the basketball well. I thought they played hard, made some shots the first half, but overall, I thought we rebounded the basketball a lot better. For us to go at rebounds is a step in the right direction."
On Marshall Strickland's Performance:
"Well, I think Strickland, when I saw him play in high school, he was a transition-type player, up-and-down the court. Unfortunately for him, the first three years, we basically played a half-court offense. And this year we push the ball up the court, and that's his style of play, running and shooting the basketball. And I think it's going to help him more than anybody on our team, because we are playing up-tempo. It's taken him a while to get back into that up-tempo mode, but the last two games, the Indianapolis game and tonight, I thought he played a lot better. He's shooting extra after practice, before practice, and he was 9-for-12 and two of his shots he missed were just wide open shots, so I was pleased with his performance, offensively, and he's going to play this way a lot, I think, because that's his style of play."
On Offense
"I was [pleased with the offense]. We're going to score some points, I think. We scored 99 points, and we still had a feeling inside like we have a long way to go. And I like that. That's a positive thing for us to score 99 points, no matter who's it against, and still feel like you got a lot of room for improvement.
On Improvements
"We gotta play better defense. And I think, the way we're playing, up and down, you have a tendency sometimes to think about the offensive end, and getting out and running, rather than focusing on rebounding the basketball and make sure we take care of the defensive end. We made some mental mistakes in the first half."
On Errek Suhr
"Suhr's always the same. I say this over and over and over again, he's the one guy you know every single night he's going to come out and play and do exactly what you tell him to do, and he was the same. He's a hard-nosed player - he had eight rebounds, and so, for him to get eight rebounds."
On Marco "Marco's fantastic - I've been saying it for 4 years now, and you still haven't seen him play. He still has a long way to go. It's amazing how well he's playing, and there's a lot of room for improvement for Marco...12-for-18, 28 [points], 13 [rebounds] - when was the last time we've had a presence inside like that, that you just go to him and he's going to pass the ball back out - he got 6 assists tonight - and he probably had two or three plays he made guys miss open shots, so Marco is Marco."
