Indiana University Athletics
Mike Davis Quotes
1/3/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 3, 2006
Indiana Head Coach Mike Davis Quotes
Indiana vs. Michigan
January 3, 2006
Opening Statement:
MD: "That was a good basketball team we played tonight. We knew it would be. They were 10-1 coming in. I was bragging on Tommy (Amaker) about having all his guys. I guess (Lester) Abram got hurt, and they really missed him tonight. I thought (Daniel) Horton and (Dion) Harris did a great job for them scoring points. (Graham) Brown was just unbelievable with 21 rebounds. The Big Ten will be a tough conference this year, and every game will be like this. It will be a grind and a fight. I thought we had typical first conference game jitters. Michigan had a lot to do with that because they played well defensively. They really attacked the offensive glass aggressively in the first half. I thought the second half (Robert) Vaden came out and played the way we need him to play. He only took one shot in the first half and scored 17 points in the second half because he was aggressive offensively. When he plays like that he is very good."
On the teams play in the first half compared to second:
MD: "We just kind of stood around. We knew they would try to switch our bigs. We didn't execute offensively. Our cuts were too slow, and we held the ball too long. When you watch us play, we don't hold the ball we catch, look and reverse the basketball. I thought the first five or six offensive rebounds was a case of them tapping the ball back out and having guys out there. It was not because they were point blank and had lay-ups, but they were able to get their hands on it because we didn't block them out. It was definitely two different halves. The first half we got out to a five-point lead and kind of goofed around a little bit but they had a lot to do with that. We came back in the second half and scored 46 points. We did not push the ball in the first half the way I want to push it. Our big guys, D.J. is no where near where he needs to be. This was the first game he played in where the opposition was very good and very skilled. I think the next game he'll be good because he will be used to it."
On Robert Vaden:
MD: "I've said Vaden is our best player for a while. He has the highest basketball IQ on this basketball team. He's our best basketball player his problem is just not being aggressive. He won't take control of the game, but that's good in a way because he shares the basketball. I wouldn't be surprised when it's all said and done he isn't our leader in scoring, rebounding and assists because of the way he plays the game. He is a special player and stepped it up. If we didn't have Robert Vaden in the second half we would of lost this basketball game."
On saying anything to Vaden at halftime:
"I didn't say a word to him, he knows. I mean at one point he didn't take a three-point shot. He had hit 10 in a row when the record is 15, and I thought he was thinking about that. He turned down a few opportunities in the first half. I didn't know what was going on. He was player of the week this week in the Big Ten, the first time he won that honor and he was just not aggressive."
