Indiana University Athletics
Tom Crean Previews Matchup vs. Penn State
1/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 12, 2015
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BLOMINGTON, Ind. - Read what head coach Tom Crean had to say as he previewed Tuesday's game in Assembly Hall vs. Penn State (7 p.m.; Big Ten Network).
Opening statement...
“First, the recap is it was a huge win for us. To beat an experienced team like (Ohio State), the way they’ve been playing, especially coming off their road win against Minnesota, and with the experience they have and the firepower offensively and the abilities they have defensively. Especially after somewhat of a slow start to have the response that we had and to continue to get better during the game, which I thought was really, really important inside of it. It’s kind of where we’re at. We’re going to make some youthful, inexperienced mistakes. We’ve got some guys that have got to continue to learn, to understand the consistency that’s needed and most importantly, when they bring the effort and they bring the intelligence and they bring the hard-nosed play, then we’ve got a chance to get consistent. Shooting can make up for a multitude of mistakes, well so can just playing hard and competing, and that’s what we have to understand. Sometimes it sounds more simple than it is, but really that’s what it has to be.
As we get ready for tomorrow night, we’re playing a team that never stops coming and we learned that certainly last year in here. Pat (Chambers)’s team at Boston U, his background before that at Villanova and after that certainly being at Penn State with what he’s done. They always keep coming at you. They play physical, they play aggressive and they give tremendous ball pressure that’s backed up my excellent help. He always has a very good mix of size where they’re smaller in some areas and bigger in others and they put matchup issues on the court constantly. They’re moving the ball at a very good rate, certainly D.J. Newbill is playing at an extremely high rate, and he’s been building to that for some time, there’s no doubt about that. You’ve had to guard him since the day he got in the league and he’s just added more to his game. They bring confidence, he’s recruiting very well and now he’s got some experienced guys that know what he wants done and it’s going to be a very, very tough battle because they challenge you mentally and physically not to make mistakes. They’re like everybody else, if you make them, they can capitalize on them.
Our situation is we just have to continue to get better inside of the games and keep learning that it’s not going to be a perfect game. There’s going to be times the shots aren’t going, there’s going to be times fouls are called, there’s going to be time mistakes come. But, you have to be able to overcome them. The fact that we’ve had a couple very close wins for us right now of our two (Big Ten) wins I think will only come back to help us. Certainly you’d like to have them be a little bit more of a margin of victory inside of the game, but when you get back and look at it and you find how you win, especially with Nebraska and Ohio State, I think those are very, very helpful to us.
It’s two teams; both of us are sitting here at 12-4 overall with a mutual respect for one another. We’ll be excited to have our students back and hopefully have a great crowd and certainly we’re happy to be able to turn right back around and play after not playing for almost three weeks at home until this past Saturday.”
On how the team turned it around after a slow start against Ohio State...
“I think a couple things. I think we got good bench play when we went to the bench. I think the guys that we took out of the game really came back and responded quickly and I think that’s the key. It wasn’t like we shot it a lot better, certainly Nick (Zeisloft)’s 3’s were crucial. But again, it’s all about momentum and somebody’s got to capture it. Doesn’t matter if it’s a starter or somebody coming off the bench. I though Collin (Hartman) did an excellent job of that, I though Nick did a very good job of that, Stan (Robinson) came in and gave us solid time, when James (Blackmon) and Troy (Williams) went back in to the game they’re play picked up significantly. I think those are the keys.
When your capable of shooting the ball, when you’re capable of scoring points and it doesn’t happen like you drew it up or it doesn’t happen like you had hoped it did, you have to understand that when you go in with a mindset of hustle, of defense, of rebounding, of next pass, of getting back on defense, those are the things that you can control and I think our guys did a good job of that during the game and that was key for us.”
On if he’s considered putting Emmitt Holt of Collin Hartman into the starting lineup...
“I’m not really thinking about the starting lineup in that sense. The starting lineup is always subject to change. It’s not a give on any given night. I made a decision to start somebody 30 minutes before the game the other day, it’s just the way that it is. I don’t make decisions based on the starting lineup based on any type of bandwagon situation. My job is to keep making sure that they’re getting better constantly. If I change the starting lineup, you’ll see it when it’s announced. But, I really don’t put a lot of extra time into that.
On the energy they bring to avoid a slow start...
“I don’t know if that’s the case. We’ve got guys that are capable in the starting lineup of providing energy. Hanner Perea in the second half of the Nebraska game--we don’t win that game without him. Hanner’s situation has been foul trouble and that’s what it’s been more than anything else. (He) gets the first and he quickly gets that second. There’s always moving parts in the game and that’s not going to change. It’s been there since the beginning of the game; it’s not a static game. The only thing constant is there is going to be change in the game--other than that, it is what it is so we’ll see how it goes.
On if he’s seen change in Hanner over the past few days...
“Yeah, he’s been fine. He’s been getting better all year long. That’s the key for him--he just continues to remain consistent. The biggest thing for him is that if he brings the consistency of how he practices to every game, we’ll never have a conversation about it. He’s young in certain respects as a player--he’s not young maybe age wise but he’s young in the respects of how much he’s doing on the court for us so it takes some time to get to that point. When he doesn’t play with the energy level or doesn’t play with the awareness level or doesn’t play with the rebounding mindset, then that’s another story. When those things there and other things come up, then we just have to deal with that. We’ll keep pushing him to get better every day like we do the rest of them.
On how much ball movement and offensive rebounding helps create opportunities...
“Well that’s a big part of it but an even bigger part of it is the constant, or consistency of purpose is the best way to say of getting to the glass. James (Blackmon Jr.) has to do that. Nick (Zeisloft) has to do that. Collin Hartman didn’t go to the glass Monday night like he did this past Saturday. Troy (Williams) has to be there constantly. That’s the energy level you want, and in the case of Hanner, he needs to be as active on the offensive glass as he is the defensive glass and rebound out of his area--not allow people to block him out and use his quickness and react quick. Those are the type of things we’re looking at. The ball movement--we’re not going to be successful if we don’t move the ball, so everything else falls in line with that. To move the ball, you have to get great cuts, which move the defense. You got to get good screening. The defense decides who they’re going to guard, who they’re not going to guard, how they’re going to react to a ball screen, how they’re going to react to a pin down, those types of things. You just got to keep making sure you’re making them react. If the ball starts to slow down, if the ball starts to be dribbled rather than be driven or passed, if you’re not screening, and you’re exchanging bodies or you’re whiffing or you’re--sometimes we slip a screen but that’s a call, that’s not a predetermined decision unless there’s something we see or they see in the game. But ball movement, body movement for us are crucial because we got to get rebounds from a lot of different people. It’s an attitude more than anything else and we spent a lot of time last week on that attitude, especially with the guards.
On if he prefers people get warmed up within the game before shooting...
“I think it goes both ways--it’s like this; if you’re going to shoot the first time you touch it, it probably neds to go in, to be honest with you, because you do need to get a feel for the game. You do need to move and get the blood flowing a little bit. Now if you got a wide-open layup or dunk that’s another story but at the same time you don’t want to take confidence. It’s more--that becomes, lets go in and get solidified. Sometimes when a guy comes right in and shoots the ball, maybe his mindset wasn’t about what he needed to do to get ready for the game, which is to come in and be talking on defense, moving without the ball and be rebounding the ball.
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Now if it goes in, you might have a guy that’s going to get hot for the next three or four minutes. But the bottom line is, there’s a flow to it. Come in and add to the flow. Its’ just like come in and impact the game. Don’t come in and take away from what we’re doing because again, the plus-minus at the end of the day, that becomes a huge statistic, right--maybe somewhat individual but more for combinations. We’ve got certain combinations that are really good, some that maybe aren’t as good so then you have to look at the reasons when you look at the game. It’s not just the numbers, so what’s the reason? But bottom line is you should probably get in the flow, get your blood pumping a little bit have a bead of sweat before you take your first three.
On Stanford Robinson’s role:
“He is buying in and out there doing a good job. I think that is the key. This is a team that has the potential to get ‘deep’. Not just bodies ‘deep’ but consistency ‘deep.’ Part of that consistency is understanding what you bring to the table every day. And then if more things come, then it’s because you are the beneficiary of your teammates and how well you played how you were supposed to play.
“Stan brings a lot of value to the table. He can move the ball. He can defend. He can rebound the ball. He can certainly get to the rim and get fouled. That is the key. They key is to come in and make the simple plays, not home run plays that turn into turnovers. He needs to get a feel for how he is getting played, because he has been played differently by different teams, and adjust to that. We are constantly working to make sure that there is a really good plan for when comes in the game.
“But with him, he has to make sure that he takes care of what he can take care of. He is starting to do more and more of that in practice. When they defend him the way they did the other day, hopefully they start to see there is a lot of value to that. There is a lot of value in minutes and productivity, but there’s also value in your confidence when you are really locked in to what you are trying to take away from people and great teams like Ohio State.
“To me, that’s crucial that they continue to understand that. It’s going to be the same thing tomorrow night because there are a lot of guys on that court that can really, really score - and not just Newbill. Whether it’s their shooting or driving or posting up or scoring. So you have to be able to do something about that, but at the same time, you have one of the leading scorers in the country (Newbill). So you have to be aware of where he is at all times.
“When that maturity comes, of understanding your role, especially what is needed of you to impact the game from an energy and toughness and defensive rebounding standpoint, along with the mindset, he has been good.”
On his reaction to Penn State suspending John Johnson:
“I don’t really have one. They are a really good team, with or without him in my mind. He can certainly score the ball. But they have other guys that can score it. My first reaction is that these kinds of situations - and I don’t know what he did - but these situations tend to rally teams. They cause teams to have an even tighter circle, especially when you go on the road. Pat is pretty good at having a good mindset when they go on the road anyway. My guess is that this is only going to add to it and be a benefit for them. So we have to be that much more tuned in to what we are trying to do.”
On what Penn State is doing differently with D.J. Newbill as the primary scorer:
“Brandon Taylor is continuing to get better. If you look at their numbers, they have guys that are very, very comfortable on the perimeter. Shep Gardner has come in and done a very good job. Geno Thorpe has played well. There’s no question that John Johnson is a very high level offensive player for them.
“They also have Ross Travis, a guy that can keep the ball alive, that can drive the ball, that can create contact, that can get to the offensive glass...they went right to (Brandon) Taylor last year in our gym and put him right in the post - he can score in the post, he can score from the 3-point line.
“You can’t get caught up in the percentages, you have to get caught up in the abilities, and they have a lot of guys that have a lot of different abilities. The moment you think you are going to back off of someone is the moment that person starts burning you. Inside of the game, you might take some chances, but our gameplan has to be that we are ready for all of them.
“D.J. Newbill is a tremendous scorer because he can score at the rim and he can get fouled. He has taken 100 more shots than anyone else on his team. He can get the pull-up, he can get the 3-pointer, he can go right and left, he’s good in transition, he’s good at the end of the clock. And he really elevates; that’s one thing that he has really added to his game - he elevates over people. So you have to do a great, great job of preventative management with a guy like that. You have to be very aware of him long before he gets the ball. And then you have to have a plan for when he gets it. It’s never just one guy guarding him, especially with the things we do multiply and the way we switch - it becomes a team situation.”
On sustaining a longer rotation in Big Ten play:
“That would be the plan, there is no doubt about that. We are not looking to shorten it. Some of it becomes situational in the game. The other day it became a little bit more matchup-oriented and how guys were playing. You are trying to steal rest for your key guys at certain times where you try to get this guy back in or get a minute and a half here so he is ready for the stretch run...you have to plan ahead, constantly, inside of the game. But sometimes it is based on feel and sometimes it’s based on who is playing well. That’s a little bit of what happened the other day. And then you just have to read it, because the worst mistake you can make as a coach is just being in that one play at that moment. When you have a break in the action, you are planning with your staff about who needs to come out because this is coming down to this or that. Also, who do we need to be fresh at the end of the game with foul shots or press offense or things like that.
“All of that being said, the more guys that you can play that can come in and impact the game in a positive way, the fewer decisions like that you have to make and be concerned about. Then it becomes a little bit more of a ‘flow’ game. But, all bets are off when someone is really playing well, or when they aren’t playing so well. The foul situation certainly plays into that as well. We want to keep bringing a lot of energy to the game and I think our guys off the bench can really do that.”
