Postgame Quotes - Indiana at Illinois
1/19/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Head Coach Tom Crean |
Opening Statement
"That game had to be really entertaining for people to watch but they're a really, really good team. He's an excellent coach, very good staff--John (Groce) does a tremendous job.
"What I'm most proud of my guys is that they prepared for this in the extra work that they did, especially in the film and that they truly brought their practice game and the way that we've practiced the last couple of days to the game. I know that there were runs that both teams made and they had some big runs and things like that. You want to get better inside of the game but you want to get better inside of the week and I thought after the game Tuesday night with Penn State game, we got better this week and we brought it to the game.
"The things, to me, that were the difference in the game for us, they are such a great free throw shooting team; you can't have needless fouls and put them on the line. The fact they got there twelve times, and you know they're going to make them, the key is they didn't get there a lot. We made our free throws, we were able to win the rebounding game, which is very crucial when you go on the road. It's crucial against anybody, but it's definitely crucial here.
"We took care of the ball against quick their hands are -- the last film we showed them, right when they came off the court before our pregame meeting, we showed them just how Illinois, we led with this tape the other day and we showed it again just how they strip the ball and how many times they create turnover by attacking the ball. I thought our guys did a really good job at taking care of the ball. We only had nine turnovers.
"The bottom line is we moved the ball. When we move the ball quickly, good things happen. I thought our two high scorers were really the epitome of doing the other things. James (Blackmon Jr.) had 21, but James had 11 deflections. That's a big deal and that's the most he's had. It wasn't about the steals today, it was about the deflections. He had seven defensive boards, which means the break started seven times with James. The way the ball moved, then he's the beneficiary of that ball moving, and him moving it and him coming off screens and spotting and Troy (Williams).
"The same thing--Troy has nine boards and 11 deflections. He is running the court, his roll game and rolling really improved the second half and those two played 94-foot games because they defended. They are good offensively but they move the ball. When those guys do that along with Yogi (Ferrell), Robert (Johnson) and those other guys, that's the way we have to play. Then we keep the game in movement--we're not a team that can just go and throw it down to the low-post every time and demand a double team--we need that kind of balance.
"I think Troy and James right there, showed the kind of complete game. Those guys are really trying to develop. The guy who has got a pretty complete game is Yogi--we ask him to do a lot. We ask him to play both ends at a very high level. He's at the front of the scouting report so many times because he does so many things. The way he moved the ball inside of this game and the leadership - it wasn't about the fact that he didn't make a lot of shots, it's about the fact the way that he lead. That was very impressive for us.
"We've got to have that kind of play because when you're playing against a team like Illinois who can put so many guys on the court that can not only get to the rim, but can shoot the mid-range, shoot from three, they space.
"(Nnanna) Egwu, to me, is about as versatile and as valuable and as mobile as any big guy I can think of, because it's not about the points he score or the rebounds that he gets all the time, it's about the action and how he can cover so much ground. It's about how good he is at multiple efforts and not to mention how he does shooting the ball.
"We're excited about the win, excited about the fact that they carried out their preparation. They carried out their practice and big thing for us, number one key on offense is move the ball one dribble sooner rather than one dribble later. As simple as that sounds, in a college basketball game, when you got guys that can score, that's easier said than done. But they did it, they did it, and that's why we had such good movement. It got guys shots and we were able to get our confidence up early in the game with the offense, which made us a better defensive team. With the exception of (Kendrick) Nunn's performance, we were able to carry out and get through the runs in the second half."
On how the team handled the momentum shifts...
"Oh, I thought our attitude was great. I didn't think we got down--we got a little low and we went to the bench in the second half and we couldn't stay with that very long. The old theory of `play on demand' wasn't as high as it needed to be at that point. But the way that we played the last seven, eight, nine minutes - we didn't go as far into the bench but those guys really played.
"It was a lot of different things going on in the game, right, so once they adjusted to something, you got to be able to go to something else and because the ball was moving, the screens were good, the cutting was good, the spacing was good, you were able to do that. I like to think the way these guys are coming together defensively, especially the Ohio State game, the way we closed that and the Penn State game, the last two possessions of the game. Our whole thing to them was, we've got to play more--and not everybody will have seen this but the last couple of possessions of the Penn State game, we were really, really good. I didn't even call timeout to make any switches--those guys were really good.
"They are gaining that confidence and we needed to have more possessions like that and I think we got them. There were some we didn't because they made shots and we've got a lot of corrections to make there. But they are growing up because there is such a good togetherness on both ends of the court. They were connected defensively, and we were really connected offensively."