Indiana University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
1/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Recap |
Box Score |
Notes |
Photo Gallery 
 |
Head Coach Tom Crean |
Extremely proud of our effort and our execution, because Maryland is every bit as good as I thought they were. They are really good. We knew we were going to have to play an outstanding game to beat them and our guys to their credit, really stayed true to that. They stayed true to what had to happen. The ball had to move quickly, we had to play through the paint, the couple times we didn't we got that adjusted real fast and we had to make sure it was getting reversed.
The more that we play Collin now away from the post, the better it is, because he can drive the ball for us. There's just, we have got to be able to find different ways inside of the game to get to the basket to play through the paint, so that we can get to the foul line, not just be a jump shooting team and we're starting to learn that but the bottom line is that no matter what we're in, as long as they're moving the ball, they're pretty good. But they're even way better when they're getting defensive stops so we can get out on our break.
I thought the first half was solid, but we were giving up too much space to their offense and we weren't nearly as aggressive as we needed to be with ball pressure, with how we wanted to guard -- we had to mix and match tonight big time because we just don't have matchups in this game. And they have too many hard matchups, certainly with the length that they have and the size of the shooters but the Dez Wells matchup is really hard. Because we don't have anybody that's like him.
So, bottom line is we had to be very active and a couple times we made mistakes, he picked us apart on that, the second half we adjusted well and we adjusted in the sense that there was better ball pressure, better weak side defense, and we just were a little bit more active and we had 18 deflections in the first half, 26 in the second half, to me that's a big deal.
Collin Hartman's mom might know the last time he had three blocked shots, but I've never seen it.
So certainly that's, we might have to triple had his deflections, when Collin is getting a block. But that's just the way we have to be right now. To their credit, that's what they're doing. That's how they're playing. They are, we came back on Tuesday night we were really sharp, we were sharp yesterday, the walk through today was as quick as I've ever probably had one at Indiana, because they were so ready to go that it was like if we go much longer we're going to play the game right here. They were flying around.
They came out and they played that way. They played that way. Their mindset was really, really good and they knew it. They had great respect, we have great respect for Maryland, they knew it was a big deal, and they wanted to see where they stood. So, a lot of really good work and I think one of the great things and I'll open up to questions, one of the great things for our team is they spend so much extra time working on their game. Sometimes they're together and sometimes they're not. Okay. When we get back on Sunday, and this is why he just continues to improve, we get back on Sunday, bus trip back, working late, and I hear the balls bouncing late Sunday night, there's Yogi out shooting on the shooting gun. And late at night.
Monday morning, there he is. We don't practice. Monday afternoon, early evening or late afternoon, there he is.
Wednesday, he shot after practice, I hear again he's back in here late last night -- we didn't meet until late last night. He's in there shooting again.
That's a hunger level. That's, that's leadership. And that's what we have to continue to get, because Yogi's playing so well for us, but he wanted to play better. Now we got to keep that attitude. We keep that kind of hunger, and we keep that kind of desire, then we're going to keep improving. That's the key. I told them, I'm not budging and they shouldn't budge either. Because we have a chance to keep improving, but it's going to come down to our work ethic, it's going to come down to our mindset, can we continue to get smarter and tougher.
Because it's hard, hard league and it certainly gets that much harder on Sunday when we go to Ohio State and then turn around Wednesday to go to Purdue, before we come home for Rutgers. We're excited about it, we're improving, it's a win on a night we played very well against a great basketball team, and they are the epitome of team, and we had to be that good to beat them tonight and fortunately we were and now we got to get ourselves ready for Ohio State.
When Hanner went down, a lot of people assumed that you wouldn't be able to plug in for what he was doing or not be the same kind of team. You went with Collin. Can you discuss what went into that decision, how you guys came up with it? What you went through to build an offense around him?
Well, the biggest thing is, right now, I don't really want, I didn't really want to start three freshmen. That's part of it.
That day when the injury happened, I was down on one end of the court with Hanner and the kids were very distraught. Young men were very distraught, call them kids, but they were very distraught. The coaches got them back going and Collin just jumped in. So obviously that's what we would have done, because he can do a lot of different things. What we didn't have much time to do was figure out how we're going to utilize him there. But he's smart, he's tough, he's a skilled player. As I always remind him, we offered him a scholarship not for his shooting, but for his ability to play the game, for his passing, for the way he made his teammates better.
To me, as a shooter, that became the next step for him. But he could really pass the ball. And the key for us right now is that he just continued to do those type of things. He played outstanding tonight.
Max I thought did a really good job for us tonight. So, Emmitt, it just, it wasn't as much his night. But it's going to have to be in a lot of ways on Sunday, when we go there, because of how big they are.
So, but we have also tried to move Emmitt to some different positions offensively inside of our practices. And we haven't spent a ton of time on that yet, but that's all part of trying to adjust ourselves so we can make sure we have, so the -- the game's just got to move.
So ultimately it comes down how do we keep the game and bodies and ball moving. It's not about any one play or about any one guy, it's about the ball continuing to move and how do they have to continue to guard the court.
So, you know when Collin's in at that position they're going to have to guard him and tonight they really had to guard him, because he got hot.
So that's what it was as much as anything else.
It seemed like every time Maryland made even a little mini run you guys had an answer tonight. I think you had a double digit lead the final 10 minutes. But you got to be happy with how your guys were answering?
It will be a fun film to watch, because I think we were really, really good in second half. We were not nearly as active and what we showed them at halftime was how passive we were on the weak side. And our ball pressure wasn't very good.
Again, when you don't have optimal matchups, okay, well you do have to try to take something away. The Wells passing game -- I thought one of the hugest keys was he had three assists at half, he only had one in the second half. They only had five assists in the second half. That was big. Because they are a really, really good passing team. I mean, tremendous passing team. Because they have, you have to guard them so many different places. Wells, he makes so many things go, man and zone.
So the bottom line was our defense, even though the 50 percent says something different, we did get some good defensive stops and then we came down and we got good shots we kept moving the ball and we got jumpers, but it was after the ball had been reversed, driven, the way that we have to play.
I was led to believe that this team didn't have a very high ceiling here. You've now been tied for first in the Big-10 --
I think you've been paying a little more attention than that. You're multi-dimensional. High ceiling? I don't know. I don't think any of us -- we just -- we're improving. They have been improving all year. What these guys have done over a period of time is gotten closer and they really work hard, I would say, to control what they can control. Which is their improvement, which is the extra work, like I was talking about. Practice extremely hard.
With a young team, they're going to get better. If they buy in and they really have a good work ethic, they're going to get better. We can't just come down and say, okay, we're a 2-3 zone team or we're a 1-3-1 or man-to-man, we got to do different things because of our size and the size has changed obviously so much more obviously with Hanner not being in.
I think we'll continue to get better as long as our mindset and work ethic continues to improve. We got to continue to get tougher and the toughness baskets, like the 50/50 balls and really working a guy in post and when you get tired, continuing to move your feet and have your hands out, rather than put your hands in. We got caught a couple times on some weak side cuts tonight.
There's a ton of room for improvement. It's one really good win against a really good team and what I would like best about this team is every time we have struggled they have really responded and now we got to keep responding and improve, since we won a couple games.
Along that same line, is there a confidence just in guys the last three games that we haven't seen before?
You know when it really started to turn for us was after Louisville, because we were not good up there. But there was so many -- I shouldn't say we were not good -- we didn't follow the game plan. We chased Louisville around, you know, and we didn't rebound the way that we needed to, we let them be more aggressive and more physical with us. We really didn't push back, fight back.
We got better from that. And then we turned around and we did the same thing at Michigan State. And we got better from that.
So I would say their confidence grows because they're responding to -- we have had adversity all year we have had to respond to, well they're responding to the adversity of a game. So that's big. That they're responding saying, okay, now wait a minute, I got to rebound better, I can do better.
Because the films are not as much about what we're not doing, it's, why didn't we and here's what we could have done better. And they're responding to that.
So, yes, confidence grows because of that. But the moment that confidence becomes some type of a rival of arrogance, then we're going to have an issue. But that's hopefully -- I don't see that coming, but the bottom line is they're young and they got to keep understanding that the work ethic and the improvement are the absolute keys to everything that they do.
You talked about moments that the team has had where they have gone up big, especially in the second half and maybe let teams back in. Tonight, with the foot on the throat they just kept hitting shots. What was different about tonight and the approach at both end of the floor once you got Maryland on their heels in the second half?
We understood the pace of the game. When it was time to play fast, we were fast and we attacked. When it was not there, we reversed it. And they're starting to understand how important that is.
It's not about slowing it down, and not looking for a shot. Like I thought -- and Maryland did a great job of denials. So we had to make a lot of adjustments from the beginning of the game, with their denials. They took some of our actions, just like we tried to take some of their actions and they tried to make us adjust and the fortunate thing is this these guys did. They adjusted on the fly.
So, pace of the game, not trying to make something happen, okay, just for the sake of making it happen. Taking what's there.
Certainly Yogi getting hot and James hot the way they were, sometimes at the end of the clock was pretty impressive, too.
But that's the biggest thing. Really understanding the time and score of the game and letting the time and score dictate the pace, not trying to speed it up when we don't need to.
Before you walked off the court you applauded the crowd.
Why not? I turned around and thanked the other people. It was the crowd -- the energy was phenomenal. That's part of Indiana basketball and it was, we know the value of this crowd.
The young guys are seeing it, okay? A lot of them were recruited to it, right. So a lot of guys, we were No. 1 in the country and year before some of these guys were in the crowd and we beat Kentucky, and so they have seen that. Well now they're feeling that.
I don't think -- I would hope I lead the way on this, for being part of this program. What Fred Glass and Scott Dolson and Jeremy Gray and J.D. and everybody that's a part of making the atmosphere strong, the cheerleaders, that stuff's huge, right?
But those people come in with the energy from start to finish. You got to applaud that. So that's what that is. We never take that for granted. I've never taken that for granted.
You weren't here, but we had great crowds when we were losing a lot of games back in 2008, 2009. What we did with the crowd support, without the crowd support, we would have never got here without that support. So I'll never ever not thank them.
On how the team has grown this season:
Well, I would answer it this way: I don't look at it that way and I would say the same thing about October. These are, these players are my responsibility. All right. And I want to see them be successful. They know that. They're learning that.
And I don't put, you know, I don't, I wouldn't say fun, I enjoy them, I enjoy watching them grow. I think everybody does. I enjoy watching them interact with each other. We got a lot of season left. That's a question for way down the road.
But even when we are not, when things were not good for us, they were never -- we were with them every day. We had to help them grow up. And we're still in the midst of that.
No one's sitting here thinking that -- something could change tonight, right. You just have to deal with it. That's all part of helping your guys grow up.
So, I enjoy that aspect. That to me watching them grow up, that's fun. The basketball is the basketball. But I enjoy working with these guys every day and I know our staff does, too.
When you recruited Collin did you think he would be this far halfway through his sophomore year?
I don't think like that. He didn't, he's changed, right? I mean, he's growing up. His body's changed. His mindset's changed. There's no question his injury changed him. It made him physically tougher, but it made him mentally tougher, right?
So how it's going to play out. You never know, okay? But he's an extremely hard worker, he's been coached right all his life. He's certainly been raised right by his mom. She's wonderful. I mean, she's an athlete, she's been through things, right? I mean, he's a family kid.
He just continues to improve. He's got a mindset about winning and when you have a mindset about winning and work, and I say this every time we talk about him, he's still not a guy that we, there's still limitations -- he won't practice tomorrow. I mean, we are going to hold him back, right?
So it's one of those things where we have got to continue to monitor that, but he's got a great mindset, he wants to win, he's doing what it takes to win, and tonight will be a great confidence builder, but it also turn him up on the next team scouting report.
So we'll have to make that many more adjustments when we get to Ohio State. But he's continued to improve and if he continues to do that, he'll continue to really help us.
The trend in college basketball is less scoring, are you trying to go against the grain?
I don't look at it like that. We want to play. I think if I had to look at this, you can never underrate shooting. That's what the game is about, right.
But you look at so many things of size and athleticism, and the shooting. Well, what makes good shooters? Fundamentals, right? So if you're really working hard at the fundamentals you're going to get better at the basket, you're going to use the back board.
Now Troy did that flip shot, I don't know where that came from. That was crazy. But we'll see that film -- and he followed it with his eyes. He's become such a better finisher.
Is he a great shooter yet? No. But he's a, but he's a better finisher, because he works on the fundamentals every day. So you got to -- it's fun to have guys that really feel confident that they're going to make shots.
We have got to continue to build towards that. That's why I like Juwan and OG for next year, because those guys have great size at six seven and six eight and they can really shoot the ball. That's what we have got to continue to do.
So, are we trying to go against the grain? We're trying to play even faster. I thought tonight we did a pretty good job of that. I knew they would want to come in and play and because he's doing the same thing.
Their spacing's better than ours. From top to bottom. Day in and day out. And ours was good tonight, but they really understand how to space. And they caused so many problems with that.
So, we just want to continue to get better at that. But we got to get better defensively and defensive rebounding-wise, so we can continue to be even better offensively. Because when we get the break going, that's fun to watch.
When you assess how your team's responded with losing Devin and Hanner and two 20 point losses, how would you evaluate your team's ability and yourself each kind of persevered and your resiliency?
I don't know. No offense, I don't know. I don't really think like that. It's all about responding from one day to the next. That's the bottom line.
So, we have been dealing with -- that's part of it. You're going to deal with injuries, you're going to deal with things that come up.
Did we have some things come up? Absolutely. We dealt with them. And we still deal with them. Injuries.
So I don't reflect on it like that. As long as we're all staying focused -- and I have to lead the way on that, no doubt about that, I mean, that's got to be the key, but as long as you're staying focused, and you come in every day with the real -- it sounds corny, but it's how we're running it, every day we do everything we can do to be better that day and by the end of the night did we assess what we have got to do better for tomorrow.
And that's what we'll do with the film tonight and that's what we'll do with practice tomorrow and just try to stay as true to that as possible. And see where it leads us.
|
Indiana Player Quotes |
I guess how much did you guys feel the crowd? How much did you feed off that tonight?
FERRELL: We fed off that a lot. The fans of Indiana are always great, even when we were losing last year they were always great, they were always loud for us.
We got about six home games left, so we're still going to need all the fans to be like that every single night for us when we play these teams.
Yogi, what was it like out there, why do you think it went that well?
FERRELL: After making a couple, the rim kind of just opens up a little bit more and it just gets easier to get the basketball in the hoop, basically.
So I was just trying to take with the defense gave me and I was just letting it go and then it was all up to the ball from there.
They packed the box, you were shooting well, getting rebounds, blocking shots, what was really working for you and what did you really see?
HARTMAN: We have great preparation from our coaches, Coach Martin specifically had this game and he did a great job of telling us where we need to be, when we need to be there, so everybody today did their job extremely well. So everybody does their job sometimes the ball just comes to you in the right spot at the right time. So you just got to do your job every time you go out there. So today everybody did their job and the ball came to me.
There were a lot of people ready to give up on this team before the season started. How did you guys keep the negative out and get to this point?
WILLIAMS: We just stayed together through everything. We just know that at the end of the day it's still us the only ones that's in the gym, it's us the only ones that are going to see each other, and it's still us that's still a team.
So we didn't let none of the outside get to us we just stayed together and you see the results are coming out well for us.
You were roughed up around the rim a little bit it seems like. Talk about the presence inside. You obviously don't mind going inside to get the ball.
FERRELL: Yeah, I'm always going to try and be a pest because me being my size, I know they probably get a little annoyed with me being down there hitting them a little bit, because they probably think this little guy is trying to move me out the way. I'm just trying to do whatever it takes for my team to win. And I feel like even guys like Collin and Max and Emmitt, they may be a little undersized, but they still got a lot of heart and if you got a lot of heart, that can take you a long way.
You shot the ball particularly well tonight. Was that something you guys saw coming? That you guys were starting to hit from the perimeter.
BLACKMON: I think we saw it coming, guys just been staging in the gym, I don't think our shots are something we're going to be worried on, because we know we're going to get it going and I think we just been come the beating in practice with shooting drills and all that and guys like Yogi got it going tonight.
Yogi, I know you guys don't want to not have Hanner, but it feels like Collin throws the mismatch even further to opponents who struggled a bit when they have got to put a big man on him. How much does that open the lane when you got a center or a five man that can run the wings like he can?
FERRELL: We basically start all five of us being shooters, so they may think that they have the matchup when we're playing defense, but at the end of the day they got to guard us too.
So when Colin gets the ball on the wing, the big always flies out at him and he just drives right by him for either a lay up or pass and he can knock down the three. That's the biggest thing is we basically have an undersize stretch five you could say for our team and when you have that and the way we move the ball so well, everything is just going to fall into place.
Colin, when Hanner went down, did you expect to start?
HARTMAN: Very quickly, no, I didn't. I just knew that if my time came, my time came. Like we just play on demand and if your number is called, you go in and do your job.
Last times I've been here you were out there two hours before the game really the first guy shooting. Is that something you just feel like you need to get your shot remind or you, are you just trying to build your confidence or what's your purpose?
HARTMAN: Just a little bit of form. Get my shot refined and then confidence also. But it's kind of a ritual for me just to keep doing the same thing before every game, nothing change, and just stay in my ritual.
Can you describe the significance of beating a ranked team and moving into a first place tie tonight?
WILLIAMS: They're a great team. They're a ranked team. I think they're a single digit ranked team on one poll. So just beating them just gives us more confidence. We came into this game knowing it was going to be a dog fight and it was going to be like a war zone, coming out with this win is great for us. Great for us mentally and great for us physically.
They coming from another conference we're seeing how other conferences are and they're seeing how our conference is, so it was a great win.
Yogi, give me your thoughts on the Collin's play, shooting and blocking shots the whole thing.
FERRELL: Colin is a guy, he's an energy sparker, I feel like. I feel like he's in every single play for us. He's kind of a ball magnet I say, when the shot goes up he's always flying, he'll go through two bodies to get to the ball if he has to. For us to have a guy like that, we're going to need him to win games for us in close ones.
I know Colin is going to give it his all when he gets out there and like he said, for him, now starting, it's a play on demand thing.
The last game we had here, Penn State, Ryan Burton came in the game and started that 10-0 spark for us. So when we get guys like that, Colin he's starting now, he's just got his confidence and now his confidence is just rolling.
Max said you made a nice pass and he stole it. What's a guy coming off the bench, isn't able to play a lot of minutes, is able to turn a play like that that brings energy to the game?
WILLIAMS: Just like Collin says, just have to come in the game and play on demand. You never know when your name is going to be called. There will be times when coach walks past you a couple times and you start to get down, but nobody on our bench starts to get down, they just know that when their name is called, it's just game time, you just got to be ready to play and be ready.
Collin, have you had to change anything about your game, adjusting to the five? What's it like going up guys that might have five inches on you and maybe 30 pounds?
HARTMAN: You’ve got to come in ready to fight. They're big guys; they're stronger than me, bigger than me, taller, longer. But it comes down to heart. Like when Yogi is battling, Troy is battling bigger guys, you got to beat them to the spot and move your feet and just be aggressive and be confident and everybody else doing around you doing their job, to help you out, gives you a lot more confidence to play defense.
Yogi, simple yes or no, the set that you have with Collin at the five, the stretch set, was that already in the playbook when Colin took over or is that something you guys had to, your staff had to invent to get ready for Penn State?
FERRELL: What play?
Just the basic structure with Collin as the five.
FERRELL: Oh, that was just thrown in last minute. Yeah, that's just the beauty of our team. We just know how to execute a play out of a timeout. Everybody knows where to be in the right spots and we just get it done.
 |
Head Coach Mark Turgeon |
Opening Statement:
Indiana was terrific all night from the start to the end. Made some incredible shots. Yogi Ferrell made a lot of tough shots. Blackmon was great. The whole team was great and they were hard to guard. I feel like we were a step behind them all night defensively. What amazed me was that it was a nine-point game with 10 to go. It was amazing that it was that close with the way that they were playing. They kept going and kept making shots throughout the game. They’re good; they have a really nice team.
On Indiana’s offense:
They made great shots. Hartman hits three in the first half and was 4-for-4 at one point, which kind of got them going. I know he’s a good shooter, but he hasn’t been that aggressive at times. I watched the game at Illinois and I said, “Okay, this is a different team”. I knew what we were getting into, but I thought we would guard a little better.
On if they felt like they got worn down:
I don’t know if we got worn down, we just kept competing. When they’re making that many shots it’s hard not to stay close to shooters. Our closeouts were bad and our toughness trying to guard the ball wasn’t what it needed to be during that stretch. I hated the layups. I know they had three, four or five uncontested three’s that they made. But for the most part I thought we were shaking hands, but the film may say different. Give them credit. They played a very smart game tonight. Just didn’t go our way at the start of the second half. We missed a layup, then another layup and a wide-open shot. If we started the half better it might have been a different game.
On if this game was a good wake up call to see where they are:
Yeah, I don’t know this was a wake-up call. Indiana was terrific. I mean they were great. I thought we were playing pretty well to be down nine with like 10 minutes to go. I thought we were doing some nice things to only be down by nine. And then all the sudden it was by 15, just like that. Is it a wake up call? Yeah, I mean we’ve got to play better defense than that but good thing is we turn around and play at home Sunday.
On what he said to his team:
I said Indiana was terrific; we’ve got to play better. I love you guys and I love this team. And we’ve got to move on.
On what it was like playing in Assembly Hall’s atmosphere:
I thought the atmosphere was the best we’ve played in this year. They were fired up to have the No. 8 team in the country here. They were terrific and the fans were great.
