Indiana University Athletics
Tom Crean Previews Matchup at Ohio State
1/24/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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BLOMINGTON, Ind. - Read what head coach Tom Crean had to say as he previewed Sunday's game at Ohio State (1:30 p.m.; CBS).
About De’Angelo Russell and how he’s playing lately:
“He’s had a great rhythm and they put a lot of shooters on the court. There the same team but have added Anthony Lee in the starting lineup and Tate has become a bigger part of their game plan, and that probably started at our game. There getting great movement and their transition is still fantastic when they get out and run off a defensive stop or turnover. Their half court offense has a lot movement and a lot of off ball screens, which puts the ball in De’Angelo’s hands a lot. He’s doing an excellent job and moving the ball and being in a rhythm off the ball screen.
“There are so many guys that make shots and when they win they have four guys who are shooting better than 41 percent from three and a couple guys hovering around 50 percent. To me, they’ve got great spacing like you see in this league, and that fact that they can go inside, outside, midrange, is big. And with so many guys that can handle the ball, not only with Russell but Shannon Scott makes them so good. I think they are playing very, very well. I think the way they turned around and played Michigan after the short turnaround after our game was really big, because they looked outstanding and then to go get a road win is big. There everything they were and they are a product of everyone in this league. There will be some good nights some tough nights but they are outstanding.”
About shooting and how the unconventional lineup has worked:
“It’s not just the driving and having to be guarded out there (on the permiter) because there’s the potential for making the shot if you don’t. The more the guys that can make the shot, drive to the rim or read the defense and make the next pass is so important and it has to be the key to our team.
“It’s not about what defense you see or what defense they are playing and it’s not about how there covering certain people but it’s a matter of is the ball moving at a quick rate. It sounds so simple but yet is so so hard, are you moving the ball one dribble too early? We’re playing against a great defensive team year-in and year-out in Ohio State, who gets there hands on a lot of balls, deflection-wise, steal-wise and block-wise. If you over penetrate and try and drive into traffic against them it will be a problem, because they will take the ball.
“Our ball movement to start the game here with them was not great but got better as the game went on. That’s exactly what you want to have against them if you want to have success. The more guys you have that can break it down and make that pass, the more guys they have to honor to the 3-point line and at the same time you’re a threat to cut, cut behind, over the top, screen and pop. That’s what makes the versatility that we are hoping to get and try to teach to these guys every day to get them to understand the process of the spacing and the ball movement and just how many good things can happen when it’s going that way.”
On Troy and how he has benefited from the spacing created on offense:
“Troy has been benefiting all year because he’s improving so much. He’s got a great open mind about learning. He’s got natural skills, natural talent and natural ability, but he’s really taken to the teaching of the details of the game. He’s all ears and eyes and then looks to go out and try and apply it. He’s become a much better finisher and better ball handler. There are certain placed where you try to split a trap and certain places you don’t. He’s still learning how to handle the ball against certain types of defenses.
“He’s the beneficiary but we are also the beneficiary of him because he moves so well without the ball, and this really started at the end of last year. We were really able to teach him how to use the entire court and how to play off of your man not just read the ball. He has really gotten better with that. And the next step is for him to be an absolutely consistent rebounder. And I think he can do more things defensively for us and we can gain more versatility from him defensively. He’s improving all the way around and he’s a huge part of everything that were doing.”
On this team not taking care of the ball better than previous years:
“Well it’s the same drills, it’s the same hitting them with pads constantly. There are definitely penalties for turnovers. Even in our 3 on 0, 4 on 0, 5 on 0. It’s one of the reasons we bring referees. We have them referee the drills, not just the live actions but even our shooting drills because it’s all about the details of the footwork, getting the ball out in front, the whole deal there. To me I think it’s a product of guys that are better with the ball. They have more awareness as guards and again it’s learning how not to over penetrate, how not to drive it into a crowd and try to make something happen. It’s not trying to make a play for yourself as much as it is making one for somebody else. Again you never want to take away the initiative of the attack game. Victor Oladipo would have never become Victor in college and now certainly what he is doing in the pros, I know he still has some turnovers in the pros, if you didn’t let him go out and attack. You have to live with that some. It is certainly easier to slow him down than it is to speed him up. Pretty much everything in life is like that and certainly a basketball player is the same way. I think its constant attention and our coaches do a great job of teaching it, demanding it, emphasizing it, and holding people accountable for it. And at the same time you still want them to have that creativity and to not be constantly thinking about making a mistake so that we can be in an attack game so there is a balance to it. The players are just better at understanding how valuable that ball is.”
On playing this ‘style’ moving forward:
“I think Cody would fit in this perfectly, he really could. And maybe not necessarily the 3-point shooting at that point but with the passing. It’s about making plays for others. It really is. It’s about the spacing. It’s about the threat of what you can do behind the three point line as a shooter, as a driver and they guard you there.
“The hardest thing in offense, no matter what type of offense you run, is when the defense doesn’t have to guard somebody, when they can play a man and a half or two man on someone. We’ve dealt with that. We dealt with that last year. We can deal with that tomorrow. You take chances, we take chances. I think I said this the other day but with O.G. and Juwan, love their size.
“There is a real value to versatility, there is a real value to multidimensional players, there is a real value to shooting. If you’re going to take a chance, don’t take a chance on somebody who can’t shoot in recruiting. But with forwards and big people, can you play through them? And not just the ball goes to them and it doesn’t go anywhere else. Can you play through them? Cody was a tremendous passer. You could play through Noah on the perimeter. And Noah, when he got the ball in the low post was going to score. He got to the point where you could play through him at the perimeter and certainly you had to guard him to the three point line.
“We’ve got our eyes on what we think fits us and we are not getting away from size. We are not going to get away from size. Coaching is putting your players in the best situation possible for them to be successful. Do we have a system? Do we have a style? I guess. But at the same time it’s pretty much built on what the talents of the players are and that’s where adjustments come in. We’ll never say no to the right forward, big guy that can do a lot of different things for us and one of the beauties of recruiting here and what’s happened over the last couple of years is that people know they are going to come in and get better with whatever their skillset is. They know it’s going to get better it is going to get challenged and expanded upon and then they have to put the work in to do it.
“Last night I come back from a recruiting trip. I get back in here late last night cause I had a lot more work to do. I’ve got guys shooting in the gym at 10:30, 10:45, 11 o’clock at night just in here on their own. That’s the beauty of it. That’s what you want in. Whoever you are recruiting, are they gonna have that kind of value system where they never get satisfied? You don’t have everybody like that but you’ve got to try to get to the point where you have almost everybody like that.”
Jae’Sean Tate and how he compares to Maryland’s Dez Wells:
“It is because he’s so quick. He’s very quick and he’s very attack oriented. Dez Wells is very attack oriented but he is also somebody you can absolutely play through. I thought we talked about that a lot the other day and I think one of biggest keys to the second half was he really only had one assist. He had three in the first half and could’ve had more. He is a hard matchup for you for a lot of reasons because of the ability to score, pass, shoot, and drive it.
“Well Tate is a younger version of that because he can really attack the rim, he can run, he can rebound, he looks like a confident shooter. He moves very well without the ball but that first step that burst is really really tough. So you’ve got to be in a position right away. You have to know what his strengths are and do your work early on him and account for him every time just like Sam Thompson who is a wing on their team when that shot goes up.”
On the concept of ‘Play on Demand” originating:
“I heard that from Scott Skiles a long time ago. He used that example about a player named Adrian Griffin, who is now coaching in the NBA. He had Adrian with the Bulls and he said it didn’t matter what time he put him in the game, the key to his longevity in the NBA is that he was always ready to play. So I always give Scott Skiles credit for that. He’s the one that I first heard it from, and I love it.”
On whether this team is adapting to that mantra:
“Well, not every night. It takes time. It takes a great mental toughness to be on that bench and be ready. We are not a set rotation system right now. The first couple guys have an idea of when they are going in, but I don’t coach (a set rotation). You don’t want anyone pacing themselves on the court, and then you don’t want anyone disappointed if they were supposed to go in at the 16:00 mark but so-and-so just hit three 3s and they don’t go in. Well, then their head drops. I would rather have them always on the alert, but it doesn’t always work out that way. We had a little bit of that last Sunday at Illinois, where we weren’t ready the second time we went back in. So, by no stretch of the imagination, is that foolproof. But it is something that we talk about a lot and it is something that our coaches are trying to teach and challenge our guys on the bench with. We want them to have that mindset and we use those reminders and things like that.
“And then, it is all about going in and impacting the game in a way that the game needs to be impacted. It’s usually not going in and trying to score right away, other than the case of Max the other night against Maryland when he hit that first 3-pointer. It is a key to coming down and understanding the game. But you also don’t want them on the bench over-thinking the game. You want them relaxed and ready and having a good feel for the game and then just go in and play.”
On what Hanner can do in practice to not fall behind:
“He can’t do anything, well I guess he can shoot free throws. Hanner has to stay really locked in to his rehab right now. But he also needs to keep trying to learn things from different ways and stay on the uptick of being ready. I don’t want him to fall behind with his rehab.
“For example, we are going on this trip (to Ohio State) and we don’t even get in the gym before Sunday, and I don’t think Ohio State does either, because they have rented it out for the NHL All-Star weekend. So the ice is down yesterday and today so we won’t even get in there until tomorrow. And that means there really isn’t a place to even rehab him, so we have to evaluate what is best for him. Certainly we want him to be back sooner rather than later, but it really is a matter of him healing and then controlling what we can control by making sure he is doing all the right things in the weight room and taking care of all of this business with his academics.”
