Indiana University Athletics
Coach Crean Talks Start of Practice
10/1/2015 4:24:00 PM | Men's Basketball
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - With the first official practice for the Indiana men's basketball team set for tomorrow (Oct. 2), head coach Tom Crean met with members of the media to talk about what he has seen in workouts over the summer and this fall. Below is a transcript of what Coach Crean had to say or you can watch the complete video by clicking the photo at the top of this page.
Opening Statement:
"We start practice tomorrow. It's an exciting weekend here at Indiana with everything that's going on and everything that's happening with the football team and the fact that Ohio State is comes in. We're equally as excited because we get to start official practice.
"So we'll start tomorrow morning. We'll go twice tomorrow. We'll go on Saturday and then everybody will have time to go to the game and do all that. It's still preseason, which means your conditioning has got to continue to get better and that your strength has got to continue to get better. We are in really good shape from where we sit right now on October 1, when it comes to our cardiovascular, when it comes to our fitness, when it comes to the way we've tried to build their bodies and the things that they've done in that situation, but you want to continue to stay on that pace.
"So, to me, with starting it early, it's more about let's make sure we're building up towards a timeline inside of practice rather than throwing it all out there right at the beginning and having these long endurance tested practices at the beginning. Instead, let's try to make sure that we're building towards that because October has to be really important for us. This is going to be as challenging of a November schedule, on paper, that we've had, when you look at who we play, with Creighton coming here and then certainly with Maui and the potential of those teams.
"What we'll try to do inside of the preseason practice, when you're not really preparing for a team specifically, is prepare concepts and prepare for strengths of teams. That's what our staff and myself try to really do a good job of here over the last couple of months, not only preparing for what we want to do but preparing for what we want to take away. We're building that into our drills and building that into the mindset as we get started with practice. We are really try to make this a great month of training, of building their skills and building their endurance, but at the same time try to get them ready for the myriad of things they're going to see as they get into the season and max it out. We want to keep the practices at a really good pace, at a built-up pace rather than a taper-it-down pace, so that we kind of do it in reverse order this year. That's why we'll have shorter practices sometimes twice a day and then still get in our conditioning and still get in our lifting and all those types of things."
On the overall health of the team:
"Well, we're getting there. We don't have a team that's fully healthy, so we'll definitely make adjustments inside of practice, but everybody is ready to start practice.
"In the case of James, James has been going full tilt but he missed a lot, but he's out there ready to go full go, but he still has a ways to go in building his body back up, because he did a great job at getting stronger. He even did a great job at getting stronger when he was dealing with the injury.
"The one thing that we have not done a lot of is play some pick up games. We're not huge about 'let's be playing as much basketball as we can play' because what happens is a lot of those things become now you're taking away bad habits when the coaches aren't there. We want to build good habits and that's what the drills are for. You hope that's happening in the pick-up games, but we've done very little full-court since September 15 when we were able to put the whole team together. We've done a lot more smaller group workouts and only a couple of workouts when the whole team has been there.
"But with James and with the other guys, it's a matter of building them up. It's a long season. It's a long process. We're taking it everyday for what it is and having great communication with Tim Garl, with Dr. Rink, Dr. Ahlfeld and planning accordingly. But nothing different than what we've done in the past. Sometimes this guy will go this long, sometimes this guy will only do half court, and the whole goal is to get them as healthy as they can be as we get ready to start the season.
"We will have a full team. Nobody will be standing on the sidelines not being able to participate tomorrow other than Josh Newkirk, and we've tried to be extremely creative in our workouts with him. Even though he can really only move in a short space, hopefully he feels like his fundamentals are getting a lot better in spite of that. We'll be anxiously awaiting him to do more as every week goes on. Him coming in and getting better, improving his game, building his leadership already, those things have been good for us. So he'll be the only one who won't be able to go all the way."
On how preseason is different having a team with more experience as opposed to younger teams of the past:
"It's experience. It's not the team that we had in 2013 that had the four guys that had scored 1,000 points in it, but we do have guys that have gone through it now. So it's a matter of 'Do they really have an understanding?'
"That's where Robert and James are big because they're only sophomores. They played an awful lot of games and an awful lot of minutes as freshmen, but they're only sophomores. So what is their decision making process? Those things are really important.
"Our young guys in the case of Thomas Bryant, Juwan Morgan and O.G. Anunoby, those guys have to be able to help us, especially with the loss of Emmitt (Holt). Emmitt was a guy that would have been at least a top 8 situation and a potential starter, based on what he did last year. He was having a great spring and summer, so with that being said, that pushes the freshmen up the ladder that much quicker in a sense of them having to really get an understanding. That stuff is important.
"I think every experience they can go through whether they're freshman or whether they're a sophomore or whether it's Troy continuing to build on his decision-making role. Collin Hartman has been with us the longest, when you look at his commitment time in high school and the time that he's been here. Can he continue to take the next step? And can our seniors be real seniors? And even Max Bielfeldt, who has a lot of potential, a lot of natural qualities of leadership, a lot of strength. I mean here's a guy (Bielfeldt) that in seven weeks, increased his vertical jump by five inches. Thomas Bryant taking his vertical up nine inches in seven weeks is unlike anything I've ever seen. It really is. I mean we've had guys that have been here for four years and got a lot better that didn't hit nine inches in a four-year period of time. But equally, Max Bielfeldt being 22 years of age, improving the way he did with his squat and all those types of things and his strength to be able to go up five [inches].
"I say that because that's just a microcosm of how much better they can get. They're getting better athletically, and they're getting better with they're skills. Well then they've got to play that way in the decision-making and all the things that come into that and really building that shared responsibility that we're trying to have on the court and off the court.
"But this team has got to understand what it's going to take for them to take the next step in every area whether it's our shooting, whether it's our ability to penetrate, whether it's our break, whether it's our full-court defense, half-court defense, certainly the rebounding. So that's where that understanding level of how long they've been here needs to jump."
On how the guys that went through the draft process have come back to the team this year:
"I think it builds a level of maturity. Really it has not been too different. It just crystalizes it for them. The things that you are trying to get them to understand about decision making, not having bad defensive possessions or segments, good shots, tightening up your handle, diversifying your game, and playing better defense throughout the game. All those things that you talk about that are there, that you see on film, it just crystalizes it for them when other people that really matter are seeing the same thing.
"So I think that is where the maturity level comes in, and they build a maturity level inside. That gets them that much closer to a point where they say 'this is for real.' It is not only what my coaches are saying, what my old coach used to say, this is for real. This is what the future says. So I don't think there is any question this plays into it.
"All three of those guys have done a fantastic job of building on their season when it comes to spring, summer, and fall, without a doubt, whether it is their body or their work ethic. Troy still has a ways to go to be considered as one of those guys that is one of the most committed workers when it comes to extra work, but he is also one of those guys that improves the fastest on our team. They all had really good summers. James even got stronger, like I said earlier, when he went through the injury."
On how the injury to James Blackmon Jr., impacted his offseason:
"He lost a little bit of the fundamentals with how quick he has to be with the basketball. It's in his hands a lot in workouts. When we work out, we are playing anywhere from ½ to ¾ court where it is live. So it is not just start the offense from the top of the key and let's go make a pass and cut. It is the same thing when we have gone up and down. We want to apply pressure, we want them to be able to deal with pressure, and I think that is one of the biggest things he has to make the jump on. The decision making with speed and under pressure if he is going to have the ball in his hands more. But I think he is getting better at different things we are trying to do with creating space off screens and off the handoff.
"His shot has been not normal James Blackmon shooting at this point. I think that is a product of him being out as long as he was, but I don't have any concerns about that. He has come back with no fear. He has come back on the attack. It is really the mental part of playing through things and the decision making that needs to come through for him as we start getting into live day-to-day practice.
"The biggest thing is going to be how he does on defense. He has an awareness, more and more, right now. It has been in shorter pockets of time. It hasn't been over game-to-game or day-to-day yet. I am hopeful he understands that will have a lot to do with his playing time this year. The decision making and the defense will have a lot to do with all of their playing time. I am not big on who has done what to earn playing time and predicting starting lineups, because really it is very irrelevant. It is fun to talk about, but in theory it is a fluid deal.
"Right now they have to understand those two very big things: decision making with the ball, when to shoot or when to pass and how they defend, and the people that really understand how we want to rebound. We are going to change some structure of how we rebound. We will send the guards even more in random situations to the glass, especially on the offensive end. They are going to have to adapt to that pretty quick. So we are going to have to make sure we are getting in a lot of good results out of the hustle stats. Score more off our defense, get more rebounds, and things like that.
"We are really going to be able to space the floor. I think that is the one thing you will be able to see over a period of time. We are going to be able to space the floor. It is going to get to where you are going to have to guard everybody that is on the court to the 3-point line, and you are going to have to honor that. With that being said, we cannot have a team of guys that hang around the 3-point line when the shot goes up. That is where there is going to be some separation. The guys that are committed to the offensive and defensive glass, not for segments or percentages of the game, but for the game when they are in there, maximizing their minutes, will be a huge thing.
On the improvements that Juwan Morgan and O.G. Anunoby have made since they got on campus:
"They have made tremendous strides. I think Juwan went up 130 pounds in the squat area, at least 80 pounds in the bench area, and increased his vertical by three inches. O.G. had the second strongest legs on the team, made the biggest jump of the summer, and is also learning to play more away from the basket. Those two are really hard workers.
"O.G. fits into that Oladipo, Sheehey, Hulls mode of really being around here a lot to work on his game. We have to make sure they continue to play versatile. We recruited them to play versatile, and now that becomes part of the deal. They have to be able to guard different people. Athletically they are there. When you are working out for two hours a week for basketball you are going to get great intensity. They have been fantastic at conditioning and strength training. They have really jumped in and done all of that. But now the weeks go from eight hours, and whatever you do extra, to 20 hours, and whatever you do extra. You have to be able to keep that same level of intensity, that same level of endurance, and that same level of desire and determination to get better."
On whether this team may try to utilize full-court pressure defense:
"Absolutely. We have got to be able to multiple on defense. We will definitely have things where we are on the ball, pressure-wise, where we are guarding the in-bounds. The most important thing is that we build at ½ and ¾ court because we have to get our principles down.
"We were not as good as we needed to be on defense, but there were certain areas: navigating screens, anticipating screens, getting over screens, rotating quick enough on reversals, closing out in 2-on-1 situations, and being able to get to the next shooter. It was not out of lack of want-to, sometimes it was out of lack of will-do. Some of it was just experience. So we have to make sure we have all that stuff down.
"The 3-on-3 and 4-on-4 and all of the shell drill stuff, we need to really get an understanding of that. But at the same time we want to bring pressure to the ball this weekend. We want to start really working on that. We have not worked much more than full-court picking your man up. I do not know that we will get to full-court pressing on the ball this weekend, but we will at some point next week.
"Everyone has a different theory on the clock and what that is going to do. We have our theories on offense. But the bottom line is, no matter what the clock is, you have got to try to create more possessions. You create more possessions by getting more offensive rebounds and having less turnovers, which includes taking tough shots or shot turnovers that we cannot have. There is no need for us to have that because we have too many guys you have to honor to the 3-point line and in drive-and-kick games. There is no reason that we don't make that extra pass. The game becomes so much about open 3's, plays at the rim, and post-ups. We are making sure we are getting those.
"Defensively, you have to create possessions by being a better defensive rebounding team and creating more turnovers. Some of those turnovers come off traps and some of them come off the fatigue you brought to the game, and creating enough fatigue throughout that the decision making process starts to drop. We don't want to be that team, because there were times last year that we were that team. Not Yogi as much, but other guys. Yogi had to play too many minutes last year with the ball, especially at the end of games. We took him off the ball more and more, especially, in the break to have him be the trailer. That will be part of what we do this year. You have to have numerous guys that can handle the ball against pressure and numerous guys that can apply pressure to the ball. We want to have a team full of guys that can make the right decision and still bring fatigue to the defensive end."
On how to get guys to improve defensively individually to help the team as a whole:
"The structure is the awareness. So the awareness is the biggest thing. The awareness of ball-you-man; the awareness of your head on a swivel; the awareness of your rotations. Some of it's technique of feet, so that would be the individual part of it, making sure our feet are aligned properly, covering space.
"But it's awareness and it's absolute desire. It really is. They'll understand it as we get into it. They may not understand it the first few weeks, but they'll start to understand it as we play the games. You've got to not only guard your position. You've got to not only be able to hold your own. You've got to be a team defender. You've got to be a great support defender. You've got to be a tremendous teammate on defense.
"Max Bielfeldt is a great example. I think he's going to be able to defend and do different things for us. We've got one year with him. I think he's going to get to the point where he can do different things defensively. But if he's not a quarterback in the back line of that defense with the ability to call out screens and the ability to help people rotate and the ability to cover ground in a short space, we won't be as good. So everybody's got individual things that they can improve upon, but it all comes down to our awareness and our communication as a team."
On what areas Robert Johnson and James Blackmon Jr. have improved the most since last season:
"Decision-making. Better speed with the ball. Getting it up the court quicker. Playing without the ball may be even bigger than that. Playing without the ball underneath the elbows and being able to cut and move with it because he was a 39 percent 3-point shooter last year. And he was a guy who I didn't think shot nearly as good as he's capable of shooting. He's made a lot of strides in his improvement of shooting, especially the way he lands because he's a jump shooter, and a lot of times jump shooters have a tough landing spot. He's really worked on landing in the right place, which is really just a little bit forward.
"We work a lot of both feet, work off both hands, drop both shoulders, all those types of things. In that case, being better with his left hand is going to be big, but being able to decipher situations, concepts, decision-making even quicker at an even faster pace if that makes sense. Play even faster. Also having him be able to play equally as well without the ball so he can get into situations where he's going to get easier shots. I think he's improved athletically so I think that'll come into it, but then he's just got to be an absolute terror on defense whether it's in the full court, whether it's on the ball in the half court or whether it's his awareness off the ball."
On how the renovations at Assembly Hall have impacted off-season workouts:
"Well (Cook Hall) is fantastic, this is why it's here. It's here for a lot of reasons, but this is when you realize it. I don't think anyone thinks about it and I appreciate it, but these guys this is all they know. Right? The first couple groups it wasn't all they knew but this is all they know, so it's been good it's been really good but we'll move it around a little bit.
"I'm definitely concerned about not being in arena type environments because we practice at least 95 percent of our practices in Assembly Hall (during the year). So we don't have that, so you do the best and my hope is that we're ready to be in there when Hoosier Hysteria comes, but a lot of things can change.
"It's certainly not for lack of work, the construction crew, I was through there two days ago and they are working hard. It seems like they are working around the clock it really does. They're putting in way more than 12-14 hour days out there; they're doing a fantastic job with it. So I know it's moving but things can change, all you need is for one thing to go wrong in there and all of a sudden, so we have to have a contingency plan for that is what I'm saying. As a coach that's what I think about it. But these guys they're just happy they can get in here 24/7 and get better and that's exactly what we are trying to do.
What do you hope the team learned from all the off the court things this latest round?
"Shared responsibility. I hope we keep getting across to them, I hope people see this, poor choices doesn't necessarily mean poor character. Poor choices sometimes just mean poor choices and any parent can contest to that or should be able to contest to that. But I think the bottom line is they have to understand there has to be a shared responsibility 24/7 with each other. That's asking an awful lot, because most people really don't want to get to that place, whether they're adult, we do that for our kids. Right? We feel that for our children but most people that's a hard thing to do, it really is. You're asking people to really look out for one another in a lot of different ways and that's where it becomes a family. That's how they become a family and that's how they learn down the road to build on when it is time for them to be parents and what those things come into. That's the biggest thing and the growth of that responsibility continues to grow. And to have them continue to understand inside these walls that, just because it gets played out the way it does inside of this program, doesn't mean they're in an isolated situation, nationally.
"That doesn't excuse it but, they need to understand they can be really good and they need to understand we're only going to be as good as our ability to deal with success and adversity and you have to be able to deal with both of them in the same way. You've got to focus or you've got to get refocused, you've got to come out and you've got to be constantly determined to get better, you've got to help your teammates get better and you've got to have great preparation.
"Preparation is discipline. It's all those type of things. It's spending that extra time and it gets hard, it's really easy to get bored with the process. The ones that stick with the process the best are usually the ones that win, and the ones that deal with adversity the best are the ones that usually end up winning the most because it happens. The bottom line is that they have to continue to grow the right way and I think they're definitely working at that. They're young men, things could change tonight, they could change tomorrow night, and they could change next week. Any parent or anybody that's been around children for any point of time and anyone who's been an employer they should be able to identify what that and hope they do because this team is really working hard to get better."
Opening Statement:
"We start practice tomorrow. It's an exciting weekend here at Indiana with everything that's going on and everything that's happening with the football team and the fact that Ohio State is comes in. We're equally as excited because we get to start official practice.
"So we'll start tomorrow morning. We'll go twice tomorrow. We'll go on Saturday and then everybody will have time to go to the game and do all that. It's still preseason, which means your conditioning has got to continue to get better and that your strength has got to continue to get better. We are in really good shape from where we sit right now on October 1, when it comes to our cardiovascular, when it comes to our fitness, when it comes to the way we've tried to build their bodies and the things that they've done in that situation, but you want to continue to stay on that pace.
"So, to me, with starting it early, it's more about let's make sure we're building up towards a timeline inside of practice rather than throwing it all out there right at the beginning and having these long endurance tested practices at the beginning. Instead, let's try to make sure that we're building towards that because October has to be really important for us. This is going to be as challenging of a November schedule, on paper, that we've had, when you look at who we play, with Creighton coming here and then certainly with Maui and the potential of those teams.
"What we'll try to do inside of the preseason practice, when you're not really preparing for a team specifically, is prepare concepts and prepare for strengths of teams. That's what our staff and myself try to really do a good job of here over the last couple of months, not only preparing for what we want to do but preparing for what we want to take away. We're building that into our drills and building that into the mindset as we get started with practice. We are really try to make this a great month of training, of building their skills and building their endurance, but at the same time try to get them ready for the myriad of things they're going to see as they get into the season and max it out. We want to keep the practices at a really good pace, at a built-up pace rather than a taper-it-down pace, so that we kind of do it in reverse order this year. That's why we'll have shorter practices sometimes twice a day and then still get in our conditioning and still get in our lifting and all those types of things."
On the overall health of the team:
"Well, we're getting there. We don't have a team that's fully healthy, so we'll definitely make adjustments inside of practice, but everybody is ready to start practice.
"In the case of James, James has been going full tilt but he missed a lot, but he's out there ready to go full go, but he still has a ways to go in building his body back up, because he did a great job at getting stronger. He even did a great job at getting stronger when he was dealing with the injury.
"The one thing that we have not done a lot of is play some pick up games. We're not huge about 'let's be playing as much basketball as we can play' because what happens is a lot of those things become now you're taking away bad habits when the coaches aren't there. We want to build good habits and that's what the drills are for. You hope that's happening in the pick-up games, but we've done very little full-court since September 15 when we were able to put the whole team together. We've done a lot more smaller group workouts and only a couple of workouts when the whole team has been there.
"But with James and with the other guys, it's a matter of building them up. It's a long season. It's a long process. We're taking it everyday for what it is and having great communication with Tim Garl, with Dr. Rink, Dr. Ahlfeld and planning accordingly. But nothing different than what we've done in the past. Sometimes this guy will go this long, sometimes this guy will only do half court, and the whole goal is to get them as healthy as they can be as we get ready to start the season.
"We will have a full team. Nobody will be standing on the sidelines not being able to participate tomorrow other than Josh Newkirk, and we've tried to be extremely creative in our workouts with him. Even though he can really only move in a short space, hopefully he feels like his fundamentals are getting a lot better in spite of that. We'll be anxiously awaiting him to do more as every week goes on. Him coming in and getting better, improving his game, building his leadership already, those things have been good for us. So he'll be the only one who won't be able to go all the way."
On how preseason is different having a team with more experience as opposed to younger teams of the past:
"It's experience. It's not the team that we had in 2013 that had the four guys that had scored 1,000 points in it, but we do have guys that have gone through it now. So it's a matter of 'Do they really have an understanding?'
"That's where Robert and James are big because they're only sophomores. They played an awful lot of games and an awful lot of minutes as freshmen, but they're only sophomores. So what is their decision making process? Those things are really important.
"Our young guys in the case of Thomas Bryant, Juwan Morgan and O.G. Anunoby, those guys have to be able to help us, especially with the loss of Emmitt (Holt). Emmitt was a guy that would have been at least a top 8 situation and a potential starter, based on what he did last year. He was having a great spring and summer, so with that being said, that pushes the freshmen up the ladder that much quicker in a sense of them having to really get an understanding. That stuff is important.
"I think every experience they can go through whether they're freshman or whether they're a sophomore or whether it's Troy continuing to build on his decision-making role. Collin Hartman has been with us the longest, when you look at his commitment time in high school and the time that he's been here. Can he continue to take the next step? And can our seniors be real seniors? And even Max Bielfeldt, who has a lot of potential, a lot of natural qualities of leadership, a lot of strength. I mean here's a guy (Bielfeldt) that in seven weeks, increased his vertical jump by five inches. Thomas Bryant taking his vertical up nine inches in seven weeks is unlike anything I've ever seen. It really is. I mean we've had guys that have been here for four years and got a lot better that didn't hit nine inches in a four-year period of time. But equally, Max Bielfeldt being 22 years of age, improving the way he did with his squat and all those types of things and his strength to be able to go up five [inches].
"I say that because that's just a microcosm of how much better they can get. They're getting better athletically, and they're getting better with they're skills. Well then they've got to play that way in the decision-making and all the things that come into that and really building that shared responsibility that we're trying to have on the court and off the court.
"But this team has got to understand what it's going to take for them to take the next step in every area whether it's our shooting, whether it's our ability to penetrate, whether it's our break, whether it's our full-court defense, half-court defense, certainly the rebounding. So that's where that understanding level of how long they've been here needs to jump."
On how the guys that went through the draft process have come back to the team this year:
"I think it builds a level of maturity. Really it has not been too different. It just crystalizes it for them. The things that you are trying to get them to understand about decision making, not having bad defensive possessions or segments, good shots, tightening up your handle, diversifying your game, and playing better defense throughout the game. All those things that you talk about that are there, that you see on film, it just crystalizes it for them when other people that really matter are seeing the same thing.
"So I think that is where the maturity level comes in, and they build a maturity level inside. That gets them that much closer to a point where they say 'this is for real.' It is not only what my coaches are saying, what my old coach used to say, this is for real. This is what the future says. So I don't think there is any question this plays into it.
"All three of those guys have done a fantastic job of building on their season when it comes to spring, summer, and fall, without a doubt, whether it is their body or their work ethic. Troy still has a ways to go to be considered as one of those guys that is one of the most committed workers when it comes to extra work, but he is also one of those guys that improves the fastest on our team. They all had really good summers. James even got stronger, like I said earlier, when he went through the injury."
On how the injury to James Blackmon Jr., impacted his offseason:
"He lost a little bit of the fundamentals with how quick he has to be with the basketball. It's in his hands a lot in workouts. When we work out, we are playing anywhere from ½ to ¾ court where it is live. So it is not just start the offense from the top of the key and let's go make a pass and cut. It is the same thing when we have gone up and down. We want to apply pressure, we want them to be able to deal with pressure, and I think that is one of the biggest things he has to make the jump on. The decision making with speed and under pressure if he is going to have the ball in his hands more. But I think he is getting better at different things we are trying to do with creating space off screens and off the handoff.
"His shot has been not normal James Blackmon shooting at this point. I think that is a product of him being out as long as he was, but I don't have any concerns about that. He has come back with no fear. He has come back on the attack. It is really the mental part of playing through things and the decision making that needs to come through for him as we start getting into live day-to-day practice.
"The biggest thing is going to be how he does on defense. He has an awareness, more and more, right now. It has been in shorter pockets of time. It hasn't been over game-to-game or day-to-day yet. I am hopeful he understands that will have a lot to do with his playing time this year. The decision making and the defense will have a lot to do with all of their playing time. I am not big on who has done what to earn playing time and predicting starting lineups, because really it is very irrelevant. It is fun to talk about, but in theory it is a fluid deal.
"Right now they have to understand those two very big things: decision making with the ball, when to shoot or when to pass and how they defend, and the people that really understand how we want to rebound. We are going to change some structure of how we rebound. We will send the guards even more in random situations to the glass, especially on the offensive end. They are going to have to adapt to that pretty quick. So we are going to have to make sure we are getting in a lot of good results out of the hustle stats. Score more off our defense, get more rebounds, and things like that.
"We are really going to be able to space the floor. I think that is the one thing you will be able to see over a period of time. We are going to be able to space the floor. It is going to get to where you are going to have to guard everybody that is on the court to the 3-point line, and you are going to have to honor that. With that being said, we cannot have a team of guys that hang around the 3-point line when the shot goes up. That is where there is going to be some separation. The guys that are committed to the offensive and defensive glass, not for segments or percentages of the game, but for the game when they are in there, maximizing their minutes, will be a huge thing.
On the improvements that Juwan Morgan and O.G. Anunoby have made since they got on campus:
"They have made tremendous strides. I think Juwan went up 130 pounds in the squat area, at least 80 pounds in the bench area, and increased his vertical by three inches. O.G. had the second strongest legs on the team, made the biggest jump of the summer, and is also learning to play more away from the basket. Those two are really hard workers.
"O.G. fits into that Oladipo, Sheehey, Hulls mode of really being around here a lot to work on his game. We have to make sure they continue to play versatile. We recruited them to play versatile, and now that becomes part of the deal. They have to be able to guard different people. Athletically they are there. When you are working out for two hours a week for basketball you are going to get great intensity. They have been fantastic at conditioning and strength training. They have really jumped in and done all of that. But now the weeks go from eight hours, and whatever you do extra, to 20 hours, and whatever you do extra. You have to be able to keep that same level of intensity, that same level of endurance, and that same level of desire and determination to get better."
On whether this team may try to utilize full-court pressure defense:
"Absolutely. We have got to be able to multiple on defense. We will definitely have things where we are on the ball, pressure-wise, where we are guarding the in-bounds. The most important thing is that we build at ½ and ¾ court because we have to get our principles down.
"We were not as good as we needed to be on defense, but there were certain areas: navigating screens, anticipating screens, getting over screens, rotating quick enough on reversals, closing out in 2-on-1 situations, and being able to get to the next shooter. It was not out of lack of want-to, sometimes it was out of lack of will-do. Some of it was just experience. So we have to make sure we have all that stuff down.
"The 3-on-3 and 4-on-4 and all of the shell drill stuff, we need to really get an understanding of that. But at the same time we want to bring pressure to the ball this weekend. We want to start really working on that. We have not worked much more than full-court picking your man up. I do not know that we will get to full-court pressing on the ball this weekend, but we will at some point next week.
"Everyone has a different theory on the clock and what that is going to do. We have our theories on offense. But the bottom line is, no matter what the clock is, you have got to try to create more possessions. You create more possessions by getting more offensive rebounds and having less turnovers, which includes taking tough shots or shot turnovers that we cannot have. There is no need for us to have that because we have too many guys you have to honor to the 3-point line and in drive-and-kick games. There is no reason that we don't make that extra pass. The game becomes so much about open 3's, plays at the rim, and post-ups. We are making sure we are getting those.
"Defensively, you have to create possessions by being a better defensive rebounding team and creating more turnovers. Some of those turnovers come off traps and some of them come off the fatigue you brought to the game, and creating enough fatigue throughout that the decision making process starts to drop. We don't want to be that team, because there were times last year that we were that team. Not Yogi as much, but other guys. Yogi had to play too many minutes last year with the ball, especially at the end of games. We took him off the ball more and more, especially, in the break to have him be the trailer. That will be part of what we do this year. You have to have numerous guys that can handle the ball against pressure and numerous guys that can apply pressure to the ball. We want to have a team full of guys that can make the right decision and still bring fatigue to the defensive end."
On how to get guys to improve defensively individually to help the team as a whole:
"The structure is the awareness. So the awareness is the biggest thing. The awareness of ball-you-man; the awareness of your head on a swivel; the awareness of your rotations. Some of it's technique of feet, so that would be the individual part of it, making sure our feet are aligned properly, covering space.
"But it's awareness and it's absolute desire. It really is. They'll understand it as we get into it. They may not understand it the first few weeks, but they'll start to understand it as we play the games. You've got to not only guard your position. You've got to not only be able to hold your own. You've got to be a team defender. You've got to be a great support defender. You've got to be a tremendous teammate on defense.
"Max Bielfeldt is a great example. I think he's going to be able to defend and do different things for us. We've got one year with him. I think he's going to get to the point where he can do different things defensively. But if he's not a quarterback in the back line of that defense with the ability to call out screens and the ability to help people rotate and the ability to cover ground in a short space, we won't be as good. So everybody's got individual things that they can improve upon, but it all comes down to our awareness and our communication as a team."
On what areas Robert Johnson and James Blackmon Jr. have improved the most since last season:
"Decision-making. Better speed with the ball. Getting it up the court quicker. Playing without the ball may be even bigger than that. Playing without the ball underneath the elbows and being able to cut and move with it because he was a 39 percent 3-point shooter last year. And he was a guy who I didn't think shot nearly as good as he's capable of shooting. He's made a lot of strides in his improvement of shooting, especially the way he lands because he's a jump shooter, and a lot of times jump shooters have a tough landing spot. He's really worked on landing in the right place, which is really just a little bit forward.
"We work a lot of both feet, work off both hands, drop both shoulders, all those types of things. In that case, being better with his left hand is going to be big, but being able to decipher situations, concepts, decision-making even quicker at an even faster pace if that makes sense. Play even faster. Also having him be able to play equally as well without the ball so he can get into situations where he's going to get easier shots. I think he's improved athletically so I think that'll come into it, but then he's just got to be an absolute terror on defense whether it's in the full court, whether it's on the ball in the half court or whether it's his awareness off the ball."
On how the renovations at Assembly Hall have impacted off-season workouts:
"Well (Cook Hall) is fantastic, this is why it's here. It's here for a lot of reasons, but this is when you realize it. I don't think anyone thinks about it and I appreciate it, but these guys this is all they know. Right? The first couple groups it wasn't all they knew but this is all they know, so it's been good it's been really good but we'll move it around a little bit.
"I'm definitely concerned about not being in arena type environments because we practice at least 95 percent of our practices in Assembly Hall (during the year). So we don't have that, so you do the best and my hope is that we're ready to be in there when Hoosier Hysteria comes, but a lot of things can change.
"It's certainly not for lack of work, the construction crew, I was through there two days ago and they are working hard. It seems like they are working around the clock it really does. They're putting in way more than 12-14 hour days out there; they're doing a fantastic job with it. So I know it's moving but things can change, all you need is for one thing to go wrong in there and all of a sudden, so we have to have a contingency plan for that is what I'm saying. As a coach that's what I think about it. But these guys they're just happy they can get in here 24/7 and get better and that's exactly what we are trying to do.
What do you hope the team learned from all the off the court things this latest round?
"Shared responsibility. I hope we keep getting across to them, I hope people see this, poor choices doesn't necessarily mean poor character. Poor choices sometimes just mean poor choices and any parent can contest to that or should be able to contest to that. But I think the bottom line is they have to understand there has to be a shared responsibility 24/7 with each other. That's asking an awful lot, because most people really don't want to get to that place, whether they're adult, we do that for our kids. Right? We feel that for our children but most people that's a hard thing to do, it really is. You're asking people to really look out for one another in a lot of different ways and that's where it becomes a family. That's how they become a family and that's how they learn down the road to build on when it is time for them to be parents and what those things come into. That's the biggest thing and the growth of that responsibility continues to grow. And to have them continue to understand inside these walls that, just because it gets played out the way it does inside of this program, doesn't mean they're in an isolated situation, nationally.
"That doesn't excuse it but, they need to understand they can be really good and they need to understand we're only going to be as good as our ability to deal with success and adversity and you have to be able to deal with both of them in the same way. You've got to focus or you've got to get refocused, you've got to come out and you've got to be constantly determined to get better, you've got to help your teammates get better and you've got to have great preparation.
"Preparation is discipline. It's all those type of things. It's spending that extra time and it gets hard, it's really easy to get bored with the process. The ones that stick with the process the best are usually the ones that win, and the ones that deal with adversity the best are the ones that usually end up winning the most because it happens. The bottom line is that they have to continue to grow the right way and I think they're definitely working at that. They're young men, things could change tonight, they could change tomorrow night, and they could change next week. Any parent or anybody that's been around children for any point of time and anyone who's been an employer they should be able to identify what that and hope they do because this team is really working hard to get better."
Players Mentioned
Forward
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Forward
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Guard
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Center
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Forward
/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
Forward
/ Men's Basketball
Guard
/ Men's BasketballFB: Nico Radicic - Spring Practice No. 11
Tuesday, April 21
FB: Drew Evans - Spring Practice No. 11
Tuesday, April 21
FB: Bray Lynch - Spring Practice No. 11
Tuesday, April 21
FB: Spring Practice - Curt Cignetti Press Conference
Thursday, April 16