Indiana University Athletics
Big Ten Coaches Weekly Teleconference - Feb. 23
2/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 23, 2015
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BLOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana head coach Tom Crean joined the other Big Ten Conference men's basketball head coaches on the weekly teleconference Monday morning. Below is a transcript of what Coach Crean had to say.
On most of the team's shots coming from the 3-point line or at the basket:
"I think it's a little bit of both, staying away from the mid-section and the personnel. Spacing has a lot to do with it. The number one thing for us is to get through the paint. We want to get to the rim, we want to be at the free-throw line and we want a lot of cutting when the ball is being driven. With that, we create help situations to get the ball in the paint or we can play our strength which is the three-point shot. Certainly we'll take up jumpers, but the bottom line is being clean and having separated spaced shots, not shots that you have to manufacture or that are challenged. A lot of times when you're sitting there, in that ten, 12, 14-foot range, those shots are going to be challenging. So if you can create some help in those situations, let's make the kick for the open three-point shot. That's what it's been more than anything else."
On Collin Hartman's injury update:
"No update. He's still sore this morning. But no update past that right now."
On Wednesday's game vs. Northwestern:
"Northwestern is really playing at a high level in a three-game win streak. I think they are shooting 44 percent from the three. That's a big jump. They are defending the three at a much higher level. They are not fouling and because of the zone areas, they have cut down their opponents free-throw attempts in a big way. They are very comfortable offensively. They are getting good spacing, comfortable shooting threes, a lot of really good actions. They are playing with a ton of confidence on both ends of the floor and we're looking forward to it.
"
It's a great environment in Chicago. They'll have a lot of fans and I'm sure we'll have a lot of fans in the building. Chris (Collins) and Brian (James) and staff are doing a tremendous job with a fairly young team. They have some veterans, but they've also got some young guys playing extremely well. We're looking forward to it.
"And if it's a zone, we've got to do a great job of moving the ball, knock down threes; and if it's man-to-man, we've got to be able to move the ball and knock down threes. What we see is we have to be in a position where the ball is moving and do a great job of transition defense and taking what the defense gives us."
On how your handling this team and the end of the season:
"It's just constantly reading your team. And the bottom line is that there is still time for film work, for conditioning, walk-through time. These guys do a really good job whether it's on the court or at the hotel or in the film room. You just want to make sure you're maximizing your time spent. It doesn't always have to be physical but you have to absorb it. We have to make sure we're going really live. Not getting away from the breakdown drills that you have to do and keep developing their skills and keep developing their habits that they have on the court and sharpening it as much as possible with confidence. It's really a read and it's something that we've been doing for some time. If we didn't need to spend a lot of time on the court, we would spend more time in reviewing film sessions and things of that nature as we prepared to recently play Rutgers."
On freshmen eligibility and the year of readiness:
"I think the bottom line is and my initial response is if this is a response of the entire college basketball and college football, whether it's Division I or whatever it is. In football, with the BCS then that's what it is. But to look at it in the sense of potentially selected conferences, I don't think that makes a lot of sense in the world that we live in.
"As far as recruiting and as far as the best product of talent and teamwork and togetherness on the court, I think the way the rules have been set up over the past few years, to get your freshmen in with you in the summer, that's a real karat for them to do really well academically over the summer, because if they aren't doing really well second semester, they could be in a big issue academically. There have been a lot of very good things put in place that show extremely how valuable getting the right kind of grades and putting the right kind of focus and concentration into your academics is.
"At the same time it's up to us as coaches to make sure that we are putting them in the best situation to help them grow in every area, on the court, off the court, whatever our sport is. With these practices that are in now, kids are only going to get better academically. But again, it comes down to the desire to be great academically and the structure and place and the accountability put on them academically. I feel really good about what we are doing. And I'm sure I have a lot of colleagues out there who feel the same way about what they are doing. So I don't see where the need is unless it's all the way across the board."
