Indiana University Athletics
Coach Crean Previews Home Game vs. Michigan State
3/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BLOMINGTON, Ind. - Read what head coach Tom Crean had to say as he previewed Saturday's game vs. Michigan State (12:00 p.m.; ESPN).
Opening Statement
"On tape all year you know their game with Purdue. They've been doing a great job on both ends of the floor. Their assists are high. Their three point shooting is extremely high. They're getting very good play from a lot of different people and again it's a typical Michigan State team. Their transition offense is fantastic. A lot of times their best offense is when a shot goes up on the glass and as I was telling my team from the first day of practice with Tom Izzo 20 years ago that was the mindset and bottom line is they've got a lot of offensive players that move the ball extremely well. They're playing like the experienced team that they are. They've got a tremendous amount of experience. They've played together a lot and you can see on the court defensively they make it really hard because they get back extremely well but do such a great job of taking away the elbows and they force you to cut, they force you to do different things, and we've got to be very good at that.
Some of the keys for us: We've just got to play with our eyes up and we've taken the last couple of days to tweak and adjust a couple things on both ends on offense and defense but in that game you just got to make plays. You've got to make plays and you've got to cut and move without the ball. There's got to be a rhythm to your offense. We've got to make quick passes and we've got to set great screens and whether it's waiting for the ball screen, whether it's cutting sharper and harder, whether it's setting a better screen and having a better roll, whether it's making the next pass. I thought in the second half we didn't make as many quick passes especially on our drives and that's our team. We are a quick pass team. We need rhythm in our shooting and again our shooting hasn't been as good over forty minutes the last couple game which has affected us some.
When we look at the numbers, we miss Collin a great deal. It's amazing how down our percentages are missing one guy just in the sense of how he moves the ball. He's got such a great basketball IQ and again he's 6' 6" and he's playing out of position but you have to guard him. And he moves the basketball and we haven't had very many games where we've had guys playing in the five spot together so hopefully as we keep moving we'll have that. He's getting closer. I can't give you a concrete answer today but he's getting closer to it with and hopefully we have him soon. That's pretty much where we stand."
On Dawson playing tomorrow:
"I don't think that changes, and we're counting on him playing. You always prepare and then you adjust when they don't but he is who he is; he rebounds the ball at an extremely high rate, he's long and athletic, he does a great job defensively of avoiding the screen and getting in the passing lanes for steals. You've got to screen, you've got to be aware of where he's at. His wing span is good and he's doing such a good job of moving his feet but you've got to keep him off the glass, you can't buy the hard dribble one way to come back over the left shoulder, which is what he does. You've got to challenge his shots and make him move on defense, so if's not him, they won the other night without him, so they're a deep team, a lot of experience and that plays into it. We're counting on seeing him and if it's not, they'll adjust, we'll adjust; I don't think it will change much of what our game plan is."
On keeping the team fresh:
"Our practices are really sharp. They are very, very intense and short, and we are very clear on what we want to get done, especially the last couple of days. We took Wednesday off, practiced yesterday and today. So they are shorter over duration but we still get what we have to get done. We get the offensive things in, a lot of situational things today, but we don't get away from the skill development; there's a gym full of guys shooting right now and we've been done for a while. We don't take anything for granted in that area, we do pretty much the same things, and we just shorten it up. I never start practice the same way two days in a row and we never have. There's a plan to it but it's not so regiment that it becomes `okay we're on to this, we're on to that', we try to keep it creative."
On making sure the guys don't overwork themselves:
"We talk about that some, but they're usually not going to do that. That can happen, I mean, we have guys that are late night shooters. Yogi is a real late night guy, I mean late night like 9:30/10 o' clock at night he's in here shooting the ball a lot; I factor that into our workouts. I didn't always factor that in a couple years ago, Will and Jordan and Victor especially. Will was a lot of early mornings, Victor was a lot late at night, and they're so hungry to get better and Rob is like that a little bit. He's early morning, he's late at night, so I factor that into our practices, I factor that into who I pull in and out. We're in a good place right now, energy wise and we can certainly stand a little more consistent depth right now, and when Collin gets back hopefully that will help provide it, but our guys are in a good frame of mind.
On managing Senior Day:
"We've got two managers I'm proud of. Chad and Steve have done a great job here but it just kind of goes to show when they throw up that three hundred and thirty six out of whatever it is, that's our team, I don't lose sight of that and the perspective of what they have to get better at and what they don't know. They're learning; the great thing about this group all year long has been the resiliency, the resolve. We may struggle at some others areas at times on the court, but we don't struggle on getting back, getting ready, and making adjustments and bouncing back from things."
On the "must win for post-season" attitude:
"We're just focused on the game, I'm not passed that. We're just focused on the last two days of practice and on the games. That's the way it always is and the way it will always be, that's what we're focused on. I don't care if we have the oldest team in the country, I don't think you start jumping ahead. The way you plan ahead is, you start tapering your practices and things like that over a period of time, which we've done. There's never any look into the next thing and the only thing you look back at is what to improve on from the last game. Sometimes with the film sessions we're having now, you'll go back over the games with certain guys on certain things and say, "okay, look at this, look at that. This is a trend, we've got to fix this, fix that", that type of stuff, but it's all locked into getting ready for the next game."
In what ways has the team changed?
"I'm not sure how to answer that. I think they changed the next day. They've changed in a lot of ways. They're better in a lot of ways and everybody is better in a lot of ways team wise. When we watch film, we're a much different team. Because we expect that we would be considering that was the second Big Ten game of the year."
Have the guys been rallying together in the midst of a week with a lot of noise?
"I think our guys are fantastic. I'm proud of these young men. They've done a fantastic job all year long and all week long. They're absolutely focused as is their coach and their coaches as is everybody else on what they need to do."
On Nairn Jr. of Michigan State seeing more playing time recently than in first meeting?
"He penetrates. He is like so many other guards in this league. His penetration is to get people open. You can't overreact to him. He's got great speed and great quickness and all that but you cannot overreact. They want you to overreact to him. They want you to bring two people and that just frees him. He's doing a great job of kicking the ball out and finding people whether it's drop-offs on the bottom but especially kick outs and threes and he guards hard. He fouls some when you look at his numbers but he guards hard and you've got to do a great job of screening him and moving him without the ball. And he provides a lot and he's got tremendous toughness. That's why we liked him out of high school. He's got tremendous toughness. He's doing a really good job for them on both ends or there is no way Tom would be playing him the minutes that he plays him."
