Postgame Quotes

Indiana vs. Northwestern
Postgame Quotes

Indiana Head Coach Tom Crean
COACH CREAN: Our guys are really locked in to getting better throughout the week. I think when you can carry it out in the game, and it always shows up in the keys, and the keys of personnel and in the keys inside of the game. And the best thing is when they can make adjustments inside of the game because they know it could be better.

We have a lot of respect for Northwestern because they cut as hard and run their offense as well as anybody that we see. They have numerous guys that can make shots, and when you've got a guy like Tre Demps and the match-up issue that he is, and he made some tough shots today. I'm sure we're going to see somewhere we could have defended him better, but he also made tough shots, and we were really locked in to making sure that we kept pressure on their guards, especially Bryant McIntosh throughout the game.

One of the keys for us inside of this game was that Aaron Falzon who was shooting 59 percent on the road from three in the Big Ten didn't get loose. We had some foul trouble in the first half and he made one three late, but, again, those type of things are the things that we're really understanding and we're playing hard, aggressive.

Sometimes we're not staying and shrinking the floor the way we need to, but the bottom line is they figure it out. Offensively when we can get a stop and get the game going, it's really, really good for us, because the ball movement is strong because the body movement is really strong. Meaning that we're getting a lot of cutting and movement. The more that ball can move, the better we are.

But the keys where we didn't want to give them open threes and we wanted to keep them off the foul line, and most importantly, they were the number one offensive rebounding team in the league and we wanted to keep them off the glass. The second chance point differential, the rebound differential and the fact that we had the free throw differential, those were huge, huge keys.

When we're playing like that and making simple plays on the other end, which still we've got to continue to learn how to do a better job of, but we have a chance to keep improving. That's what their whole mindset is about.

We were in here last night watching film late, shooting free throws. They're right back in here this morning to stretch, walk through a couple things, watch some film, eat, right back in here at noon. They were right -- they had great energy to start the game. I'd be remiss if I didn't thank the crowd for their energy. It was fantastic.

Rob Judson deserves a ton of credit for the way that he prepared, as all of those guys do with Chuck Martin and Tim Buckley. But this was Rob's scout, and he did a fantastic job of leaving no stone unturned with our guys and they responded. So a big win for us against a very good team.

Q. What do you guys do to work on rebounding?
COACH CREAN: We rebound every day in practice. I think we're getting more physical with our blockouts, and there is an awareness thing to it. There really is. I don't know what the rebound difference was as far as our guard rebounding, but that's key for us as well. Our guys have a lot of respect for the opponent, and I think when you have a team that respects the opponent and respects how they win and doesn't take their abilities for granted, then that's good. That's the hunger that we've got to play with. Because, again, the lead clips, I think they had six straight rebounds and one possession, one trip down the court the other night against Maryland.

They are a team that thrives on the 50-50 balls, and we are too. We are too. So I haven't seen those numbers to see how those turn out.

But Chris is a great coach. I said this yesterday. He's not a great young coach. He's a great coach. He might be young in age, but he's not young in capability and not young in experience. He's got a great staff over there. Brian James, I've known forever. So we have a great respect level for everything about Northwestern, and our guys played that way.

Q. You talked about ball sharing, but 48 assists in the last two games, I guess that says it all?
COACH CREAN: The more simple we can make our passing and the more active we can be in our cutting, the better we are. We're moving the ball, there is no question about that. Sometimes we move it at the wrong time, wrong spot. But really the last week we've been really good about being on time, on target, and that's so crucial. It's one thing to have a passing mindset. It's a whole different thing to have an accuracy level. Again, we knew with the absence of James, and we weren't as good at this early. We got a little better at Nebraska, a little better against Wisconsin and it started to get a lot better. But we were going to have to move the ball a lot more without him because the spacing changes.

When you're guarding him, you're guarding James. James goes to 23 feet, well, you're there with him because you know he can shoot that shot. So we're seeing different defenses from people, and we've just got to make sure that we're keeping the game moving from side-to-side. Playing through the middle, playing out of the corners and really just reading where the cuts are and our guys are playing with their head up.

Q. In addition to that, nine guys made threes. Do you think guys are more comfortable taking the shot?
COACH CREAN: I think it's that. We spend a lot of time shooting the ball. We definitely cut our practice times back, but we're not cutting shooting out. We're spending a lot of time on lay-ups and different lay-ups and sometimes it looks like it, sometimes it doesn't. We posted too low today. We've got to do a much better job of that. We started posting and catching and blocking under.

Then we had three turnovers, I think, in the first half where we went out of bounds. And so we've got to do a better job there. There are so many different ways to score. You want to make sure you're trying to cover as much of it as you can in your practice. But the bottom line, they've got to be ready to shoot. They've got to be confident to take the shot. What our guys are doing are really making the adjustments with the way they're cutting and moving without it, and they're making the next pass. That's when we're at our best.

Q. Can you talk generally about what he brought to the table?
COACH CREAN: You know what's happening with OG, we're starting to expect a lot more out of him. He may not have had the numbers, but we're looking at him not as a freshman. So I guess that's the greatest compliment I could give to him, even though that he is. We're as nit-picky with him as we are with the older guys because he's capable. He's smart. He definitely has to -- his energy is a little mysterious sometimes because he doesn't always talk and he's not as vocal as he needs to be, though he's playing hard. We need more of that from him.

But what he's done, and we started to see this in practice right before the Big Ten, and it coincided, obviously, with the injury to James. It coincided a good time for him to be able to play. Because he got on the court. He can shoot the ball, but he's on the court because he can defend numerous people, and you can do a lot of different things with him. As we continue to get better and as he continues to get better, we're going to be able to do more switching. He's guarding more guards. He has to guard guys like Yogi and Rob every day in practice, so that makes him better. And he's very active. So he uses his activity, he uses his athleticism. He's got pretty good awareness, and that sustaining intensity and energy has picked up, and that's where he's got it.

He started to really figure out the spacing. He doesn't quite have it yet, but he's getting closer to that, which, because of his ability to shoot the three should give him even more open opportunities. But when he's aggressive to the glass and aggressive defensively he can split out and challenge shots and keep the dribble in front of you, he's really, really important to have on the floor.

Q. What did the running 17s in practice start?
COACH CREAN: A few weeks ago. I give them chances. They win certain things to buy out of it. They'll have one. We have the numbers. So they'll get one tomorrow night unless they buy-out of it in the sense of competition. But it's really a Big Ten thing.

But the bottom line is these guys are too good to be giving the ball over or back like that, and that's going to be one of the biggest things going to Wisconsin. We give them far too many opportunities to score here off of our own mistakes. We've got to really go up and keep getting strong with that.

But we don't talk about, hey, let's not turn it over. We just keep talking about the decision making and keep putting them in situations in practice where they have to do different things. A lot of three on four, four on five things when we can, and that stuff helps them. But, again, when you're cutting and moving without the ball like that, it shouldn't be that hard.

We really, really just need to be accurate, right? If we're accurate with our ball movement, then we're going to get good looks. If we get to the glass, we've got a chance to get the second shot.

Q. How much is Yogi raising the bar?
COACH CREAN: Oh tremendous, tremendous amount. The work ethic is always a constant, so that's not any different. It's certainly not any less. As you get to the age of him, it just continues to increase for him, and it was already pretty high when he walked in here. But I think he's sharing his knowledge. He's sharing what he sees on film. He spends a lot of extra time in film. He's way more vocal. Again today, I called a timeout and gave him the huddle, because we needed to get our pick-and-roll defense fixed. I'm very comfortable doing that with him. He just takes a seat, and I stand behind him or stand on the side.

That's the kind of ownership you want from a guy like that, but it's got to be his idea, right? Because it can be a coach's idea all you want, but until the player makes it his idea, you're never going to get the full effect. He's made it his idea. If he keeps that up, he's going to have a really good hear. He can't revert back. He's a very smart player. One of the smartest players I've ever had the privilege to coach. When you've got a smart player like that, you want them to share that knowledge and you want them to share it in realtime. Not just film sessions, which he does, and not just halftime, which he does or postgame which he does, but in realtime when the game is flying.

Q. How has Max Bielfeldt improved since coming to Indiana?
COACH CREAN: Every area. First it was athletically and then it was foot work, and then it coincided with him getting healthier, especially in his hip. He started to see that ball go in. It's amazing the confidence level that people get when they see the ball go in the basket and when their teammates want them to see the ball go in the basket, right.

So he just continues to work very hard at that and we just keep adding aspects to it, whether it's the dribble you saw the other night in a side out of bounds play with 3 seconds to go. He went into a freeze move that was an option. There were two options coming off the timeout with 3 seconds, and you've got to make a quick play, right? There's not enough time. It's either one pass or go to the rim. He made a great decision, he got fouled on the play because he put the ball out in front of him. Those are the type of things.

We're very comfortable with him getting better with his handle. He can pass. The thing that he's really helped our team with, outside of the experience of being in this league and with the understanding post positions and defenses, he really gets deflections. Really, really active hands. Again, I think it's just because we coach him to be a better athlete every day. He's trained to be a better athlete, and we coach him to be one. He's an integral part of the group.

Q. About Collin Hartman's offensive and defensive improvements?
COACH CREAN: He's a mainstay. You saw it last year, he just keeps getting better and better. I noticed this in film the other night, and I pointed it out to everyone else and to James who is going to be going through the same thing as he recovers. There were times when a guy would run a plant and run a crossover or would change direction on the dribble. Last year he wasn't healthy enough to recover that, and now he is. So like he played last year not even close to the 100% athletically that he would need to be, right, to be a high-level player, but he was still the second leading three-point shooter in the league.

So my point is he just continues to make progress. He's smart. He's tough. He's active. He sees things. He's aggressive. He can even be more aggressive on the glass. He can be even better cutting without the ball. He's got to play hands free. That's the biggest thing. We talk every game about, and we don't just talk at the game, we do in practice, in segments of practice where we have to understand what the officials' mandates are. It doesn't matter if we like it or not, that's what they're going to call and we've got to deal with it. And he's one of those guys that's got to continue to play hands free, move his feet and be active with his hands outside of his body. And he picks it up, right? He picks it up.

But he gets a lot of assignments that are huge, can do numerous things. We can play him at numerous positions. He ran some point guard for us as far as setting up the offense. There's been a lot more adjustments, maybe, since James has gone down than meet the eye because we've got to continue to -- maybe you see it. We've got to continue to create spacing for ourselves.

Because those first couple games, the lane was really packed in, and we've got to really make sure. Right now, when you're moving and they're playing with the confidence that they have, it's really hard to do that. And Collin, finishing your question, is a big part of that.

Indiana Players
Kevin Yogi Ferrell, Collin Hartman, Max Bielfeldt

Q. Yogi, to what do you attribute the strong turnover ratio?
KEVIN YOGI FERRELL: Coach telling us if we give more than a certain number of turnovers we have to run 17s. We don't want to run those 17s, so...

Coach has just been telling us for us to be a great team and for us to be able to win, we can't turn the ball over and have other teams scoring off our turnovers because one night we could be cold and not everything's going for us and if we give up those turnovers, it could be hard for us to win. So we're just focusing on taking care of the ball, taking more pride in the ball and what we do with it.

Q. What exactly are 17s?
FERRELL: Sideline to sideline. You have to run one, two, three in 65 seconds. I think one time we ran two. We bought off one, but we had three at one point in one practice. So it was a tough day.

Q. Has it been better passing, spacing, hot nights that have attributed to more 3-pointers?
MAX BIELFELDT: I'd say we're moving the ball and making the simple play. We're finding shooters. With that movement, guys are getting open a little better and we're just knocking them down. So that's probably the biggest culprit.

Q. Was there a change in mentality from the past games to now?
COLLIN HARTMAN: Along with mentality is also experience. The young guys are stepping up and being like sponges and absorbing our concepts and really studying extra film. So if you learn concepts and people's tendencies, it's easier to get stops because you know what they're doing before they do it. So, I mean, that's the biggest thing is just getting extra film. It's not so much physical because we have the physical. We all work hard all the time. It's just a matter of being there and being in the right spot at the right time.

BIELFELDT: To add to that I'd say the scouting, especially in the Big Ten, our coaches do such a good job scouting Northwestern. They run some great action, and we really just did a phenomenal job, and the young guys going through that and defending that well.

Q. How big is it?
HARTMAN: Extremely big. They're versatile. When they come in, they can guard multiple positions and allow us to switch sometimes, and it just lets our defense flow more. They're very athletic, very versatile, and they're not positional defensive guys that we have to hide when we sub in. So it's really nice.

Q. Max, I think I saw a stat you made 11 threes at your time at Michigan, and you've made more than that so far this season. How is it you're having so many three pointers?
BIELFELDT: I think it's a combination of great ball movement like you were saying, getting open looks. I really worked on my shot over the summer with the coaches too. I think it's a combination that's starting to payoff. I'm getting comfortable in the system. Everyone's sharing the ball really well, and it's making it a lot easier.

Q. You guys mentioned talking about Yogi finding the open man. How is that effort of just communicating where guys are?
BIELFELDT: He gets a pretty good amount of assists. I don't know if you've heard, but he always finds that open man. He does a great job leading the charge and swinging at the right person and they make the right play too. So, yeah, it's just awesome.

Q. Collin touched on this a little bit about OG Anunoby. But how have you made the transition successful?
YOGI FERRELL: Well, I think O.G.'s awareness, you could say, has gone up tremendously, and that's what we talk about a lot is on the court and being aware of what you need to do offensively, what you need to do defensively. I think that's sky rocketed for O.G. Definitely was a quicker turnaround than I think people thought. But I think that's the process of ourselves and the coaches being on O.G. because we knew his potential. A guy with a 7'6" wing span can jump out the gym. We saw his potential being as high as it can be. And I feel like O.G. has definitely stepped up in that way for us.

Q. How will you face the upcoming Big Ten schedule?
HARTMAN: Going back, it's all mindset. You've got to come in being aggressive. The Big Ten's a tough league. Anybody can win on any given night are, if you don't come ready to play, you're going to get beat. So you have to come in with the right mindset and get guys ready, and get yourself ready and take people with you.

BIELFELDT: And Coach Crean does a great job of keeping us ready, especially Northwestern coming off that tough loss at Maryland. You know they were going to come in here and really bring something extra. I think we did a good job in handling that and showing that we're on a mission too and we're working for something as well.

Q. How have they progressed since the season has started?
HARTMAN: Yeah, it's tough to say. It's obviously the expectations, I knew this was going to be a good team. I knew there was a lot of talent. I knew I enjoyed being with the guys and the chemistry was going to translate on the court. I think my expectations were to be as good as we can be. With this little steak we've got going, I think it's starting to show, and things are coming together and it's a lot of fun.

Q. Do you think you've found a comfortable place with the guys?
BIELFELDT: I'd say so. It's definitely not hard with the guys. The coaches and everything, making sure everyone's comfortable and knowing what they're doing.

Q. How has that translated to confidence on the court?
FERRELL: Yeah, I feel like on the court we have a lot of confidence, especially we have a lot of confidence defensively. This game coach Justin prepared us well with the scouting of Northwestern and what they want to do, their tendencies. I feel like we carried that on to the court.

So for us to play loose out there, it's us getting down and getting stops. I think even as a team we probably don't even think this is our best defensive game. Probably one of our worst -- not one of our worst, but we definitely had stretches in there where we know we can be better. I feel like we're going to get to the film and watch it and we can be better. Just try to find different ways because we're definitely going to need that defensive mindset to win on the road.

Northwestern Head Coach Chris Collins
Opening statement...
"It was certainly not one of our better days today and I'm going to give Indiana the credit for that. I think they were fantastic. You try the best you can to simulate their speed especially from defense to offense and we talked a lot about how we were going to start the game and how you have to stand especially in this building with that initial push and they've done it to Illinois, Ohio State and now us. You come in and they just hit you right away to start the game. I think we worked our way back into in a little bit but they just put a lot of pressure on you. Their driving game is really hard to stop and they have a lot of guys that can put pressure on you and their driving ability, plus everyone can shoot. They have 32 made threes in the last two games – that's incredible shooting. You can tell that's something they've worked on. They shoot with confidence, they play with great pace and we could never make it a game. I thought the end of the first half was critical. It was like at 11 there and we talked about the last four minutes, trying to get it to single digits and they pushed it to 17. I think those were a critical couple minutes and we could never make a push. We were struggling to get it in the basket. Every which way, we were missing layups, open threes, we were missing free throws. We need to get in the gym and work that out. Certainly I can do a better job of helping with that on the floor by coaching these guys up and building confidence but at the end of the day we have to put it in the basket, especially against a team like them. When you get your open looks, you have to make them."

On Robert Johnson's defense...
"I think he was good. I thought he did a great job. Yogi was on them some and then Johnson took it on initially. He did that last year in the Big Ten Tournament. He is a very good on-ball defender. I think they were trying to get in his legs and Bryant McIntosh missed some shots he usually makes so I think it was a combination – it wasn't one of his better days. But give them credit, their defense was locked in and there was really good commitment on that end of the floor which when you add their offense to it, they're a really tough team to beat."

On Indiana exposing the defense...
"They're doing this to everybody. When a team has five guys that spread you to shooters and you can't control the dribble – but they've done that to everybody, they're 7-0. There hasn't been a team to slow them down yet. Our defense was exposed and so has the six other defenses that they've played. It was them; they scored 105 in their last game so I think we did a good job by holding them to 89. They put 100 on Ohio State and 89 on us. They're a hard team to guard especially in this building. It's a special environment. They have five guys who can put it on the floor and if you can't control the dribble and you're constantly in rotation, they can expose any defense and ours just happened to be the next one in line."

On scrambling to score...
"We were in scramble mode. Dribble penetration. It's not just Yogi. They have a lot of guys who can drive the ball. Troy Williams is driving the ball, Johnson is driving it. Hartman is a really good underrated player, I thought he was terrific today. He puts it on the floor, he gets in there, he makes plays and shots. When you have four or five guys doing that and you're constantly in rotation, you're always scrambling. That's what they do to you. To me, we obviously have to get back but you have to do a good job of controlling the ball and we weren't able to do that. They were getting by us and our rotations and they were getting the threes which lead to them crashing the glass."

On Big Ten play...
"That's the Big Ten for you. It's an 18-game journey. There are going to be ebbs and flows and there might be a loose three in a row or maybe a winning stretch with four or five. It's a long journey of a season and this is definitely a tough stretch. You come in trying to get a win and we got beat. It happens sometimes especially against a great team. I'm not happy with the way we played. I'm disappointed. We all could have been better but I think a lot of it had to do with Indiana's play."

On Indiana...
"I love the way their confidence is high. You couldn't really tell but sometimes when you lose some games early in the year you aren't as confident. You can see it when they walk out when they're warming up that they are really confident right now. They seem to have a great chemistry. I can't speak for what it was like early in the year because I wasn't around but I love the way they share the ball. They are very unselfish and they don't really care who gets the shots. The ball is moving. Obviously Bryant is playing better. As a freshman, he has gotten better as the season has gone along. Their role players fill their roles great. Zeisloft and Max off the bench do a great job for them. They give them 20 points and 7 rebounds off the bench. That's great for two fifth year seniors who play a great role. And I think Hartman is a really good player. I think he's an unsung guy for them and you add those guys to Williams and Yogi, Robert, Troy, you've got a really good team. They are a very veteran bunch. The only young guy they are playing is Bryant for really heavy minutes. Yogi's a senior, Troy is a junior, Hartman's a junior, two fifth year guys – the experience makes a big deal in this game."

Players Mentioned

OG Anunoby

Max Bielfeldt

Kevin Yogi Ferrell

Collin Hartman

Robert Johnson

Troy Williams

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