Indiana University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Big Ten Tournament vs. Michigan
3/11/2016 3:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball
COACH CREAN: First and foremost, congratulations to Michigan. Personally, you play in this league and deal with all of the things that everybody deals with, especially with them, I would have hoped they would have been in the tournament before this. Hopefully, there's no doubt about that. They're an excellent team. They have been all year. They have dealt with adversity, with injuries. When you're in this league and you go night in and night out, you gain an
incredible appreciation for your opponent. And you just hope it's seen nationally.
When you see it directly like we do -- and we knew we were going to have to play a good game. And, unfortunately for us, we didn't play as complete a game. We weren't as fast in the first half as we were the second half, and that is not how we play.
We did a better job in the second half even though we didn't shoot it. And looking at the statistics, we didn't shoot it well enough comparatively to the way we usually do.
But we played faster. I thought we did -- they're a hard preparation, and the reason is they can do so many different things over of the ball screen. And I thought our guys did a tremendous job throughout the game of having to adjust the ball screen defense. We were doing numerous things, because they create a lot of problems with that, not only because of the way they shoot it and skip the ball, but the way they find the roll.
But, really at the end of the day, when you don't play great during the game, it over-magnifies the possession at the end of the game. And it's been a long time since we have come off the corners to give up a shot. And the shot that Robinson hit, that's not how we defend. We don't leave the corners. We control the ball. We step up and stick. We stay attached – we don't stay in a denial, but we stay very close to the shooters. There was no need to come off Robinson in the corner, and we gave Chatman too much room at the end.
We knew Chatman. He hasn't played a lot, but we knew he's capable of making threes. And he had too open of a look, and it was his moment to hit it. But the Robinson three is the one that hurt us because we just weren't as good in coverage.
And we wouldn't have won this championship if we weren't pretty good in our defensive coverages. Like I said, unfortunately, when you're not as great during the game, it over-magnifies the very end.
But I thought we battled extremely hard and well. We weren't always efficient, but we played with great purpose, and we wouldn't be in the position of being the champion without these two and their teammates. What we've got to do is we have to look at this film, see where we can make our corrections, continue to make our team better. We had a great week of preparation, a great week of preparing it to make ourselves better. And it just didn't culminate in a win today.
But we will get ourselves better and we look forward to seeing what happens Sunday night and get ready to go again.
Q. Yogi, can you speak to the dynamic of playing a desperate team? Can you feel that out there? They really had to win this game to get to the NCAA Tournament. You guys already won a championship. Is there something to that? Can you feel that on the court?
YOGI FERRELL: They're basically in the same situation as we were last year with having to get as many wins as we could to get into the NCAA Tournament. We knew how they wanted to go out there and play desperate, play hard, play physical. We could feel it out there, and they outplayed us today.
Q. Players, you had the game in your hands in the closing seconds. I know you don't want to hear that. But how was it to see those three, back-to-back go in like that?
TROY WILLIAMS: It's rough. It's not our coverage. It's not how we defend. It's not how we practice. We don't practice coming off shooters in the corner. But it's tough. Like coach said, Chatman's three hurt, but it was more Robinson's three that hurt us even more.
Q. Same question that I had for Yogi. When you get a desperate team in one of these games, dynamic in a conference tournament is interesting. Can you speak to that and what it's like to play them?
COACH CREAN: I didn't sense that. I think they're a good team. I thought we played extremely hard. I'm not sure desperation makes the ball go in. I think you got a good shooter that was wide open at the end of the game because we came off the coverage. And he is a good shooter. And that's one of the keys of this. If there's three keys playing Michigan, it's don't come off the corners. And we hadn't, really, all game until that very end.
But they're good. I mean, they have had a very good year in the sense of they're in a hard league, like we all are. We had some turnovers that were costly. What we will look back at is this. We didn't get the ball in the post. Well, we got the ball in the post. We didn't go quick enough in the post. Like, we're sitting there and waiting and we had a couple of turns, just turn and go. That was a big part of our plan there. I wish I would have gotten Max on the perimeter more. He is such a better shooter now. And I wish I would have put him out there a little bit more on the perimeter and create this space. Probably that will be something that we will look back at on the film.
But we just need to execute our passing better. We need to get better with our quicker ball movement. I don't know how they felt. They were excited to play. I know our guys were excited to play. And I would feel a lot worse if our team didn't play really, really hard and compete. And they did. And they did. So that's kind of how I see it.
Michigan is a good team. They have won a lot of games this year. They have a lot firepower. They don't put a guy on the court that can't make shots. So all of the credit goes to them and deservedly so. Hope they do well when they get to the tournament.
Q. Tom, I don't know if you got a chance to ask Max, but do you know why he tripped there? Was it over a player's foot? Was it a slick spot or anything like that?
COACH CREAN: No, I don't know, and I haven't had a chance to talk about that. I just wanted to make sure, once the game was over, we were all good, on the same page, and do all of this, and then get ourselves ready to learn from it. But I haven't had a chance to ask, no.
incredible appreciation for your opponent. And you just hope it's seen nationally.
When you see it directly like we do -- and we knew we were going to have to play a good game. And, unfortunately for us, we didn't play as complete a game. We weren't as fast in the first half as we were the second half, and that is not how we play.
We did a better job in the second half even though we didn't shoot it. And looking at the statistics, we didn't shoot it well enough comparatively to the way we usually do.
But we played faster. I thought we did -- they're a hard preparation, and the reason is they can do so many different things over of the ball screen. And I thought our guys did a tremendous job throughout the game of having to adjust the ball screen defense. We were doing numerous things, because they create a lot of problems with that, not only because of the way they shoot it and skip the ball, but the way they find the roll.
But, really at the end of the day, when you don't play great during the game, it over-magnifies the possession at the end of the game. And it's been a long time since we have come off the corners to give up a shot. And the shot that Robinson hit, that's not how we defend. We don't leave the corners. We control the ball. We step up and stick. We stay attached – we don't stay in a denial, but we stay very close to the shooters. There was no need to come off Robinson in the corner, and we gave Chatman too much room at the end.
We knew Chatman. He hasn't played a lot, but we knew he's capable of making threes. And he had too open of a look, and it was his moment to hit it. But the Robinson three is the one that hurt us because we just weren't as good in coverage.
And we wouldn't have won this championship if we weren't pretty good in our defensive coverages. Like I said, unfortunately, when you're not as great during the game, it over-magnifies the very end.
But I thought we battled extremely hard and well. We weren't always efficient, but we played with great purpose, and we wouldn't be in the position of being the champion without these two and their teammates. What we've got to do is we have to look at this film, see where we can make our corrections, continue to make our team better. We had a great week of preparation, a great week of preparing it to make ourselves better. And it just didn't culminate in a win today.
But we will get ourselves better and we look forward to seeing what happens Sunday night and get ready to go again.
Q. Yogi, can you speak to the dynamic of playing a desperate team? Can you feel that out there? They really had to win this game to get to the NCAA Tournament. You guys already won a championship. Is there something to that? Can you feel that on the court?
YOGI FERRELL: They're basically in the same situation as we were last year with having to get as many wins as we could to get into the NCAA Tournament. We knew how they wanted to go out there and play desperate, play hard, play physical. We could feel it out there, and they outplayed us today.
Q. Players, you had the game in your hands in the closing seconds. I know you don't want to hear that. But how was it to see those three, back-to-back go in like that?
TROY WILLIAMS: It's rough. It's not our coverage. It's not how we defend. It's not how we practice. We don't practice coming off shooters in the corner. But it's tough. Like coach said, Chatman's three hurt, but it was more Robinson's three that hurt us even more.
Q. Same question that I had for Yogi. When you get a desperate team in one of these games, dynamic in a conference tournament is interesting. Can you speak to that and what it's like to play them?
COACH CREAN: I didn't sense that. I think they're a good team. I thought we played extremely hard. I'm not sure desperation makes the ball go in. I think you got a good shooter that was wide open at the end of the game because we came off the coverage. And he is a good shooter. And that's one of the keys of this. If there's three keys playing Michigan, it's don't come off the corners. And we hadn't, really, all game until that very end.
But they're good. I mean, they have had a very good year in the sense of they're in a hard league, like we all are. We had some turnovers that were costly. What we will look back at is this. We didn't get the ball in the post. Well, we got the ball in the post. We didn't go quick enough in the post. Like, we're sitting there and waiting and we had a couple of turns, just turn and go. That was a big part of our plan there. I wish I would have gotten Max on the perimeter more. He is such a better shooter now. And I wish I would have put him out there a little bit more on the perimeter and create this space. Probably that will be something that we will look back at on the film.
But we just need to execute our passing better. We need to get better with our quicker ball movement. I don't know how they felt. They were excited to play. I know our guys were excited to play. And I would feel a lot worse if our team didn't play really, really hard and compete. And they did. And they did. So that's kind of how I see it.
Michigan is a good team. They have won a lot of games this year. They have a lot firepower. They don't put a guy on the court that can't make shots. So all of the credit goes to them and deservedly so. Hope they do well when they get to the tournament.
Q. Tom, I don't know if you got a chance to ask Max, but do you know why he tripped there? Was it over a player's foot? Was it a slick spot or anything like that?
COACH CREAN: No, I don't know, and I haven't had a chance to talk about that. I just wanted to make sure, once the game was over, we were all good, on the same page, and do all of this, and then get ourselves ready to learn from it. But I haven't had a chance to ask, no.
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