Indiana University Athletics
Postgame Quotes - Indiana vs. UT Arlington
11/20/2018 9:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Indiana Head Coach Archie Miller
COACH MILLER: Tremendous effort by UT Arlington. Fully expected our game to be very, very difficult tonight. And watching them on film, the way that they play it defensively, the way they make you work defensively on their motion, it's just a hard game. It really is.And we made it a little bit harder on ourselves in the first half with our turnovers. And then in the second half didn't turn it over as much. But defensively we weren't as engaged as we needed to be, especially defending the 3. And let some guys get hot. And they fought.
But I thought the last six minutes, five minutes of the game our leadership from Juwan stood out. Guys started to play with more energy and were able to rally and finish the game, which is what you hope.
It was a difficult game to be part of just due to the fact that we have so many guys not available right now that you can't sub and you also are playing combinations that have never played together before and out of position at times.
So I was really, really proud of the guys that were able to step up and find a way to win with some guys that hadn't been out there in the past. And we'll take it. We'll move on. And we'll work towards Friday against UC Davis.
Q. What's the deal with Al and I guess Romeo, how is he doing?
COACH MILLER: Al got taken out on the break-away or at least was knocked out of the air. Landed on his back. I don't have a report other than he said he couldn't go back in.
Romeo, clearly got popped in the nose. I don't have any indication if his nose is broken or anything. But the blood and trying to get it to stop, he wasn't able to finish the game the last four minutes. So that would make seven scholarship players not available due to injury.
And I don't know if I've been around that one too much. But we'll give it a go with the guys we have the next couple of days. We'll have to figure out who is ready. And UC Davis is a good team, and we'll have to be ready for them.
Q. I know obviously you haven't gone through film with guys yet, but do you have an idea how you balance critiquing performances with also maybe recognizing how much these guys had to play tonight, especially guys like Damezi who may be not used to so many minutes?
COACH MILLER: Without question. Rob couldn't come out of the game. He's fatigued, he's guarding their best player. Romeo is fatigued, couldn't come out of the game. That's where our defense really started to get lax. We couldn't apply the constant pressure and workload and how we want to play. We got lethargic defensively standing around.
And there is going to be some critique, obviously, I think on some of the execution things that we need to do. But there's also going to be some realization it's impossible to ask some guys to do as much as we're asking them to do.
But with that type of experience level, with the opportunities for these new guys to get in there and play, it can only make you better down the line, as you hope.
Q. Losing the bodies is obviously taxing on the program just from the standpoint of what you've talked about, but from a leadership standpoint, Zach Roberts not being out there, how much is that hurting your team?
COACH MILLER: Yeah, it's playing a factor that some of our veteran guys aren't there. Some of these guys like Rob and Romeo, Damezi, who played in the game, it's probably the first time they've experienced a home game with a little pressure on, so to speak, and silver lining. Hopefully that's good. But without question we need our most ready, experienced guys who have been in big games before around. And it does take a toll on you a little bit. But, again, found a way to win. Just get better and figure out a way to win the next one.
Q. You talked about Damezi, almost went behind the back when he didn't need to at one time. But down the stretch he hits a big 3 with the shot clock down and has the confidence to take and hit another jumper on the baseline. Is that the kind of thing hopefully that can help as things progress?
COACH MILLER: He doesn't know what he doesn't know, right? One thing he does have confidence in his shot. He believes he can make it. We believe he can make it. Understanding time and score, understanding game situations, he'll get better as he gets older, as he learns. But he's in there right now. He made a big corner 3. That was a huge shot in the game.
Q. You took some time to fire up the crowd at one point in the game when people were starting to get a little bit nervous, just playing cheerleader a little bit. How do you think that helped the players down the stretch?
COACH MILLER: Without question, the energy that our crowd gives our players, they feed off of. They knew in that last seven, eight minutes we needed them. I thought they stepped up. Obviously we don't have school right now. So our students aren't in here. The crowd last six, seven minutes definitely helped us without question. And we needed it. We needed a burst and we needed a little bit of energy to get the guys going and I think the last five, six minutes you saw that.
Q. You mentioned Juwan's leadership down the stretch. From where he was maybe a year ago to now, how much have you seen him grow in that leadership role?
COACH MILLER: Just have so much confidence in him being able to come through when we need it, whether it's a basket, catch, rebound, blocked shot. He filled the stat line up tonight, and he didn't even play with the group he's normally accustomed to play with. He was with Justin and Fitzner. We've never even practiced with that lineup before. So to his credit, he was able to hang in there. He's smart.
But some of these games, right here, when things aren't going real well, you need your aces to kind of stick their head out and say let's go. And I thought he did that: Three blocks, three steals, four assists, six offensive rebounds. Big baskets. He was good.
Q. De'Ron Davis, is he added to that "out indefinitely group"?
COACH MILLER: I would think so. I'm not sure what his situation is. We found out this morning. He's obviously got some Achilles soreness in his other leg and had some pain running. I just listened to what they tell me. He wasn't available tonight. So I guess we'll see tomorrow where he's at with some things and hopefully we can get him back.
Indiana Players Juwan Morgan, Damezi Anderson, Justin Smith
JUWAN MORGAN: Really they were just, they wanted it more. They were fighting harder than we were. They were running guys on ball screens attacking us in every way you can think of. I think we responded well at the end just really anchoring down, getting those stops and scoring in transition. But they were just really attacking us.Q. Damezi, that 3 you hit (indiscernible), did you sense that you guys were really struggling from the perimeter when you were about to take that and a big boost?
DAMEZI ANDERSON: Yeah, it was just confidence in my shot, then knocked it down. It boosted us and gave us energy on the defensive end.
Q. Justin, just having a game like this where you're going through adversity even on your home court, how can it help you grow as a team to have this experience?
JUSTIN SMITH: I think having this experience going through this type of game, playing these type of players, it's a good test for us to really kind of see what we're made of. And having to scrap and fight on our home floor and get a win, a hard-fought win, it's going to come in handy having that experience down the road.
Q. Justin, you guys are a little bit shorthanded because of the injuries. What do you talk to the young guys about being fresh because they're having to play big minutes basically for the first time in their career, and what do you do?
JUSTIN SMITH: Well, it all starts with getting proper rest and treatment, making sure that you're in the training room every day after practice, before practice, getting your body ready. Because it is a long season. We have been going at it since, practically the entire year, whether it be the summer, the preseason.
So just taking care of your body and making sure that you're on top of things and not letting yourself slip and keeping yourself, keeping yourself, like, in the training room and doing things that are necessary.
Q. Juwan, with all the injuries, it becomes next man up, but at some point there's nobody left to come up how do you guys approach that with all the injuries?
JUWAN MORGAN: If it gets to the point where we have to play five people 40 minutes a game then that's what we'll do. Our bodies are in condition well enough to do it, but if it comes to it then that's what we're going to do, and we'll fight as hard as we can.
Q. Was there any message at halftime when you had the 13 first-half turnovers, and what was causing it?
JUWAN MORGAN: It was just being lazy with the ball, not coming to meet it. And we knew they were going to be a hard-playing team, really trying to deny all passing lanes and getting into us. And I think they did that. The message at halftime was really to just get yourself open, even if you have to post up as if you're trying to get the ball in the post on the block to get open, doing whatever it takes to get open to get the passes.
Q. Down to three and one points and the crowd just starts giving you guys lots of encouragement. How much, especially with how few players you had left at that point, how big was that for the crowd to kind of rally around you guys and basically try to help you get through when the game was -- looked like, it was looking like they were going to possibly take over?
DAMEZI ANDERSON: Really just us coming together as a team most importantly, and the crowd just gave us a little energy and boost because they show love and support. And we just want to show them a good time and get the win for them.
Q. Damezi, coming out of the timeout -- you answered this -- but the shot clock was winding down. You had to go up and hit a 3 from the baseline, talk about that play a little bit.
DAMEZI ANDERSON: I seen the shot clock going down, I knew I had the ball in my hand. I'm always confident in my shot no matter what situation it is. I put a lot of shots up to get my shot the way it is today.
So I really, just being confident in my shot and making sure I knock it down and having the confidence to knock it down no matter what the situation in the game is.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
UT Arlington Head Coach Chris Ogden
Opening Statement
"First of all, it was a lot of fun to play in here. What a great venue and environment. I've got a great respect for the tradition here at Indiana and the basketball intelligence of the fans. Just so much respect for what goes on here and for Coach Miller and what he does with his team. We battled back but we just dug too big of a hole. We had it to five, we had it to three and then we didn't make the couple of plays you have to make to win on the road against a very good Big Ten team. I'm proud of my guys and I think we can learn a lot. At the end of the day, we just gave them the ball too much in turnovers."
What did you do differently in the second half to get back in the game?
"We just stopped turning the ball over. I think we had fourteen turnovers at half and we only turned it over five times in the second half with three of those coming in the last four minutes. We stopped turning the ball over and got back to competing. We climbed in on them, we pressured the ball, we just looked a little intuitive the first half. Some of that is on us as coaches. We have to see did game plan wise. But I was proud of our guys the second half."
When you got it within three, what happened for Indiana to push the lead back out?
"We just didn't get a stop. I don't remember if they got an offensive rebound or we fouled them, chances are we fouled them. I felt if we could tie it up, we could really get it. We got it to three but then it stretched back to five and seven pretty quick and it was too hard to get back after that."
Indiana is a team known for turning defense into offense, how much of a neutralizer was it to be able to keep them at the half court and force them to run their stuff?
"That was the difference in the second half. In the first half, I don't know how many live ball turnovers we gave them where we turn it over and they go score, but there were enough. It's really the difference in the game. Getting them in the half court and making them earn everything. They're good, we knew they were going to make some big-time shots. We just wanted to make them earn everything and in the first half we had too many turnovers and didn't do that."
Players Mentioned
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