Previewing Thursday's Game at No. 4 Iowa

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana head coach Archie Miller and senior Aljami Durham met with the media on Wednesday to preview tomorrow's game at No. 4 Iowa. Below are videos and a transcript from the availability.

Senior Aljami Durham

Head Coach Archie Miller

Opening Statement
MILLER: Big weekend we're heading into for us. Unfortunately for Michigan State, and we hope everybody is doing well there coming along off of their recent little pause that we did not play this weekend. Every opportunity creates one for you to take advantage of and I think our guys have done that finishing off last week's game against Purdue. We had a lot to take in, a lot to talk about and very quickly, after addressing some of our issues, we have been able to really refocus on ourselves. We have a very, very challenging week. Starts with Iowa and I think they are one of the best teams in the country. That is a given, but I also think they have a chance to not only win the Big Ten in an unprecedented year, but they also have an opportunity to compete for a National Championship. They have all the parts that are needed and Coach McCaffery and his staff have done an incredible job with this group and their development just in general. So, our focus has really been on ourselves like I said, and we are trying to get a couple things corrected that we can get back to feeling good about. Hopefully on Thursday night we are prepared to be ready to battle against arguably the best team in the league right now, so I will leave it at that.

Q. On what specifics are needed in their game against Iowa…
MILLER: I think at the end of the day regardless of who you play, you have to hang your hat on some of the things that you value. We work very, very hard in the offseason, and in the fall and in the early part of this year to really build our defense to be that is; one that we can carry on throughout the course of the year against the best teams that we play. I think being solid in guarding the ball is essential. I think being able to handle one-on-one opportunities in the post is essential, and I think not giving up easy baskets is something that you have to take a lot of pride in. We have really fallen short in our one-on-one defense. That being said, not being able to be organized and communicate and give great effort in transition has led to a lot of easy ones, easy threes. If you just look at our 3-point field goal percentage defense in conference alone, you are not going to be able to be successful when you are giving up the amount of threes and at the percentage we have given up. It is not for lack of trying; it is for lack of fundamentals. It is for lack of, for a better word, doing your job. At the end of the day we have had a number of breakdowns and there is a lot of reasons for it. You know, it is accountability number one from myself and our staff for being able to really do a better job with our practice sessions. We have had a very hard time practicing, probably like a lot of teams. We have played a lot of games with very few opportunities to really take a deep breath and see where you are at and work on things. With all of those games comes a lot of minutes, comes injuries, it comes guys that are not available, and your practices become choppy, and you try to manage your team to get to the games the best that you can. By doing that you rob yourself of the things that you really, to be honest with you, need to be in place every day to be good against the teams in this league.

So, I think as we go to Iowa their transition offense, their ability to shoot the ball is really staggered, and you just have to add in the element that they probably have the best player in college basketball inside and out as well. So, they are their own unique problem, but I think for our team to not give up easy baskets, to be able to get our defense set. Are we guarding the ball? Are we in proper positioning off the ball? Are we doing what we are supposed to do in terms of early work in the post? Just the simple stuff that you probably start with in October we have had a lot of slippage in, and to me that is really been a gradual decline as January has started. I think for us we have to give great effort on the ball, we are going to have to be there on shooters. We cannot get beat running transition, and at the end of the day in the one-on-one we are going to have to have some pride that we are going to be able to do a pretty good job of being able to guard our man. When it comes to Iowa, they present probably the greatest challenge you can for a team that is trying to strive to get that defense back in order, because if you are having some success against them, if you are able to withstand their barrage of stuff that they can do, hopefully that is a positive sign that we have gotten better. And that is the big key for this team. The big key right now for this team is to sort of embrace this moment, get back to practicing really hard, get our guys feeling good about themselves in terms of or how they are working, and I think we will see improvement.

Q. On improving outside shooting…
A number of things. At the end of the day, shooters shoot. I was a good shooter. I was a good shooter at a young age all the way through college. I played for a lot of different coaches and a lot of different styles. Shooters shoot. At the end of the day, the quality of the shot is something that the staff is mindful of. I think confidence that those are the ones that you are getting on time and on target, you are going to make. I think from a consistency standpoint, our shooting has been inconsistent most of our time from a percentage standpoint. It has been an inconsistent time period for us. We don't have knock down, lights-out shooters. That being said, I like the quality of shot we are getting right now. As we look at our team and evaluate some things, we are getting some good looks. We have a guy like Trayce, who commands a lot of our attention, those guys are going to continue to get good looks. I think for us, we shouldn't dwell on how we aren't shooting it well, but that we can continue to improve our confidence level, find a way to get guys in rhythm on time, and it will come back around for us. That is usually how it works. Here recently, we haven't hit. In the Purdue game, we didn't hit. But in the Nebraska game we did hit. Wisconsin, the game before that, we did hit pretty good. Before that against Maryland, we didn't hit real well. We ended up winning the game, because we had a good defensive performance. Maybe even the Penn State game prior to that wasn't great. But we have been able to have some shooting nights where we have made more than our fair share. And we have had nights where are shooting has been off. And that is how this team will probably be.

Hopefully, we can continue to become a more consistent shooting team. I think Al can shoot the ball a lot better. I think Rob has to be a more confident shooter with his open ones. He has shown that. Armaan has shown stretches of being consistent. He is just getting back. I think Anthony and Jerome could really add to that which those guys have shown. Putting it all together though and being a team that is very confident in itself, to me is a team that is working at it every day the right way and continues to believe that if we continue to work to get the good ones, and if those guys get them that we will make them. At some point it will come back around. To look back four years and start to retract shooting percentages, I can't really say that it is an offensive philosophy that we don't like to make shots. I think at some point in time, shooters make shots. And guys have to step up and make some. We have to keep creating better looks and working with them. There is no doubt about it that the inconsistency from the three-point line is something that frustrates you. But we have been in a lot of games where we haven't shot well and won. I think the more frustrating thing is for me and our staff right now isn't three-point shooting, it is the free-throw shooting. Free-throw shooting is absolutely killing us right now. It is deflating. It hurts when you can't make them. At the end of the day, you come up empty. My focus isn't 3-point shooting right now. that will find its way to have some good and bad. We have to be a better 3-point shooting team, if we are going to be to win some of the games on our schedule.

Q. On if there's anything that you can point to offensively that Iowa's Luka Garza is better at this year considering all he achieved last year?
He can step out and shoot the three as consistent as their guards. He is probably looking for it a little more this year than last. I don't have what he did last year in terms of his attempt. I do think from a 3-point shooting perspective, he is much more dangerous from there right now than he has ever been. He can shoot up to eight or 10 a game. He is making close to 50 percent, if he isn't already hitting that. Adding in that element of a lot more three-point attempts, in my opinion, he is obviously very dangerous. He is one of the more unique players that you will see. He has got great size and great physicality. He doesn't jump that high, and he probably doesn't run that fast. But you will never find a guy that you watch play on film that moves and works like he does. I mean great scorers have an act to get the ball. Great scores have an act to get to the foul line. But this guy right here never stops moving. It is a credit to him and a credit to their system. Their pace is great. Their motion is great. But he does not take a break. He does not give you an inch in terms of being able to catch your breath when you are defending him. When he is posting, you are in trouble. When he is running to the basket, it is every time. If he is moving in their motion on the perimeter, he is ready. I think that there is no possession that he takes some kind of breath. Some guys take their wind, and maybe they take a possession off from posting, or some guys don't run as hard throughout the course of the game. He is always the same. It is the same every game. The greatest compliment I can give him is that he never allows the defense to be off the hook. There is never a possession that he is not attacking you in some way. He is at an unbelievable three level. His offensive rebounds, he posts, has both shoulders from 10, 12, to 14 feet off the lane facing up. He shoots that shot as well as any player you will see. And you added in the free throw shooting and the three-point line. You are getting a guy who is averaging 28 or 30 a game back-to-back. His improvement started in his freshman year and it carried over. He has continued to work, but I hate to just talk about him. I think their team, their depth, their quality for the players that they have around him are terrific. It is a great blend and I think that's why they are so good. It's because you have to deal with somebody on every catch on their team.

Players Mentioned

Aljami Durham

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