Indiana University Athletics
Previewing Wednesday's Game Against Minnesota
2/16/2021 3:46:00 PM | Men's Basketball
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana head coach Archie Miller and redshirt junior Race Thompson met with the media on Tuesday to preview tomorrow's game against Minnesota.
Redshirt junior Race Thompson
Indiana Head Coach Archie Miller
Opening statement
MILLER: We are getting ready to play Minnesota Wednesday night. A big game. Both teams are both striving and getting near the finish line. Minnesota has had some really, really impressive wins so far. I don't think there is a team in America that has probably had the type of quality of wins that they have had this season. They are deeper. Marcus Carr is terrific. I think the big kid Liam Robbins who they have added really has given them a presence inside. I think (Jamal) Mashburn as a freshman has played very well here of late. They are just good team; very good offensively, very good in transition. We got our work cut out for us on Wednesday."
On what is contributing to the slow starts…
MILLER: I think the slow starts really contribute to slow on offense. I don't mean slow running or slow moving, I mean we are out of the gates slow on offense. We miss a ton of easy ones to start games. We miss free throws to start games. We hope to get off to a good start as a team. I think more so than anything it is probably more of a confidence thing. That is why you see it as the game continues to go and you get your feet under you, we seem to be able to climb back in and be able to sustain better and higher-level play. I think to start the game we are a very apprehensive offensive team. A team that hopes for things to go well. That is why you miss a lay-up at the start of the game. It is why you struggle in and around the rim. It is why you miss the first couple of threes. You get fouled, draw a great foul, and at the end of the day you go to the line and you miss two. So, I think part of it is confidence and the other part is faster out of the gates. It means you have to be a more confident group to start. Maybe less anxiety or stress that you hope to do well to start a game is maybe a better way of putting it. It is not for a lack of effort or lack of running hard or trying hard. I think it is more of a confidence thing. I think our offense contributes to the slower start more than our defense. It puts more pressure on our defense to start the game. Getting back in transition, you have to start by getting stop after stop after stop when you are playing against really good teams is hard. We do find a way to get our feet under us, which is good, but we have to be a more confident team offensively when we start the game.
On what make Trayce-Jackson Davis and Race Thompson work well together…
MILLER: I think Race Thompson is a very good compliment to Trayce. I think it starts with him understanding number one, how to play, how to move the ball, how to play off another guy. He does a great job at creating action for us as another guy out there. That contributes to him being a guy that plays well with another front court player. He also plays well with our team. Race is a big cog in our wheel in terms of making us go. He takes a lot of pressure off of Trayce to create all the offense. I think as Race has evolved through the course of this season; he has been a much more confident player. Our team has confidence in Race. To me that relationship goes well because of the roll that he takes on as being unselfish. He does what you ask him to do, and he plays off of other people and makes them better. This year, he has been more of a primary guy for us in terms of being able to help with the scoring and rebounding load. Definitely, it is more of a Race role than anything. Whoever he plays with, he is a guy that can make you better with how he attacks his role.
Q. On any potential changes to the starting five…
MILLER: If we consider any changes going forward it will not be due to slow starts. If we change our lineup it will have something to do with if we feel that that guy really earned the right to get off to an earlier start in the game, or deserves more playing time. But the first five that goes out there to me has got to be a more confident group like I said. A lot of it to be honest with you is Trayce. If you want me to pull Trayce out of the starting lineup for missing a couple of free throws or an easy one to start the game. To be we need to get him more at a confidence level to start the game and I think that will help us more than anything. But there will not be any lineup changes unless it is due to circumstances not surrounding how we start a game. To me our group is working hard for being in February in the grind that we are in, we have a great attitude. We work every day very hard and I think yesterday was no difference. I see more of a bounce with certain guys as we finish the home stretch here that they are pushing in the right direction and what you hope is that that attitude, the work ethic sort of contribute a little bit more to the start of the game in terms of getting off to a better start. But no grand changes. We are who we are. Most guys on our team know right now they can all contribute in different ways and they are getting their opportunities. They have just got to be better.
Q. On factoring who is on a roll when starting a second half…
MILLER: Yeah, I think that the rhythm of a game pretty much outlies who is doing what and how their extended minutes will play. There are all these conversations about coming out of halftime, changing it up when one guy has a really good start to the game or a good first half. But in all reality to have to go with the faith of the guys that have number one, earned the right to be out there, and number two, you do not want to lose confidence in guys by making changes. Sometimes making changes can hurt you just as much as help you with the confidence level of other guys, and I think we want to keep all of our guys right now in the right mental framework that sometimes goes in peaks and valleys in terms of how you are playing during the course of the year. But the finish is the most important part, and having everybody engaged right now doing what we are asking them to do and trying to simplify some roles. Throughout the course of a game, I think playing time is definitely distributed based on how you are doing out there, which we have seen different lineups in the game in the last three or four games with four freshmen on the floor at one time because they are playing well. And I think when things are not going well for you in a game like Ohio State, I am not sure that one guy or a lineup change is really going to mean the lick of difference when it comes to how you are playing in that game. But if you look at our game against Northwestern, Jerome finished very strong. He did. He played really well and was able to finish the game in there. I think Kristian is playing more minutes because he has earned the right to play more minutes and he is doing a nice job of facilitating the times for us. I think Wednesday night will be the same. Whoever is playing well and who has the opportunity to help us gets more opportunity but you earn that pretty much every day with the belief that you give everybody around you.
Q. On playing Jerome with Race and Trayce…
MILLER: Yes. It is something that we have talked a lot about. The injury to Joey really put us in a tough bind when it comes to being able to play a bigger lineup. Jerome played you know, 99.99% of the possessions a year ago in his first year playing with us with two guys like that, so he is comfortable doing it. The injury to Joey really sets back in terms of our rotation, and foul trouble comes into place or you need another small forward out there and Jerome can stretch the floor a little bit shooting. So, we are not opposed to Jerome just playing the floor, but to me being able to play Jerome in some games here down the stretch at the three gives us a bigger team. We needed a bigger team on the floor against Ohio State with what was going on on the rebounding. He has not played as many minutes in that role, but it is something definitely that if we can sneak with it and get him out there, it gives us an opportunity to play more veteran guys and it gives us a bigger team. So, I think it is something we have constantly tried to do. It has also been a problem just due to our depth and what we have needed to be able to accomplish with the team that we are currently able to play.
Redshirt junior Race Thompson
Indiana Head Coach Archie Miller
Opening statement
MILLER: We are getting ready to play Minnesota Wednesday night. A big game. Both teams are both striving and getting near the finish line. Minnesota has had some really, really impressive wins so far. I don't think there is a team in America that has probably had the type of quality of wins that they have had this season. They are deeper. Marcus Carr is terrific. I think the big kid Liam Robbins who they have added really has given them a presence inside. I think (Jamal) Mashburn as a freshman has played very well here of late. They are just good team; very good offensively, very good in transition. We got our work cut out for us on Wednesday."
On what is contributing to the slow starts…
MILLER: I think the slow starts really contribute to slow on offense. I don't mean slow running or slow moving, I mean we are out of the gates slow on offense. We miss a ton of easy ones to start games. We miss free throws to start games. We hope to get off to a good start as a team. I think more so than anything it is probably more of a confidence thing. That is why you see it as the game continues to go and you get your feet under you, we seem to be able to climb back in and be able to sustain better and higher-level play. I think to start the game we are a very apprehensive offensive team. A team that hopes for things to go well. That is why you miss a lay-up at the start of the game. It is why you struggle in and around the rim. It is why you miss the first couple of threes. You get fouled, draw a great foul, and at the end of the day you go to the line and you miss two. So, I think part of it is confidence and the other part is faster out of the gates. It means you have to be a more confident group to start. Maybe less anxiety or stress that you hope to do well to start a game is maybe a better way of putting it. It is not for a lack of effort or lack of running hard or trying hard. I think it is more of a confidence thing. I think our offense contributes to the slower start more than our defense. It puts more pressure on our defense to start the game. Getting back in transition, you have to start by getting stop after stop after stop when you are playing against really good teams is hard. We do find a way to get our feet under us, which is good, but we have to be a more confident team offensively when we start the game.
On what make Trayce-Jackson Davis and Race Thompson work well together…
MILLER: I think Race Thompson is a very good compliment to Trayce. I think it starts with him understanding number one, how to play, how to move the ball, how to play off another guy. He does a great job at creating action for us as another guy out there. That contributes to him being a guy that plays well with another front court player. He also plays well with our team. Race is a big cog in our wheel in terms of making us go. He takes a lot of pressure off of Trayce to create all the offense. I think as Race has evolved through the course of this season; he has been a much more confident player. Our team has confidence in Race. To me that relationship goes well because of the roll that he takes on as being unselfish. He does what you ask him to do, and he plays off of other people and makes them better. This year, he has been more of a primary guy for us in terms of being able to help with the scoring and rebounding load. Definitely, it is more of a Race role than anything. Whoever he plays with, he is a guy that can make you better with how he attacks his role.
Q. On any potential changes to the starting five…
MILLER: If we consider any changes going forward it will not be due to slow starts. If we change our lineup it will have something to do with if we feel that that guy really earned the right to get off to an earlier start in the game, or deserves more playing time. But the first five that goes out there to me has got to be a more confident group like I said. A lot of it to be honest with you is Trayce. If you want me to pull Trayce out of the starting lineup for missing a couple of free throws or an easy one to start the game. To be we need to get him more at a confidence level to start the game and I think that will help us more than anything. But there will not be any lineup changes unless it is due to circumstances not surrounding how we start a game. To me our group is working hard for being in February in the grind that we are in, we have a great attitude. We work every day very hard and I think yesterday was no difference. I see more of a bounce with certain guys as we finish the home stretch here that they are pushing in the right direction and what you hope is that that attitude, the work ethic sort of contribute a little bit more to the start of the game in terms of getting off to a better start. But no grand changes. We are who we are. Most guys on our team know right now they can all contribute in different ways and they are getting their opportunities. They have just got to be better.
Q. On factoring who is on a roll when starting a second half…
MILLER: Yeah, I think that the rhythm of a game pretty much outlies who is doing what and how their extended minutes will play. There are all these conversations about coming out of halftime, changing it up when one guy has a really good start to the game or a good first half. But in all reality to have to go with the faith of the guys that have number one, earned the right to be out there, and number two, you do not want to lose confidence in guys by making changes. Sometimes making changes can hurt you just as much as help you with the confidence level of other guys, and I think we want to keep all of our guys right now in the right mental framework that sometimes goes in peaks and valleys in terms of how you are playing during the course of the year. But the finish is the most important part, and having everybody engaged right now doing what we are asking them to do and trying to simplify some roles. Throughout the course of a game, I think playing time is definitely distributed based on how you are doing out there, which we have seen different lineups in the game in the last three or four games with four freshmen on the floor at one time because they are playing well. And I think when things are not going well for you in a game like Ohio State, I am not sure that one guy or a lineup change is really going to mean the lick of difference when it comes to how you are playing in that game. But if you look at our game against Northwestern, Jerome finished very strong. He did. He played really well and was able to finish the game in there. I think Kristian is playing more minutes because he has earned the right to play more minutes and he is doing a nice job of facilitating the times for us. I think Wednesday night will be the same. Whoever is playing well and who has the opportunity to help us gets more opportunity but you earn that pretty much every day with the belief that you give everybody around you.
Q. On playing Jerome with Race and Trayce…
MILLER: Yes. It is something that we have talked a lot about. The injury to Joey really put us in a tough bind when it comes to being able to play a bigger lineup. Jerome played you know, 99.99% of the possessions a year ago in his first year playing with us with two guys like that, so he is comfortable doing it. The injury to Joey really sets back in terms of our rotation, and foul trouble comes into place or you need another small forward out there and Jerome can stretch the floor a little bit shooting. So, we are not opposed to Jerome just playing the floor, but to me being able to play Jerome in some games here down the stretch at the three gives us a bigger team. We needed a bigger team on the floor against Ohio State with what was going on on the rebounding. He has not played as many minutes in that role, but it is something definitely that if we can sneak with it and get him out there, it gives us an opportunity to play more veteran guys and it gives us a bigger team. So, I think it is something we have constantly tried to do. It has also been a problem just due to our depth and what we have needed to be able to accomplish with the team that we are currently able to play.
Players Mentioned
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