Post Game Quotes

Per iuhoosiers.com:

Head Coach Tom Crean

On the tale of two halves:

“It was, much like what it’s been at home. We’ve really been so much better in the second half. Tonight it was the fundamentals, as much as anything else, where we did not guard the dribble, the drive as well. We have not faced anyone like Reggie Jackson. In practice, we are not going at each other enough. Right now we’ve got to build real depth through consistency of play and not just depth through bodies and we have not faced a guy like Reggie Jackson. He did a very good job against us. We’re going to learn from it, I know that. We’ve got to guard the dribble more. We’ve got to be able to guard two dribbles really well because there’s two things that can’t happen to this team: number one, we can’t get into a bunch of rotations, and that’s what happened tonight a little bit, and we can’t be long on closeouts. That happened a little later in the zone, and the zone was good for us. We’ve got to guard the dribble better and we’ve got to be much more physical on the glass.”

On the team’s season-low in turnovers:

“That’s part of the recipe for success, it’s certainly the recipe for road success. It’s number one at top of the recipe for road success. You’ve got to take care of the ball. You’ve got to get singles on the road and not try to go for doubles, triples and home runs. That was important. They were a little quicker and faster than us. As Tim Buckley said afterwords to us as coaches and then to the team, ‘when you play against experienced teams and you make a mistake, they make you pay.’ That’s what the Purdue’s of the world do, that’s what the Michigan State’s of the world do, that’s what the Wisconsin’s of the world do, and that’s what Boston College did.

On the first road game of the season:

“I think they were ready to play. We had great practices and the walk-through, they were locked in. They didn’t do anything that we weren’t prepared to do, we just didn’t do it well enough. We didn’t guard the dribble, first and for most, well enough. Which like I said, put us in rotations and put us in long closeouts, and we can’t be that kind of team.”

On the play of Christian Watford and Jordan Hulls:

“Those are two guys that have to be good for us any night, but certainly on the road. Jordan, last year, averaged between four and five shots a game on the road, and we can’t win that way. He’s probably sick of myself and the coaches telling him that he’s got to shoot more on the road, and sometimes you’ve got to manufacture more shots for shooters on the road and we try to do a little bit of that. He played well. He played a lot of minutes. Christian really played through some things. I think he’s disappointed that he only ended up with two rebounds, but they couldn’t guard him. He did a very good job of scoring on the post, scoring on the drive, scoring from the perimeter, getting out on the break. Those kinds of things. He really had a very solid game and he showed what he’s capable of, and I think he’s going to get better.”

On how the team fought back in the second half:

“We did. They believed that they were going to win. Now going out and establishing that in the beginning – we were tough, but we didn’t make tough plays. We came back and certainly could have wilted easily against a team like this, but these guys have been through a lot of things and they played and were more aggressive. We’ve just got to get more consistency on taking care of the dribble, as far as how we guard it, and being a better block-out and more physical team that’s more relentless on the backboards on both ends.”