Crean talks about IU’s 71-54 win over Mississippi Valley St.

  • 11/16/2010 9:49 pm in

INDIANAPOLIS - MARCH 11: Head coach Tom Crean of the Indiana Hoosiers watches during the game against the Northwestern Wildcats in the first round of the Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse on March 11, 2010 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)Comments from head coach Tom Crean following IU’s 71-54 win over Mississippi Valley State on Tuesday night at Assembly Hall. The comments are from Crean’s postgame radio interview with Don Fischer:

On the win:

“It was really was (a good win), especially on the defensive end. They got off to a good start and our guys just held in there. And that’s one of those games that a year ago, we could have been down 10 or 12 at halftime, the way we were missing shots. But we just kept guarding and when you look at the last 45 seconds of the first half to the 10:15 mark of the second half, we were on a 27-3 run. And that’s really, really, really good defense. We had 44 deflections on the night. We won the field goal percentage defense battle, we won the rebounding battle, we won the points off of turnovers battle and that’s the kind of stuff we have to do to be successful.”

On being able to hold Mississippi Valley State scoreless for such a long stretch:

“That says a lot about our team because we have a ways to go on the offensive end as far as the synergy of playing together and working things out. And they were a good team, I don’t think we were wrong on that at all. But the bottom line was the guys really, really followed the scouting report and they knew it began and ended with defense and rebounding. And those are the things that are really big for us. I think something I’ve never seen, Victor Oladipo was plus 30 on the plus-minus tonight and only played 15 minutes. That says a lot. We had a lot of guys that were real high. Jeremiah Rivers, again, at plus 11. Bobby Capobianco and Christian plus 14, Jordan Hulls plus 11, Verdell plus 10. But for Victor to be plus 30, my goodness, that’s excellent.”

On the three things the team can control each night:

“The thing that was said in the pregame. No matter how we play or no matter what the style of play is that we’re facing, three things we have to control every night. Number one, we have to control our attitude. We have to control our mindset. And we have to control our unselfishness. And I thought we did a pretty good job in all three of those areas.”

Player postgame interviews:

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