Indiana coach Tom Crean met with reporters following the Hoosiers’ 57-50 loss to Wisconsin at the Kohl Center on Thursday night. Watch and listen to Crean’s comments in high-definition quality in the embedded media player below:
Full transcript after the jump.
Opening statement:
“We did a lot of really good things tonight. It’s our third straight game holding a team under 40 percent from the field. They got a couple of big rebounds at the end of the game at crucial times. But we put ourselves in position to win, we just didn’t finish it off.”
On the foul situation:
“I’m not going anywhere with that. Don’t even … please. Watch the tape. I’m not going to get into any of that stuff.”
On Cody Zeller’s minutes being limited due to foul trouble:
“He got a foul called on him the second possession of the game. Cody did some really good things. He really did. He was one of our two guys to get to the foul line tonight. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that. Cody does a lot. He did a lot of good things tonight. There were a couple of times we tried to feed him the ball, we three-quartered and we didn’t give him a chance to set up, post up the way that he needed to. We tried to force the ball in rather than allow him to get set. We settled down, we did a better job with that. Cody’s fine. Cody does a lot of really, really good things. A lot that shows up in the box score and some things that don’t.”
On the performance of Verdell Jones:
“He did a good job. We knew where we could attack tonight. For the most part we did that.”
On the difficultly in deciding when to bring a player with foul fouls back into the game:
“Very tough. We had to buy our time as much as possible because there was no real reason to believe that he was ever going to be able to really get into a flow where he could play significant minutes at the end. So we just played it by feel as much as we could.”
On Wisconsin holding Indiana to a season-low 50 points:
“We shot 50 percent in the first half. We shot 45 for the game. I think we shot the ball pretty well. They’re a good team.”
On how Indiana responded to Wisconsin’s style of play:
“We answered the bell on the pace of the play. They’re going to play at a snail’s pace. That’s what they do. You’ve gotta steal possessions. We rebounded the ball very well for most of the game. They got a couple of big rebounds at the end. Contact sport at the end. We struggled getting those balls. They did and when a game is that tight and is that competitive between two teams it comes down a lot of times to just a couple of things. And their offensive rebounds were those things.”
On the job Will Sheehey and Victor Oladipo did on Jordan Taylor:
“We play team defense as much as we can at Indiana. We know who their best players are, but they’ve got a team full of guys and I thought our team defense for the most part was very good.”
On whether you have to accept the pace of the game when you’re playing a team like Wisconsin:
“We didn’t have a problem with it. The game was nip and tuck really the whole way. We come out of a timeout, I believe it was down 3, and we make a shot and we’re right where we need to be. And we missed a shot and they take 30 some odd seconds off the clock. I don’t remember the exact number of seconds they took off the clock and they get an offensive rebound. That’s the one you gotta get. I mean you gotta get it. Things played out the way, we did the best job we could inside of that. I thought our guys were locked in, they were attentive, they were excellent, they were ready to play. I cut 40 minutes off of practice yesterday they were so locked in and ready to play. It’s just a couple of things literally didn’t bounce our way at the end when you look at the rebounding. And we’ve just gotta keep figuring out a way that we just keep getting better at every area. That’s the third straight game we’ve held a team under 40 percent and we’ve only got one win to show for it but we’re getting better in a lot of areas and that’s what I want to focus on.”
On how Wisconsin’s defense affected the assists compared to turnovers:
“We shot 50 percent in the first half. We shot in the mid 40’s for the game. We got good looks. They’re a good defensive team. Look at the stats. Read their press notes. It’s right there on the front page. They’re a great defensive team. We got good shots. We just didn’t get a couple of rebounds at the end.”
Filed to: Tom Crean