HD Video: Oladipo, Watford and Zeller react to win over CCSU
Christian Watford (21 points, five rebounds), Victor Oladipo (15 points, nine rebounds, five steals, three blocks, two assists) and Cody Zeller (19 points and 19 rebounds) met with the media following Indiana’s 100-69 win over Central Connecticut State on Saturday at Assembly Hall.
Watch and listen to the press conference in the embedded media player below:
Cody Zeller:
On having to go back out and play after a teammate goes down with an injury:
“It’s tough. There’s no preparing for anything like that. We just have to get back after it and play.”
On setting a new personal single-game record for rebounds with 19:
“Having a week off, I was fresh. I worked on a lot of little things in practice— posting up lower and working harder, just a lot of little things. It was good just to have a week off, but I think it’s a combination of a lot of things.”
On how it will help him having Hanner Mosquera-Perea and Peter Jurkin able to play:
“It will help a lot. Both of them bring a lot to the table. They can do a lot of things that I can’t, I mean have you seen their arms? I have to practice against that. It will be a good change having those guys come in; it will be really good for us.”
On how he feels the team is playing thus far:
“We are playing well. We came out with a lot of energy tonight, which was big for us. That’s good because we can never come out slow. We will get right back to the drawing board and figure out where we messed up and where we can get better.”
Victor Oladipo:
On guarding Kyle Vinales:
“It was a full team effort. Will [Sheehey] was on him, Remy [Abell] was on him, and we all did a pretty good job of not letting him get comfortable out there, not letting him get to his sweet spots and making him use his off-hand. We all did a pretty good job on him, but we gave someone else 40, so it’s back to the drawing board. We have to do better than that; but again, I think we did a pretty good job on him and I hope we continue locking people down like that defensively.”
On how the team is playing thus far:
“I think we are playing well, but like I said before, I don’t think we have even scratched the surface of how good we can be on both ends of the floor. We just have to continue getting better on both ends, especially on defense. I think if we continue to keep doing that, we will continue to play at a high level.”
On Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell’s performance:
“He had six assists and one turnover. That’s pretty good for a freshman. We need him to win. He does a great job with the ball and he does a great job leading us on the floor. He also does a great job on the defensive end. He’s just got to stay consistent and keep playing with confidence. The sky’s the limit for him. We’re glad he’s here, and he knows that we need him to win. He has taken on his role very well as of late, so he just needs to continue growing as a person and as a leader.”
On whether or not he took his match-up against Kyle Vinales as a personal challenge:
“Yes, but I pretty much guard the best guy on the team every play. I’ve been doing that for a while now, so it’s a challenge every game. I’m on the leading scorer every game. Will [Sheehey] does a great job of coming in and guarding him too, Remy [Abell] gets on him as well and sometimes Christian [Watford] switches on him too. I might get all the steals and all the deflections, but at the same time without my teammates, I wouldn’t be able to lockdown half of the people I do, so it’s a team effort.”
Christian Watford:
On how tough it was to watch Austin Etherington get hurt:
“It was a very tough moment. When you have a guy who’s been through a lot with the program, it’s tough. He’s a teammate, but he’s also a friend of mine, so it’s always tough seeing a comrade go down like that.”
On having a good offensive game tonight:
“I had a couple easy buckets early on. My teammates did a great job of finding me for open threes.”
On having their offense click:
“It all starts with our defense. Once we pick up the intensity on our defense, I feel like the sky’s the limit on what we can do on offense. It’s kind of crazy how it goes hand-in-hand, but once you get stops, you get a lot more open shots on the other end.”
Filed to: Central Connecticut State Blue Devils, Christian Watford, Cody Zeller, Victor Oladipo