Quotes are available after the jump.

Tom Crean
Opening Statement:

“I think our guys are really excited to be home. Last week was a challenging week, an interesting week, and one where we played a lot of different games and to come out of it 2-1, especially with the start we had at Michigan, I think was strong for us overall. We learned a lot about ourselves last week. I think we really did. We learned what we’re capable of. We learned what kind of toughness you have to have and how you have to be resilient when you’re not as tough or when you’re not as aggressive or when you’re not on the attack like you are one night and you’ve got to turn back around and understand that you’re fully capable of it and I think that’s what our guys did at Purdue. We knew we there would be very little margin for error when you go into a place like Purdue and what errors you make you’ve got be able to make up for in your hustle, you’ve got be able to make up for in your aggressiveness, you’ve got to be able to make up for in your confidence and you just keep playing and I thought our guys did that.

“So now as we get ready for Illinois it’s much the same situation. We’re going to be playing against a team that is hungry. We’re going to be playing against a team that has won big games, that has been ranked throughout the season, that knows how to win on the road, and they’re extremely well-coached. I think they’re one of the better coaching staffs in the country. I think the Big Ten is full of good coaches, but I think the Illinois staff is one of the best in the country and I think they’ve proven that over a period of time with how they’ve played year after year. It’s a tough league and they’re capable of winning anytime, anywhere. That’s exactly how we’re preparing for this game. We know it’s a big game for the fans in the sense of rivalry. We know that we had a big win against them last year. We also know that we got smacked around pretty good when we went up to Illinois last year. They really showed no mercy in that game and we did not match their aggressiveness and we did not match their intensity and we paid for it.

“So we’ve had some really interesting games with them over a period of time, but we know this one is one that will be an incredible challenge because they understand what’s at stake. They’ve got some guys that have been through it. They know what it’s like to play big games in the months of February and March and we’ve got to continue to learn to understand what that means. That being said, we’re looking forward to a phenomenal crowd. It’s not only a white out, but I hope it’s a loud out. I hope it’s just numbing for how loud it is inside of the building and just breaks that decibel level again like we have a couple times this year so that’s what we’re excited about. We’ve had a good week of practice and we’re excited to play.”

On the problems that Illinois presents:

“They’ve got a very talented team. They’re explosive. They’ve got tremendous guard play. Right off the bat they’ve got the leading scorer in the league, the guy that makes more threes a game than anybody else in Brandon Paul. They’ve got a guy that went from averaging two and one a year ago to 13 and 9 and gets all kinds of attention in Meyers Leonard. They’ve got Joseph Bertrand, who has bided his time in that program and is now one of the mainstays in that program. They’ve got Tracy Abrams who is a freshman point guard who has started all these games in the league and doesn’t play like a freshman. They’ve got D.J. Richardson who is one of the more underrated guards in our league and maybe in a lot of leagues because of how good he is and how quick he is with the ball and how good of a three-point shooter he is. So they’re a very talented team.

“Sam Maniscalco is a guy that has made big shots his entire career. He’s a guy that has been a volume free throw shooter. He’s a guy that is a tremendous three-point shooter when he was at Bradley. He’s a guy they have on the court for them at the end of games when it’s winning time so they’re a deep team. (Myke) Henry is a tremendous athlete who can shoot the ball, who can get to the basket. Tyler Griffey I’ve always felt is a very underrated player in this league. They’re a very good team and there’s balance there. There’s inside outside, they can run, they can score in the half court. They’re one of the better teams in this league and I think when you have a lot of teams that are right there together sometimes it’s easy to forget that. They’re one of two teams that have beaten Ohio State in this league and they had a guy get 43 in that game so we know what we’re up against.”

Inside the Hall was there as both Mosquera-Perea and his coach, Alan Huss, met the media for postgame reaction. Watch both videos in high-definition quality in the embedded media players below:

Watch Michigan coach John Beilein preview tomorrow’s game over at UMHoops.

Coleman, who has an early offer from the Hoosiers, scored three points in Cathedral’s semifinal win over Arlington and 15 points in Cathedral’s championship win over Heritage Christian. Hartman, who committed to Indiana in November of 2010, scored 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the semifinals and had 10 points and seven rebounds in the championship game.

Inside the Hall was in attendance for both contests and we’ve compiled highlights of each player in the embedded media players below:

Quotes after the jump.

Opening Statement:

“Again, 17 wins, 17 different ways to win and I thought our team responded to the last couple of days, they were excited to play. They had tremendous energy and I think the energy of the crowd helped fuel them even more. This is one of the best crowds of start to finish, just the level of enthusiasm and energy that we’ve had all year. We’ve had some awesome crowds, but our crowd was tremendous today. I thought our team came out with really good resolve and we knew we were playing a team that the number one focus for us was the transition offense and it was even better than we thought. They really did a great job of getting out and running and getting some easy baskets, but our guys continued to respond. We didn’t want to get into a situation where we were trading baskets and there were a couple of times it did, maybe that was just the pace of the game, but for the most part, our guys did a very good job of moving the basketball. We had a 11 assists at half, 20 for the game. We had, I believe, 27 deflections at half, so we were active defensively, we were rebounding the ball. So, there were a lot of good things happening and the table was set today by Verdell [Jones] and the way he moved the basketball, the way he got in the lane and the way that he found people. Certainly, Cody [Zeller] was outstanding throughout the game, but he was the beneficiary of some very good looks, a lot of penetration. I thought Will Sheehey gave us a real lift to start the game. It was a match-up situation for him that we wanted with him on Zach McCabe. Christian [Watford] got rolling. We had a very solid game from a lot of people, but the bottom line was that the ball moved. And when the ball moves on offense and when you’re active on defense and we kept understanding the pace of the game, it worked out well for us.”

On Verdell Jones’ recent improvement:

“I think he continues to improve. I think he’s a senior that wants to make a mark. I think he’s a senior that has improved in all areas, especially on the defensive end. And we felt like we had a really good match-up for him the other night [against Wisconsin], he did and he made some great plays especially in the first half. He came out today with great resolve and I think Verdell’s playing very well. He’s a two-way player. He’s really doing an excellent job defensively and I’m proud of the way he’s playing. We just need to keep it up.”

On Tom Pritchard:

“It was great to see because it was starting to come, certainly in the Nebraska game. Very active, a lot of energy and when he’s confident going up and making baskets, that energizes our entire team. That’s like a Matt Roth three or a Victor [Oladipo] or Will [Sheehey] dunk for us because our players love him. They want, and obviously our fans do to, they want to see him be successful. When he’s aggressive like that it makes a huge difference on our team and I thought he drew a big charge in the second half and getting back. It’s hard because our bigs were underneath the basket. They were getting dunks, they were getting some layups and they were racing in getting the ball out of bounds. We had to play at a very high pace to get back and thought he did an excellent job with that as well.”

On Derek Elston and Will Sheehey:

“I thought they were very good and we want Derek to play with confidence. The last couple days in practice, he hadn’t been doing that and that needed to change because he’s one of our better shooters. He really is and when he lets the game come to him and you can look back at, especially the Ohio State game at home, he was a key, key guy defensively under the defensive boards. So when I look at him as one of seven starters, I mean it and sometimes he needs to be reminded of that. But I thought he played with confidence and he shot the ball extremely well and we got the lift from Will that we thought we’d get. That we wanted to get by putting him in the lineup because Zack McCabe was averaging 18 points in the last three games. [McCabe] was 20-for-29 in his last three games. He had become their go-to guy and we wanted to put a top-flight defender on him.”

On Cody Zeller:

“Cody’s an excellent passer. Sometimes we make the basket, sometimes we don’t, but Cody’s been passing the ball at a high level all year.”

On scoring 100 points on a Big Ten opponent in for the first time in his [Crean’s] career:

“I think it was nice for the fans, it was nice for the team. We moved the ball, I’m excited about the 20 offensive rebounds and the 20 assists.”

On importance of this game going into two road games:

“It’s important to play well and I think it’s like anything else, we got to 17 wins and you’ve got to find different ways to win them and we have. There are a lot of things to shore up, but our guys did an excellent job of taking what the game gave them, really following the game plan. Everything we practiced for, they did and we took some of it away, some of it we didn’t, but there’s still a lot of improvement for this team with a lot of season left.”

Quotes after the jump.

Tom Crean

Opening Statement:

“Well our focus the last couple of days has certainly been just making sure that we understand where we played well the other day and what we have to shore up, and at the same time just keep building on what we’ve been doing because we’ve been doing some very good things. The fact that we’ve held teams under 40 percent gives us something to shoot for. We know that’s going to be a real challenge tomorrow with Iowa and our whole focus has been on getting ready for that team. They’re a hard preparation because they do a lot of different things. They have a very good system, but they also have a lot really good players and they do different things defensively. They do a lot of different things offensively. They’ve had some guys step up as of late and play extremely well. Guys like Zach McCabe and Roy Devyn Marble are continuing to play better and better all the time. We have a lot of respect for how they play. They are a tough team and a team that is physical and a team that we have not played that well against the last couple of years. So we are really focused on it. The guys are excited to play and we’re looking for just a phenomenal, phenomenal crowd in here tomorrow.”

On defending Zach McCabe:

“He’s one of the better guys in the league without the basketball and that means that he can score a lot of different ways. I think the statistic that shows that is in the first 16 games – he shot 21 free throws. In the last six games, he shot 21 free throws. It shows his aggressiveness. He’s always been and an excellent rebounder and he can shoot 3′s. He can post up – tremendous, tremendous back-cut player, slip player, very good on their out-of-bounds plays. Just an excellent passer – he’s a very good all-around player. I think most people that had any awareness of Zack McCabe, like we did, knew he was going to be a very good player. They’ve done an outstanding job for them.”

On Roy Devyn Marble:

“Marble’s got the ball in his hands a lot. He leads them in field goal attempts over the last five games, so he’s very aggressive offensively. He wants to get to basket – very, very hard to keep out of the lane. He does an excellent job – it’s the length, it’s all that length. I think he can see over people. He’s hard to trap. But the bottom line is that he’s playing with a lot of confidence from what I see on film.”

On the last step to closing out the game:

“I think we’ve had those steps. Against Ohio State, we closed it out defensively. Against Kentucky, we closed it out offensively and even though we had our chances inside of that game, we’ve done it and we’ve also lost a couple of games where we did not close it out on offense or defense. Really, what happens is that you can look back at the last two minutes, minute and a half of a lot of games right now as of late where the mistakes are magnified. But the bottom line is that if you do a better job inside of the game and you keep stringing three stops in a row and you have good possessions, even if the shot doesn’t go, you have good possessions, not empty possessions – I think that’s what it is more than anything else. I think you can get too caught up in how you finish and not caught up enough in the middle parts of the game, the timeout parts of the game, execution and those four-point swings that come out on a dead ball situation on a TV timeout or a timeout that’s called. There’s so many parts of the game. At the end of the day, this league epitomizes possession-by-possession basketball. You just want to shore up some of the things, you want to keep eliminating the mistakes.”

Jordan Hulls

On what has caused IU to struggle against Iowa the last couple years and why this year could be different:

“This is a new team and a new year. But the last couple years they have out-toughed us here and at their place. So we need to get back to playing our game with our defensive intensity and edge that we need to have.”

On the key to holding the last three teams under 40 percent field goal shooting:

“We have been communicating very well, had good ball pressure and been in the passing lanes – just doing the things we need to do. And I think the intensity overall has been a lot better and the way it needs to be and how it was early in the season. That is the way we are going to win ballgames.”

Derek Elston

On the physical nature of the games against Iowa in the past:

“A lot of the times with practice last year, especially before the games against Iowa, we made sure to bruise each other up a little a couple days before because we know that their big guys like to crash the boards. We know that they are going to go (to the boards) every time so that’s all we have been working on in practice is rebounding so we can get that toughness back that we need.”

On defending Melsahn Basabe and what makes him such a threat:

“I would say his quickness. He is the kind of guy that likes to set screens and slip those screens a lot. If we don’t communicate, it becomes easy for him to find the open spot and be in the right place at the right time. This year, we have to have a lot more communication and every one needs to be in the right spot on help-side. He is one of their main guys and we have to make sure he is one of our focal points in this game if we want to win.”

Quotes after the jump…

Opening Statement:

“[It was a] hard fought battle, as we thought it would be. Penn State plays as hard as anybody [in the Big Ten] we’ll face or as hard as anybody probably in the country will face. That’s a tribute to Pat [Chambers] and his coaches and the energy and toughness of his team. Certainly having the experience of playing against Penn State just a couple weeks ago, that we were going to have to be at a high, high level of toughness, a high level of energy, we were going to have to be guys that got to the floor first because that’s what they take pride in and that’s what they do. I thought our guys put together as close to a 40-minute game of that, we weren’t always as efficient as we needed to be, especially in the first half, but we played with that toughness and that energy and for the most part played with the intelligence that you have to have. I think to hold a team to the shooting percentage that we did, especially in the second half, says a lot about our guys resolve in the defensive end and we were probably a little more anal than ever about closing a game out. I know I was, and making sure we didn’t take a lot of chances in the end.

“I thought our guys did a good job with that. I thought our defense, the defense intensity ratcheted up in the second half, especially with the way we had to guard Tim Fraizer. I think every one of you saw again today how hard a matchup he is and how much he thrives on pressure and playing through the pressure and what he creates, that’s where the game plan starts. A lot of good basketball again from different people. I’m proud of Christian [Watford], he’s been bothered a little bit with some injury and I thought that he came in and did an excellent job. I thought that Cody [Zeller] played an efficient game with the scoring, with the passing, with the movement. We wanted to get him in more movement because it does take quite a bit to get him to the foul line out of the post and we just want to make sure that we just keep getting him in movement so that he’s in a lot of different spots for us. I think you saw some of that when he had a drive in the first half. Again, we got better over the last couple days and it showed today. I thought our crowd support was excellent. It all start how tough you are, what your energy is like, and how willing you are to do all the hard things if you’re going to beat teams like Penn State and that’s exactly what we needed to do and for the most part we did it.”

On the explanation he got on the argument at the end of the game:

“To my knowledge there will be no changes to Will’s [Sheehey] status. There were no punches thrown or anything like that. It wasn’t considered a fight; it was more verbal than anything else. We’ve already talked about that internally and I don’t anticipate anything there. It’s just the maturity process. It’s a heated battle. All I was trying to do was play NFL head-linesman, make sure I get myself right in the middle of it when the referees were in there. It’s just part of the game, it’s a heated battle. It was a tough foul on Christian (Watford) at the end, but again that’s the game. Tempers flare but I don’t think anything escalated to any point outside of some verbal and, again, both players were held accountable for it. I thought the referees handled that as well as possible from my vantage point.”

On the first two possessions of the second half:

“Verdell [Jones III] came out with a great burst on the play. Again, we wanted to get the game in space a little bit and get a little more movement with our big men, let them out. The first half showed that they were really going to collapse inside and they were going to try to take away everything first side and so the ball had to reverse a couple different times for us. At the same time we wanted to start out with a little bit of a lift. I thought Verdell turning the corner the way he did was excellent, Cody followed it up well and then we were very aggressive on defense. We wanted to make it very, very hard in the second half for Tim Fraizer to run their offense, scoring-wise or creating for others.”

On the importance of having a big second half the way they did:

“It’s important that you never felt like you pulled away. As I told them, 16 wins, 16 different ways. It doesn’t change. If you do it right, you just take the experience from those games and it helps you somewhere along the line. We’ve been in some grinders, and I think that helped us, but we had to do a better job in the second half of not letting Tim Fraizer control the game and I think we did. We did everything we could possibly do and he is still a very good guard, he’s going to be tremendous. He already is at the college level; he’ll play well beyond this and be excellent. It was very important that we establish that we’re going to be a second half defensive team with communication as good away from our bench and we come down and take care of the ball. The number one thing that had to happen was to take care of the ball; the number one thing on defense was to really control the looks that they got. I think that judging by the field goal defense and the lack of turnovers that we had, those were big time positives today.”

The center’s highlights, along with some commentary from ESPN’s Dave Telep:

Quotes after the jump …

Opening Statement:

“First off, this league has 12 teams that can play with anybody. We’re one of them, as is Nebraska. I don’t know who I said it to yesterday, but you can’t get too concerned with records with anybody in this league right now. We certainly never played Nebraska like they’d won one game. We knew how good they were. Our guys had great edge tonight; they had excellent energy. We did so many good things. We played very well, we had excellent ball movement. We were going against a team that was only allowing 22% from the three in the league, and we got some really good looks. We held this team to 38%, but we didn’t make enough of the big stops. We made some, we were very locked in to what they wanted to do but at the same time, they made the plays.”

“For us, we’ve got to take care of the ball better. I think we’re going to go back and look at the film and we’re going to look at the turnovers in the second half and just see how excruciatingly painful those were for us, because those turned into more easy baskets for Nebraska. They’re a very good team. I’ve said it since they got in the league. They are extremely well-coached, Doc is an excellent coach. They are so sound in so many areas, and we knew they weren’t going to go away and we had to put them away. And we didn’t do that. We did not do that. At the end of the game, we had a very good look, and we probably made it a little more challenging and difficult than it needed to be to give ourselves a chance to win it. We got a shot, we really did. We were in that position; we didn’t want to be in that position but you just deal with it.”

“Now, we just got a group of guys that have an edge, that have a desire, and we’ve got to make sure that we refocus them, that we reenergize them, and we do not let them get discouraged. We make sure that we understand disappointment is inevitable in life, but discouragement is our choice and we choose not to have it. So that’s our biggest goal right now as a coaching staff with our team is to get them to understand there were a lot of very good things but we did not close this game. And there were some things that reared their head tonight in the form of turnovers, in the form of some missed assignments defensively, and they made us pay, as good teams do.”

On if Nebraska’s defense had a cumulative effect that led to forced turnovers:

“Well, that’s a good question. I’m sure some of it, but I think some of it was just our strength with the basketball and some decision-making. But again, they were good defensively, but so were we. We held them to 38%, I mean we shot 51% for the game. It wasn’t like we couldn’t get shots. But when the game is tight and you don’t put it away, those turnovers come back and get you.”

On Nebraska’s offense and the contributions of Bo Spencer:

“I think they’re a lot more than that. Now, he’s quick and athletic off the dribble and he got hot, but we knew McCray was ready to break out, there’s no doubt about that. We know Talley’s getting healthier. We know Diaz is an incredibly hard matchup because he can score over either shoulder. I think they’ve got a lot of pieces. I think that speed and quickness starts with him, with Bo Spencer. I’ll give him credit, I don’t know the young man but he did a phenomenal job tonight of really using his teammates. They’ve got some veterans and they played like that at the end. They made some tough plays. We’ve got some guys that have been through it, and we didn’t take care of the ball as well.”

Inside the Hall was in attendance and we’ve compiled close to four minutes of video of the talented sophomore in the embedded media player below: