Tom Crean, Victor Oladipo, Christian Watford, Cody Zeller and Jordan Hulls addressed the media Wednesday afternoon at the Verizon Center before Thursday night’s Sweet Sixteen matchup with the Syracuse Orange.
Tom Crean:
Oladipo, Watford, Zeller and Hulls:
You can read a full transcript here.
Sunday afternoon’s game had so much to it, it was difficult to digest it all immediately after the game. Especially when a late March snowstorm was staring right at the greater Dayton area.
So, after more than 24 hours to think about and analyze the Hoosiers’ 58-52 win over Temple, and how they got there, I took a look at the game in a much more complete way.
First, when I said in my column from Sunday night that the Hoosier won ugly, I wasn’t kidding. It was UGLY in every possible way, and Indiana undoubtedly caught some breaks (like the fact that every Temple player not named Wyatt seemed to forget how to score), but to advance in the NCAA Tournament, you sometimes need an element of luck. Ask Marquette. Or Ohio State. Or Miami.
The fact of the matter is, in a game they had no business winning, the Hoosiers found a way to advance to the Sweet 16 for the second straight year. And ultimately, that’s all that matters. I remember sitting on my couch watching the 2008 team play in the Tournament. There was no fight, no will, no desire. The Hoosiers faced adversity, and they quit.
When Tom Crean took control of the program, he vowed to change the culture. So give him credit because he has done that. Even when the Hoosiers trailed and couldn’t seem to do anything right against Temple, they kept believing. They played hurt. They made winning plays.
That, more than anything, is what I take from Indiana’s third-round win. Sure, it was ugly and there are many things that need to be corrected before it sees Syracuse on Thursday night, but we now know that this team has no quit in it (if we didn’t already).
Who’d Wyatt score on?
Not everything about the Hoosiers’ win over Temple, of course, was pretty. There was this guy, Khalif Wyatt, who went off in the first half and poured in 31 points. Wyatt’s done it many times before, but his production against Indiana was a bit surprising because the Hoosiers knew how dangerous he was. And they had the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in Victor Oladipo to check him.
But nevertheless, Wyatt went off in a losing effort. So how much does it mean? How troubled is Indiana’s defense going forward?
Answer: Not very.
DAYTON, Ohio — Watch and listen to what the IU players had to say inside their locker room of the University of Dayton Arena following the Hoosiers’ 58-52 win over Temple in the third round of the NCAA Tournament.
High-definition quality video is available in the embedded media players below:
Tom Crean, as well as Christian Watford, Cody Zeller, Victor Oladipo and Jordan Hulls, addressed the media on Saturday in anticipation of Sunday’s bout with the Temple Owls.
Watch the players:
And Crean:
Complete transcript after the jump.
DAYTON, Ohio — Watch and listen to what the IU players had to say inside their locker room of the University of Dayton Arena as they prepared for Sunday’s NCAA Tournament game with Temple.
High-definition quality video is available in the embedded media players below:
DAYTON, Ohio — Watch and listen to what the IU players had to say inside their locker room of the University of Dayton Arena following the Hoosiers’ 83-62 win over James Madison in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
High-definition quality video is available in the embedded media players below:
DAYTON, Ohio — Indiana was the nation’s preseason No. 1 team. The Hoosiers are a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament. As a result, there are a lot of people picking the Hoosiers to win it all. That includes President Barack Obama, who chose Indiana as his national championship when he filled out with bracket with ESPN’s Andy Katz on Tuesday.
“It is pretty neat. I haven’t agreed with some of the other decision’s that he’s made,” Indiana center Cody Zeller said, smiling. “No, I’m gonna get in trouble for this. I fully agree with everything that Obama does.”
Added guard Remy Abell: “That’s great. Hope he’s right.”
Obama has been filling out a bracket annually since he took office in 2009, with mixed results. He correctly picked North Carolina to win the title in ’09, but incorrectly selected Kansas in 2010 and 2011 and North Carolina last season.
“I think it’s really good, but I’m also concerned that someone said that he was 1-3 in his picks before,” said Indiana coach Tom Crean. “So you’re always going to be — you hope he’s right on this one.”
Who is James Madison?
On Thursday afternoon at the University of Dayton Arena, the Indiana players were asked this question at their press conference: Do you guys know who James Madison, the figure, is?
He signed the Declaration or something like that,” Victor Oladipo responded. “You mean the person, right? James Madison, he signed something big, like the Declaration of Independence. I’m right, right? Emancipation Proclamation, something like that. One of those big names. I know he’s a big historic figure in U.S. history.”
Zeller fired back.
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