Tom Crean met with the media following Indiana’s 80-65 loss at Michigan State on Wednesday night. Watch and listen to the entire press conference in high-definition quality in the embedded media player below:
Courtesy of IU Media Relations, here are selected quotes from Tom Crean, Jordan Hulls, Christian Watford, Remy Abell and Austin Etherington in anticipation of Indiana’s bout with the Spartans tomorrow night in East Lansing:
Tom Crean
On Playing Michigan State:
“They have three guys in the top 15 in offensive rebounds in the Big Ten. You have to be fast, quick, and hold your position. They move the ball through Draymond Green, but he also leads the team in assists.”
“The ball moves at a pretty high rate. When you watch them and where they are now as opposed to where they were the first two games of the season it is easy to see they are getting deeper and better.”
“We have to have a strong mindset which begins in practice. We have to block out and we have to be relentless in pursuing the basketball and knowing where our man is at all times. Our transition defense will have to be at its best.”
On starting the Big Ten:
“Our guys understand how challenging it is in the Big Ten and at Michigan State. We have to maintain the attention to detail that we have displayed all year in getting ready for opponents. We have played 12 games and found 12 different ways to win.”
On going to East Lansing:
“Every year is different and every team is different. I think our team knows that to win on the road in a hostile environment it has to execute and eliminate mistakes that leads to easy baskets which get the crowd into the game.”
“It will be nice to see some family and friends but our approach in this is more business than anything else.”
Coach Tom Crean met with the media following Indiana’s 89-47 win against UMBC on Thursday evening at Assembly Hall. Watch and listen to the entire press conference in the embedded player below:
Tom Crean met with the media following Indiana’s 107-50 drubbing of Howard on Monday evening at Assembly Hall. Watch and listen to his comments in high-definition video in the embedded player below:
Indiana coach Tom Crean met with the media following the Hoosiers’ 69-58 win over Notre Dame in the Close the Gap Crossroads Classic at Conseco Fieldhouse. Watch and listen to his comments in high-definition video in the embedded player below:
Indiana coach Tom Crean, along with senior Tom Pritchard and sophomore Victor Oladipo, met with the media Thursday afternoon to discuss Saturday’s game with Notre Dame at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Watch and listen to both press conferences in the embedded media players below:
It almost felt like it was supposed to happen this way.
The Hoosiers blew their 10-point lead and trailed No. 1 Kentucky 72-70 with only 5.6 seconds left. But some way, somehow, you just knew something magical was about to happen.
After everything Tom Crean and this program has been through over the last three-plus years, Indiana needed –- and probably deserved –- a win like this one.
“I hate to lose, but if I’m to lose, losing to Tommy’s [Crean] fine because of what he’s done here in four years,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “And having to do it the way he did it, where you’re undermanned and now you’re trying to fight everybody [saying] ‘why aren’t we winning?’
“For him to have this happen to him, for he and his family, I’m happy for him. They deserved to win the game.”
Even after Kentucky’s Doron Lamb missed one of two free throws, the Hoosiers needed so much to happen for them to win.
They had to avoid getting fouled when Kentucky had two to give. They had to get the ball down the court in a hurry and stay spread. They needed a Wildcat defender to forget about Christian Watford. And they needed Watford –- who played the best game of his career -– to hit the biggest shot of his life.
No foul, Verdell Jones rushed the ball down court, Darius Miller got sucked in, Watford splashed it.
Game over.
“It was like a dream, like slow motion,” Indiana athletic director Fred Glass said afterward. “In some ways, I couldn’t believe it, but in other ways, I couldn’t believe it would end any other way. It was kind of like it was a game of destiny.
“IU basketball is back. There couldn’t have been a bigger signature win.”
