HD Video: Oladipo, Hollowell, Abell react to win over Coppin State
Victor Oladipo (14 points, six rebounds, six assists, three steals), Jeremy Hollowell (seven points) and Remy Abell (10 points, three assists) met with the media following Indiana’s 87-51 win over Coppin State on Saturday at Assembly Hall.
Watch and listen to the press conference in the embedded media player below:
Quotes after the jump.
Victor Oladipo
You started out slow but came out well in second half?
“I thought we did a good job at that. I mean, we’re human, we’re not perfect. We didn’t have a great start, but I thought we played well defensively the whole game. We did a good job of turning it up in the second half. The guys off the bench did a great job coming in and playing defense, and if we continue to keep doing that throughout the season, we’ll be successful.”
How much did the full-court pressure in the first half help pick you guys up?
“I think we did a good job of executing what we wanted them to do in that press. We have been working on that in practice. Hopefully we continue to keep working on that. There are some little things that we’ve got to fix. Other than that we were active, and that’s why we got the big lead, and had the energy and that’s where we wanted to be.”
When shots are going down, is there a comfort level because you know the defensive is going to be there whether or not shots are going down?
“We put a big emphasis on defense from the beginning of the year and throughout the year. Defense wins games, and we can’t always rely on our offense too much. For us, we score in transition and we score in multiple ways. But essentially we score off our defense. We’ve got to continue to play defense at a high level, continue to helping each other so we can win big.”
Jeremy Hollowell
Big scoring night for the bench. Are you coming off the bench expecting to score and immediately find an offensive rhythm?
“We just want to come in and continue to push the tempo, and bring energy off the bench. We have a really deep team, a deep bench. When we go to the bench, we want to come in and play hard and bring energy for the team. Play to our abilities and our roles.”
Remy Abell
How important is it that you guys have learned to play different ways, so that when you were grinding you were still able to play multiple ways?
“I think it’s something big. We aren’t always going to want to play the style that we play which is up and down. Teams like tonight are going to try to slow us down do different things. It helped that when we played teams like Georgetown, we were able to grind it out in overtime and get a win. Stuff like that is going to happen. We have just got to keep fighting. And when a team brings it, we’ve got to be prepared and be ready, and make adjustments on the fly.”
What did you think of the lift that Victor gave you guys in the second half?
“He started the second half with a dunk. Right there that was a huge lift. That really got us going on the defense. Then we got in a press and everything started clicking. Everybody was moving and being active. Everybody has hands up. Defense fuels offense. Offense isn’t always going to come. You can’t bring your offense. But you can definitely bring your defense. You can bring the defense. The hustle. The toughness. The boxing out. The rebounding. You can bring that all on the road and at home. Offense isn’t always going to be there.”
Filed to: Jeremy Hollowell, Remy Abell, Victor Oladipo