HD Video: Tom Crean reacts to win over Florida Atlantic
Tom Crean met with the media following Indiana’s 88-52 win over Florida Atlantic at Assembly Hall on Friday. Crean addressed Jeremy Hollowell’s absence, the play of freshman Hanner Mosquera-Perea, the growth of Victor Oladipo and more.
Watch and listen to the press conference in the embedded media player below:
Quotes after the jump.
Opening Statement:
“Jeremy is dealing with a personal and a private matter that is in no way related to academic behavior or disciplinary issues. He has our full support as we look for a quick resolution and, out of respect for he and his family, we will not discuss it any further.
“The game was excellent, no question about it. Our guys were locked in and have had a great week. They’ve had a long year. Outside of four or five days, they’ve been number one in the country for a very long time and I think they’ve handled it extremely well. There is no question that I’m glad they are getting a break to re-charge and go home and see their families and I know most of them will be in the gym no matter what.
“They really deserve a break, but the great thing about it is that they’re not playing like they need one. A lot of teams this time of year look like they need a break but our team doesn’t look like that at all. Our team is full throttle right now and only going to get better because we are adding guys. You deal with different issues that you just have to deal with, but our guys have done a fantastic job with that. Concentration can sometimes waver this time of year but I didn’t see any of that tonight. We had a span of a couple of turnovers, but to go 26-for-27 from the foul line I think is really, really impressive.
“I thought Cody was outstanding. I was asked today ‘is Cody meeting my expectations or exceeding them?’ I couldn’t answer it because I don’t look at it like that. It’s always about ‘Is he developing?’ Is he getting better daily? Like with all of them, there is a place you think they can get to eventually, but there is a place you have to get to every day. Cody is doing such a fantastic job, and it was great to see him play the way that he did tonight. Christian has had an excellent week. We didn’t get to see the rebound numbers but I think he was really doing a great job of blocking out, being in position, and playing physical. We were playing against an excellent scorer in Greg Gant- somebody that Tim Buckley had compared to Jack Givens. Mark Jarvis is a great coach, we had a great crowd full of energy with lots of fan support, and I like where our team is at. But I like a lot more that I believe that we are going to get a lot better.”
On Hanner Mosquera-Perea’s performance:
“I thought he played well. I reminded him that you actually have to catch it before you dunk it because I think he had a couple SportsCenter plays in mind before he caught the ball. He’s still feeling his way through things but what he was able to do in that period of time was pretty impressive. He’s tough and he’s physical and he brings a different demeanor to our team. I don’t want to call him an x-factor, because we have a lot of x-factors on this team. But his toughness, his competitiveness, and his length which speaks for itself, will continue to get better and better. I think he’s going to look that much better two or three weeks from now and I think Peter will be the same way. They will continue to improve and be able to help us. Derek is the one that I feel for because he has really good looks, he just doesn’t have the legs where they need to be yet and he doesn’t have the rhythm of his shooting. I think he was getting frustrated because he was missing some open shots but he’s a couple of jump shots away from having his confidence where it needs to be too and that’s exciting to see.”
On Cody’s improving free throw shooting:
“He changed a couple of things mechanically. There were a few things we worked on but that’s mostly just him. He spent a lot of time on it today. After the walk-through was ending we had a couple of guys who were doing post work and we had a couple of guys who were at the line. He was with three other guys that would shoot two free throws at a time while he would shoot five. He went 34-for-35 on that span and they all looked the same just like tonight’s did. He took some serious ribbing because we would have been 100 percent if he would have made his 13th free throw and if we would have left him in I’m sure he would have had a few more. Cody is a very hungry player and works very hard at what he’s good at and works very hard at what he needs to improve on. I think the free throw shooting shows that.”
Filed to: Florida Atlantic Owls, Tom Crean