HD Video: IU players react to win over Hillsdale

  • 11/04/2013 9:41 pm in

Stanford Robinson, Yogi Ferrell and Devin Davis met with the media following Indiana’s 79-39 exhibition win over Hillsdale College on Monday night at Assembly Hall.

Watch and listen to their postgame comments in the embedded media player below:

Quotes are available after the jump.

On playing for the first time in a game in Assembly Hall: Stanford Robinson: “Well, it started in practice. My teammates kept pushing me, learning from Yogi as always, learning from Evan (Gordon) and Will (Sheehey), they are very good leaders and they kept pushing me in practice, getting me ready for tonight and all of the other freshman ready for tonight.”

On what helped the team regroup after Hillsdale started out so fast: Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell: “The biggest thing is that we need to stay together. I feel like we weren’t flowing together very well. Offensively, we were just missing shots. Defensively, I felt like we just weren’t there. Once we realized we were down, we realized this is serious, we have to get back up. So I just think we could learn from that – to not get down early, because when we get into conference play, once you’re down, you’re down for a while.”

On attacking the basket: Ferrell: “Coach has always implemented using the new rules to our advantage – just a sense of attacking the rim. I knew I drew a couple fouls just going by guys, I was always just trying to kick out and find open shooters. But, the main mentality was just to try and drive and get to the rim. Coach has focused on getting in the bonus early and I think we got into the bonus with maybe 12 minutes left in the first half, so Coach was happy with that. We know once we do that, we can get more free throw opportunities.”

On Hollowell playing better with the ball in his hands: Ferrell: “Yeah. I’m pretty sure he likes to have the ball in his hands, so that’s why he would be more active. He ran point a little bit in high school. Now, he is just a big point guard, really. So, he can kind of overpower some of the littler guards that were guarding him out there. He was doing a good job of driving the ball downhill and finding open guys.”

On the way the younger guys brought energy to the defense: Ferrell: “Hopefully, once they had seen that, it stresses that we have to jump out of the gate; no let off from the tip of the ball, even though it’s exhibition. We can’t take any opponent lightly. I’m hoping that these guys can learn to not take each possession for granted and to give it your all.”

On what the freshmen learned in the two exhibition games: Devin Davis: “Something I think we’ve learned as a team is that it has to start on defense and then we have to get out and run and always play together. For the freshman, when we first get out there, we need to be able to slow down and gather ourselves and focus on what the team needs to be done.”

On the comfort level having played two exhibition games: Davis: “I was pretty comfortable having guys around me like Yogi Ferrell just to talk to you during the game and keep you calm and confident.”

On what changed offensively after Hillsdale took the lead: Ferrell: “I think the main thing that changed was our communication. I felt that when we first got out there, no one was really talking to one another – leaving guys on islands. We can’t win when we’re leaving guys on islands. We need to have a collective unit. After that first TV timeout, we said that we need to talk more and give better effort on defense and that will lead to our offense and get easier buckets for us.”

On what Stanford Robinson can bring to the team: Ferrell: “I think Stan got his fuel from defense. Stan has long arms, is a great on-ball defender, and gets many defections. He was one of the top three leading deflections when he was healthy for practice. Once his defense got going he flowed within the game and he was driving the ball well and finishing.”

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