Video, Quotes: IU players react to win over Michigan

  • 02/02/2014 3:37 pm in

Noah Vonleh (10 points, 12 rebounds), Evan Gordon (eight points) and Yogi Ferrell (27 points) met with the media following Indiana’s 63-52 win over No. 10 Michigan on Sunday at Assembly Hall.

Watch their postgame comments in the media player below:

Quotes are available after the jump.

Talk about your shooting performance. Did you feel like everything was going to go in or what?

Yogi Ferrell: Pretty much. You know, once I hit the first couple, they all felt good. Once I had an opening, I wasn’t really going to force it. Once I had an opening I was just going to let it fly.

What were you doing on defense to take away from Stauskas there?

Yogi Ferrell: Basically just trying to limit his touches really, playing the screens, not get any screens, so didn’t want him to get the ball and get one on within drives.

Noah, what were you trying to do defensively and what worked so well?

Noah Vonleh: We were just trying to go to the best match ups, be sound, and just move our feet and talk, communicate, and just play defense really well.

Evan, can you talk about the defense you guys played not only today but really in the last three games with the exception of the second half against Nebraska? You guys have played very strong defensively?

Evan Gordon: I think the key was the communication throughout the game. Guys stepped up and made sure that we covered our match ups and got who we wanted to get to in our game, and we kept our chest in front so there weren’t that many driving lanes. I think we did a good job with it.

Going back to the match up thing, did you feel like Michigan really couldn’t figure out how to deal with maybe what they got from you guys match up wise? Did you feel like they were a little confused or thrown off by what they were seeing?

Yogi Ferrell: Yeah, I think so, and that goes to what Evan said, just communication. We had a different game plan for them, but I think the coaches prepared us very well for that, and we were going to switch out on their ball screens really. We wanted to do that to try not to have them draw the ball and kick for threes.

The key was patience; seemed like you guys were willing to get down late in the shot clock and yet you often times didn’t have to force things. How has this team developed?

Yogi Ferrell: You know, that’s what’s great about our team. We may not get something in transition, but we set a play and run it. I felt like we ran our plays very well to perfection, sprinting to our spots, setting great greens, getting Noah and other guys open for open shots. We’re coming along with that, being more patient. Even when we’ve got to take it down in the shot clock and get the best available shot that we can.

Evan, Noah, how impressive was what Yogi did today?

Noah Vonleh: He was in the gym the other day just he was on the gun working hard, and when Yogi gets into a rhythm, you’re not going to change it.

Yogi, can you talk about the significance of this win?

Yogi Ferrell: This is a great win because Michigan is such a great team. You know, they’ve definitely I know won all their Big Ten games pretty much on the road. But we got this win with our resilience on defense, and especially the fans definitely cheering us on. I felt like they helped us a lot, too. It just shows how well we’ve been practicing from the loss to Nebraska. We were very disappointed in the way that we came out the second half, so we didn’t want to have that same letdown, so we wanted to have the same energy for all 40 minutes.

You seemed a little more aggressive around the basket today. Was that something that you thought about that you wanted to be a little bit more aggressive?

Noah Vonleh: Yeah, post hard and just look for the ball.

You shot a lot of free throws in the second half; did you change anything to get those free throws?

Yogi Ferrell: Well, I know we want to average a certain amount of free throws each game. I don’t think we shot one in the first half. So coach was just saying try and get free throws, we’re going to need free throws to win this game, especially get them in foul trouble.

So all we wanted to do was just drive the ball, and I feel like a lot of guys like Stan and Evan did a great job pushing it up the court, having them on their heels, and just wanting to get those free buckets.

Yogi, going back to your point about defense, the whole team has taken pride in it. Did you feel like today’s performance was a direct result of trying to bounce back from Nebraska defensively?

Yogi Ferrell: Yeah, I’d say so. We got to watch the film, and we noticed how in the second half our hands were down really, we weren’t talking, not the same energy. We just wanted to come out the second half firing away really, and we just wanted to have that defensive mentality and just shut them down.

How much more confident are you with the outside shot in your second year?

Yogi Ferrell: A lot more confident, and that’s just because I worked a lot in the summer. I’m still working on it to this day even with the guys I’m sitting with. We take shots a lot after practice, so yeah; it’s just pretty much all about repetition in order to have that confidence.

Filed to: