Quotes: Everything IU basketball junior center Samet Yigitoglu said after Tuesday’s practice
- Alex Bozich
- 55m ago
Samet Yigitoglu played as the starting center on an NCAA tournament team last season at SMU.
The Turkish big man averaged 10.7 points, 7.9 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.3 blocked shots in 28.9 minutes per game for the Mustangs and committed to Indiana in April out of the transfer portal.
The 7-foot-2 center was one of three Hoosiers to talk to the media on Tuesday following a practice at Cook Hall.
Here’s a full transcript of Yigitoglu’s comments from Tuesday’s media session in the locker room at Assembly Hall:
On if he feels he’s going to be used differently at IU than he was at SMU:
“Yes, yes, absolutely. In practice right now, the coaches are always trying to put me on the court with Aiden so we can play with two bigs on the court. Right now Aiden is just killing it, he’s shooting it.
“I’m just trying to make plays for others and to go get my own stuff in the paint.”
On his passing ability:
“I love shooting the ball, you know. I don’t want to, if someone’s open, I just don’t want to force it because passing is the best thing for me.”
On why he wanted to come to IU:
“Indiana is a great program and they have history. Everybody wants to be here. Everybody wants to go to March Madness and play on the big stage. That made me come here and choose Indiana.”
On his experience at SMU the last two seasons:
“I mean, SMU taught me a lot of things about college basketball. You know, it was great two years out there, but I just had to move on from there because if you want to do big things, sometimes you got to change up something or just got to get to another level. And then Indiana was like that for me.”
On what attracted him to IU:
“I mean, playing style and then, you know, they’re patient. They were so patient and they explained the whole story like what they want to do next year and how they want to develop me and how they want to get me better for the next level, which is the NBA.”
On playing with Aiden Sherrell:
“I mean, it’s great. You know, he’s a threat from the 3-pointers. So it’s so easy to play with him because teams are, when we play during practice, the teams are just confused because he can hit a roll or he can even hit a pop. So he’s good at both. It’s so easy to play with Aiden.”
On why he’s always smiling and having a good time at practice:
“I mean, it comes from my teammates because everybody’s happy, everybody’s laughing, everybody’s cheering for each other. So, you know, it’s just picking me up.”
On coming to the United States for the first time:
“It was so good because, before I came to SMU, I spent my last two years in Istanbul. So it was so different than Istanbul because Istanbul is so compact, you know, it’s like a city. And in Dallas, like, it is a city, but in America, they say, like, everything is big in Texas. When I landed, everything was so big. I just couldn’t get used to it the first couple months. But after that, everything was so easy.”
On acclimating to the United States:
“I mean, it was a whole new story because, you know, you have to fly 12 hours to get here. So I didn’t know what I’m going to see, you know, and I came here by myself. So it was different for me to adjust.”
On if his family has been here to visit:
“No, not yet. They need a visa for that and right now they’re trying to get it.”
On his impressions of Bloomington:
“Right now it’s pretty, you know, pretty quiet. I mean we are just focusing on the court stuff. But, you know, when I came here for the official visit, it was pretty good with the students and everybody. It was good, great, you know. I mean, Bloomington is a great environment.”
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