Second-year IU basketball coach Darian DeVries met with the media via Zoom on Wednesday morning as the program prepares for its second exhibition game against North Carolina on Sunday.
The Hoosiers beat Butler 96-68 in their first exhibition game last weekend.
Here’s everything DeVries said in his Wednesday media availability:
On Markus Burton balancing scoring and distributing:
“We’ve talked to him about just kind of being himself and being aggressive because I think he does a really good job of … he knows his capabilities as an offensive scorer and we don’t ever want to take that away from him. But I also feel like he’s a very willing distributor, too. Sometimes when you have a guy averaging the numbers he puts up, maybe they’re not distributing in the way you would like to.
“But I feel like he does that and seeing it over the course of time with our summer workouts and fall workouts, he’s done a really good job of that. There was times even in our Peru trip that we felt like he was almost passing too much and we wanted him to make sure that he continues to be a scorer, too, because he’s that dynamic of a scorer and he demands that much attention. That’s where all of his assists are going to come from. And we’ve seen that kind of throughout the fall here in our five on five stuff.”
On Aiden Sherrell:
“I think Aiden’s done a terrific job. Like his motor is what I think is most impressive defensively. His versatility, our ability to switch him, blocking shots. And then on the offensive end, his aggressiveness to go offensive rebound has been really good.
“And he’s continued to work as we’re playing him a lot at the four. So that’s a new adjustment for him, especially when he’s in there with Samet because Samet occupies that block a lot. So finding his areas is something we’re continuing to work through with him and finding ways to get him some some more opportunities.
“But I liked his aggressive the other night. I didn’t think he finished as well as he normally does on some of those interior possessions where he got it down deep. But no worries about that long term. I just think he missed a couple that he normally hits. So I like what he’s given us. It’s a hard matchup for people, puts people in tough spots because of his ability to stretch the floor, pick and roll, catch and finish up above the rim. So that’s going to be something that will continue to evolve as the year goes on.”
On scheduling tougher exhibitions and what they’re looking to get out of the UNC exhibition:
“Yeah, I love it for us. As you know, we had games this summer, but from just getting a real true look at what are our strengths and weaknesses, probably didn’t get a lot out of that from that standpoint.
“Got to play together. But when you get to play against teams that you’re going to see in the regular season, similar to Big Ten opponents, that’s where you can gain the most valuable information. So I kind of want to find out some of our holes before we get into real games and they start to go in the win-loss column.
“I thought the other night against Butler, our transition defense was lacking. So it was great for us to see it against an opponent. We kind of felt like it in practice, but to really get our guys attention after playing somebody else that I thought that was really good for us.
“I thought Butler did a good job of really pushing it. And we didn’t respond very well at times to that. I thought we fouled too much. Again, having bigger bodies, faster guards, all those type of things. Now we get in officials, a lot of times it’s me officiating. So I don’t call as much in practice, but being able to see that and keeping guys off the free throw line is a big priority for us.
“So we got to do a better job in those areas. But that’s what these games are for. And that’s a great learning opportunity for us as a coaching staff to see guys in those situations before we get going.”
On playing Aiden Sherrell and Samet Yigitoglu together:
“Yeah, I love those two together. I think they complement each other well. Aiden just gives you so much versatility with his ability to stretch the floor.
“So we still keep our spacing from an offensive standpoint. Even when Samet’s down on the block, we can throw it into him. And one-on-one, he’s a lot to deal with down there. So now you’re forced with decisions. How much do you want to help? And we still keep all of our spacing and our shooting on the perimeter with that lineup.
“And then just on the defensive end, you got basically two seven-footers protecting the paint and going and getting the glass. Like we’ve talked about a lot, our rebounding is a priority for us. We built the roster around it. We prioritized it. And to see it show up against Butler, I thought, was really encouraging. Our offensive rebound rate was close to 40 percent.
“We were in the, like 23 percent, I believe, last year as a whole, somewhere in that area. So that was a huge improvement. I think we rebounded at like a 83.7 percent defensively, right? Again, it’s just one game, but that was something that we wanted to see on that stat sheet after the game. And a lot of that is when you have Aiden and Samet out there together, those type of lineups. Sam, Trent, they’re all contributing in that way. I thought it was really impactful for us.”
On whether Aiden Sherrell will play at the five:
“We certainly have it, and it’s something that’s what I love about the flexibility of our lineup or the versatility, rather. We can go a little bit smaller with Aiden at the five and play more of that stretch five with four perimeter guys. And we do that. We do that a decent amount in practice, maybe for late games, some different situations where we want to do it as well. It’s just finding minutes for everybody right now with Samet and Sam and Trent and Aiden. It just works out.
“It’s harder to find him just alone at the five during stretches. But it’s something we’ll certainly do during certain games and situations. It’s a lineup we would definitely use and we do it a good amount in practice.”
On mixing and matching Bryce Lindsay, Darren Harris and Jaeden Mustaf:
“We got a really good idea of what each guy brings and they all bring a unique kind of skill set to what our team needs. I think Bryce does a really good job. He can play the one, he can play the two. He’s really good in ball screens. He can shoot behind it. What’s been really encouraging seeing him throughout the summer as well is how well he passes playing in ball screens. I think he has a really good feel for that.
“Darren Harris is more just kind of the guy that’s going to hit you five, six, seven of them on any given night. He’s certainly going to demand a lot of attention. And then Mustaf brings us that physicality, both defensively and offensively, driving, straight line driver, powerful finisher, defender, rebounder. So I think those guys all complement each other in different ways.
“And we, again, we’ve got great versatility in having different lineups and what those lineups can do while they’re out on the floor together.”
On the approach for the UNC game in terms of scouting and the prep and whether they’ll focus on themselves or really dig into UNC’s first exhibition film against USC:
“We’ll do a combo of both. We’ll use that game (against USC) and we’ll prepare the scout just to kind of get them all through it just so they get a normal game day prep as we get closer to the season. I just want them to have that kind of familiarity with how we do things.
“But overall, there’ll be a lot more about us and trying some things both offensively and defensively throughout the team, different lineups, those type of things that you just want to get a look at. So from that standpoint, we won’t maybe overdo it. It’s only one game anyway, but we do want them to have at least an idea of like, hey, here’s some of their tendencies from the one game. Here’s some things we want to really try to take away. But overall, we still want to make sure we get what we want to get out of it and see some different things from our side of things.”
On the health of the team entering the season and if they’ve done anything differently:
“Yeah, I think just this … from a practice standpoint to have bodies and be able to kind of replicate what you’re going to see on game day has been awesome for us. And you can’t control, injuries and things. And unfortunately, last year we just had a lot of guys that had different types of injuries.
“So just from a practice standpoint, it was hard to get, you know, to kind of simulate what we were going to see on game night at times. But even having multiple bigs in practice, we can rest them. They don’t have to be out there the whole time because we can keep guys going in and out.
“We have guys that they can go against in multiple seven-footers, not only from a post standpoint, but from a finishing standpoint, a rebounding standpoint. So that’s been incredibly beneficial for us as well. So hopefully that pays big dividends for us as we get into the season.”
On the halfcourt defense against Butler:
“I think we’re getting more connected on the defensive end. Our challenge is still, especially on the perimeter of our guards, we’re not overly big in the backcourt. So they have to really do a great job of being kind of aggressive without fouling.
“Markus got in some foul trouble the other night. Bryce got in some foul trouble the other night. So we want them to be tough on the ball, be underneath guys, keep them in front, though. That’s the main thing without fouling. And I think we have some room to grow there. But I am excited about what I’ve seen the last two to three weeks, where the guys are really starting to pick up kind of their gaps and being able to protect one another and really relying on our team defense for us to be really good.
“That’s going to have to be elite. And we do have good rim protection behind it. So if we can continue to build on that perimeter and then have the guys behind it protecting them when we do break down, that’s what’s going to ultimately make our defense really good.”
