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INDIANA UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 19, 2017

Archie Miller

Bloomington, Indiana

Indiana - 70, South Florida - 53

COACH MILLER: A good win by our team and really proud of their effort getting some carry-over right now, especially from a defensive side of the ball, we're getting better.

And I think our guys understand right now that that's not going away. We're going to have to continue to be just a tough-minded group up here. Got a lot of different combinations of players on the floor and that's the thing we focus on the most.

The turnovers, just continue to try to nip it in the bud. I thought the second half we took care of the ball a lot better and got a lot more clean looks. Probably a couple open shots, a couple open lay-ups from really being able to score the ball in the second half a little bit more.

But really, really proud of the guys. I thought Juwan Morgan basically jump-started the team in the second half. He played extremely hard. His work on the glass was great and he gave us confidence. Told Juwan he continues to play like that he's got good days ahead of at this moment.

He was fantastic. It wasn't just about shooting 3s; it was about playing hard. I thought he played hard on both ends of the floor. The offensive rebounding was unbelievable effort. And then 10 free throw attempts kind of shows the aggressiveness that he played with tonight. And so just happy for him. I thought he played really well today.

Q. Rob Johnson taking steps as a leader --
COACH MILLER: Rob's unbelievable. I couldn't say one thing about Rob. His intentions as a player, as a leader, even coming off of Seton Hall in practice -- vocal, getting on guys. He's doing a great job.

And I think the more he gives of himself, the more he continues to try to talk and wants his teammates to do well, good things will happen for him. Right now he's finding some seams. We're not as fluid on offense as we can be.

And quite frankly he's passing up some good ones right now, probably just because of trying to be unselfish. But Rob was really good and I thought he worked extremely hard defensively. Right now he's playing as hard and as well as he probably, probably can be right now.

Q. The turnovers in the second half, only having three, does that really come down to making a simple play?
COACH MILLER: I think so. And I also think the offense in front of the bench. We were able to control it a little bit more from the bench. In the first half, as they're away from you, it's a little bit harder. Sometimes it's a lot more free flowing, sometimes they're in transition. And especially early in the game when you're getting adjusted to the team and how they're playing, it just gets away from you a little bit.

I thought the second half we were able to control it a little bit more. Didn't take as many chances with the ball. And if you look at it, we shot 17 free throws. And I thought some of the 3s we took were pretty good, especially early. We got three or four good looks to start the second half. They just didn't go in. We're trying. We're trying.

At the end of the day we've got to get comfortable with rolls and still figure out what is good opportunity to take a chance and when to slow it down. Especially late in the second half, I think we had some opportunities to slow it down a little bit and see if we can work the clock a little bit more. We're probably a couple of open shots away from scoring 75 points in the game. We've got to keep working.

Give South Florida credit. They played hard. Their front court clearly impacted the game in a big way with our guards not being able to see very good early. And I thought we will started to make some unselfish plays in the second half and we were able to get some, get the ball sharing a little bit.

Q. Going back to Rob, Juwan said something about how his aggressiveness sparked other guys. How important is it for him to kind of lead by example, I guess, on the floor at either end right now as a senior?
COACH MILLER: Rob or Juwan?

Q. Rob, Juwan said it about Rob.
COACH MILLER: Clearly when you're the guy you count on the most, you expect him to make plays and you expect him to be aggressive. And whether he's missing or not, we need Rob to be that guy. I think Rob, he's starting to figure out, like, this thing isn't going to go away. I have to be a dominant personality. I have to talk. I have to be willing to make big plays and shoot the ball. I have to be willing to defend the other team's biggest and best guard. It doesn't matter.

I think what he's figuring out there's no real alternatives. He has to step up and be our guy. And whether he's good or not every night, he has the right approach and he's playing pretty well right now.

Q. Saw Collin on the bench tonight. Is he closer?
COACH MILLER: Closer. Don't know how -- could even be missing this next week but he's closer. He's better running. He's better jumping. Still not 100 percent laterally. I think we'll see where he goes over the next couple of days and Arkansas State, and then you have a day in between.

You've got to be careful, two games in three days, you know, with a guy that has a tender groin, especially with the gauntlet that we have coming after this week, just in terms of the amount of teams we play and the quality of the teams that we play. I can see where Collin might not be looking towards next week maybe [lost audio] with Eastern Michigan, somewhere in there. But I don't know what --

Q. Committing the turnover?
COACH MILLER: Awesome. He's a terrific player. He's got bright future ahead of him. He's got a great feel. Starting to really trust him. As you can tell he's in there quite a bit, so he's obviously hanging in there on both ends. A lot of mistakes freshmen usually make doesn't start on the offense end; it starts on the defensive end. And starting to learn how to trust Al.

He's a good teammate. He's worked extremely hard, put himself in a situation to earn those minutes. He has not been given anything. And I think right now you're seeing a young guy that has confidence.

We got to get a lot of the other guys confidence too. Some guys not feeling as well, maybe not playing as well, but that's the quest is to have a group that's a whole group that's confident: Can you get everybody on the same page? And that's what we're working towards right now.

Q. De'Ron (indiscernible) out of foul trouble, what does he need to do to change that?
COACH MILLER: I don't know about the fouls tonight but definitely you got a chance to see the Seton Hall impact when he only played 15 minutes. And he played 25 minutes tonight. I thought he did pretty well.

He moved a lot better moved better defensively. I think a couple fouls may have been loose ball rebound fouls that you have to take into account maybe some 50/50 plays.

But I thought he played pretty well. And, again, it's vital that he's on the floor. It's vital we can keep him on the floor and find ways for him to be in there longer and find ways when we need him to be in there the most which is late in the game.

Q. Do you have an update on Josh Newkirk? And second, how close is this team to being where you want them to be in terms of grit, toughness, as opposed to where they were eight or nine days ago?
COACH MILLER: Josh Newkirk, he's a little bit banged up right now. I think he's moving a little bit gingerly in practice, the last couple of days -- his legs maybe need a couple of days of rest to get them under his belt.

I think we know what he can do if he's playing longer minutes more consistently for us, then we're going to be better. We need to take a look at his workload and take a step back and see if we can get the legs a little bit recovered. And he's coming off major knee surgery, dealing with a surgically repaired knee. Great kid. Great work ethic. Get his confidence back. And part of it is making him feel a little bit better.

The second question was grit and toughness. I thought today clearly for the longest period of time I thought we showed some toughness. We played hard. There was probably some 50/50 balls in the first half we didn't get. That actually I got a technical foul for. I didn't mean to.

But it just drives you batty out there when there's long rebounds and 50/50 balls and you can't get it. And part was we had weird combinations late in the half. We had freshmen out there and some different lineups.

We're getting there. They're starting to understand it will be this way. Moving forward, we've got to turn it up a level defensively. Keep the effort level going. Once we can start maybe making some of these 50/50 plays, loose balls, getting on the floor, long rebounds, securing them, we can get even better.

But without a doubt, our team's starting to figure this thing out. As our season continues to move, if we're not good on defense, we're not going to have a chance.

Q. The energy in the second half just seemed to be, I mean, a lot better than the first half. Was that them feeding off of Juwan, do you think?
COACH MILLER: I think definitely we got stops in the second half. I thought Juwan brought the crowd into the game with his effort. We got some confidence when we made some shots and some plays.

It was a deal where we had a deal where we had to keep grinding away, figuring it out. First half, I thought we played pretty hard.

We missed out on 50/50 rebounds. And you turn the ball over nine times. Feels funny when you turn the ball over. If you don't turn the ball over, it's amazing how many shots you get, how many more free throw attempts you get. When you give it away nine times, that's nine shots you don't get.

For us in the second half, I think we scored 37 in the second half, instead of where -- we scored 33 -- I don't even know how many points we scored. 37 points in the second half.

We were able to score a little bit because we didn't turn it over as much. That's the big thing. Lack of turnovers, quality play on offense. And then defensively being able to finish possessions with great 50/50 plays and great effort.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
COACH MILLER: Maybe. [Laughter] I really didn't want a technical foul. I was clearly ticked off we didn't get a loose ball rebound. But I'll take that technical foul. At the end of the day, I never want to give the other team two points. And I didn't say anything to the official. If I could have kept my play card and my towel off the floor, it probably would have helped the cause.

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