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INDIANA UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 22, 2018

Archie Miller

Bloomington, Indiana

Indiana - 71, Maryland - 68

COACH MILLER: Heck of a win for our team against a really good Maryland team. It was a great environment. I thought our crowd, without a doubt, couldn't have done it without them in that last six to eight minutes. But I thought our guys really competed and played hard. And sometimes that's not easy when you come off the road, especially when you don't play well.

But I thought we had great concentration. I thought our leadership in the last few days was really good. And being able to get Juwan sort of back up and going again was a big key.

Q. Defensively seemed like you guys were a lot better in the second half. What was --
COACH MILLER: I thought in the first half, just in general, they started to play a smaller lineup, which we really hadn't seen a ton.

I thought they were running some motion rather than some of the stuff that we had normally seen. They got some looks. They spaced the floor a lot better.

And Cowan and Huerter are very good players. They got going, I think they had the first half, I think they had 18 or 20 of their team's points.

I thought in the second half we were much better on the ball. I thought we challenged things at the basket. It was a very physical game.

And defensively our percentage-wise, they shot 31 percent in the second half. And I thought our activity level with eight blocks and 10 steals kind of shows you how active we were.

Offensively, in the second half, it was a little bit of a grind. We were having a hard time getting out of our own way with some illegal screens, missed free throws and some things. But you take it any way you can get it.

Q. They hit that kind of 9-0 run, a few things there in the middle of the second half and there was a timeout. What I guess, you guys come right back out, I think hit them with a 7-0 run coming the other way.
COACH MILLER: It was a tough stretch for us. It was a tough stretch for us at that time. And I thought, like I said, give our guys credit, they bounced right back. Came back, I think, Juwan with a big basket. And there were some loose ball plays out there we got on the floor for, which was great to see. Then they got the building going which worked in our favor.

All in all, a game like that, a game of runs, you know, when you're playing against a very talented offensive team like Maryland to be able to hold them to 68 points, especially in the second half not let them get going. But it was a good night for us.

Q. When did you know that Juwan was going to play? And I guess how were you preparing the last few days of practice without him practicing?
COACH MILLER: Just in learning what his injury was at Michigan State, which was an ankle. He wasn't going to be able to play the rest of the Michigan State game. They took the second half and really just treated him. He started treatment right away.

Obviously Tim does an amazing job. But Juwan was detailed. I thought he showed improvement on Saturday, didn't practice. Tim thought maybe some walking noncontact stuff yesterday would be apparent.

I didn't want him to do that. We held him out again. And figuring that full nother round of treatments today that we would know by game time.

And Juwan said he felt pretty good. So obviously he played like it, which was good to see. If he didn't play, we would have been prepared to play with the guys on our team that had to play the bulk of the minutes. If he wasn't going to play, we had to maybe find a combination where Justin and Collin could play together at times, which hasn't happened all season as well.

Q. Looking for alternatives, Justin had a great day with Juwan in there. But great complement there, (indiscernible) really efficient.
COACH MILLER: He was really good. They played small. So they switched a lot off the ball, which we thought he had an advantage. He's getting more comfortable. He's getting more confident around the basket. I thought you saw that in the first half. He had a jumper, had a nice countermove, where he was able to score with his left hand. Second half, made a couple off back screen, got a nice layup. But he's doing a nice job. Justin played well tonight.

Q. Your ability to win close games (inaudible) 4-0. What's the key to that?
COACH MILLER: Winning close games is about getting stops. If you can get stops and you can find a way to hang in tough games and get stops and your team is believing that you can win a game without scoring points, that's step one.

Being a tough-minded group, being a team that wants to battle all the way through, I think that's been good. I also think we have a really good player in Juwan Morgan that you can go to in the last four minutes of the game and he can get some things done for you, which was the case tonight.

Q. A guy like Juwan, an injury, can't practice, first game back he gets 25 points.
COACH MILLER: We were sort of waiting for him in the first half to see if he was going to feel his way through the game. Thought he had an advantage from his mobility standpoint but just wasn't sure he was going to be able to do it.

I think as he sort of got more comfortable in the first four to eight minutes, I think at that point in time it was a non-issue.

You turn your ankle, and a lot of guys handle it different ways. I think Juwan just played through the adrenalin tonight. And I'm sure he'll be sore as we head to Illinois on a quick turnaround. So hopefully, if anything, he gets some more rest before he plays again Wednesday.

Q. Kind of recurring theme, but Rob Johnson had eight rebounds, six of them maybe in the defensive end. Something like 33 rebounds in the last five games. Is that representative of what you need?
COACH MILLER: He's really taken it to another level in terms of what we're asking him to do. And I think his play speaks volumes. You're not worried about him shooting anymore.

He's an unbelievable defender right now for us. And he's really bought into the defensive rebounding by our guards because we're small.

And if he gets eight defensive rebounds, and our number is usually 12 -- I think we had seven at Michigan State. Seven total guard rebounds.

And there's a big reason why we weren't able to win any 50/50 balls or anything. I thought tonight was a little bit different. Rob had eight. Zach got three. Devonte got a couple. So we were up over our number.

But Rob is as coachable of a guy and he wants to do well. And I think at the end of the day he's just trying his but off to finish his career off the best way he can.

Q. You mentioned that the quick turnaround -- I think in the next eight days you have two two-day turnarounds.
COACH MILLER: Are you reminding me or are you trying to get me into trouble or something (laughter).

We're on an incredible run. It's an unprecedented run. Seven games in 17 days. Three times two times in three days in three consecutive weeks with the second game being on the road.

That's a tough task. You have to get a little bit healthy. You have to get a little bit lucky in terms of the health. That's the thing you care about the most this time of year is having everybody available.

But it's definitely going to be one of the more challenging runs we've been on. When you look at the games at home and when you look at the travel, it's going to be one of those deals where, in February 1st, when you look up, you like to see where you're at.

But Wednesday night, sometimes you make too much of it. Sometimes you see guys play their best games on back-to-backs or two games in three days. It's tough. The thing you're concerned about is the wear and tear on your guys' bodies. That's the big thing.

Q. Devonte comes in (indiscernible) 2:12 (phonetic) in the second half. How were you impressed with him, having a guy that could come in?
COACH MILLER: We needed some help. Josh had a rough night with fouls tonight. He wasn't in a rhythm. We needed another guy to step up and Devonte, I thought, did that. He did a decent job with them in the second half keeping them out of the lane.

Couple times I think he stripped them and whatnot. Devonte has just got to stick with it here. I think offensively some of the decision-making, some of the shots, obviously are questionable. But when he's out there for long stretches, we're better. And hopefully on Wednesday we're going to need him versus Illinois' pressure.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

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