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INDIANA UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 1, 2018Evan FitznerJohnny JagerJustin SmithBloomington, Indiana Southern Indiana - 62, Indiana - 96 THE MODERATOR: First question for the players. Q. Talk about the offensive balance. 13 players scored. JUSTIN SMITH: I'd say we have a very deep team, a very versatile team that can do a lot of different things. Our offense is very free-moving. There's a lot of opportunities for everybody to get involved. Everybody just took advantage of what the defense gave them and we were able to capitalize. JOHNNY JAGER: I think everybody that plays is very unselfish. We play within our offense. Nobody cares who gets the credit as long as we get the W at the end of the day. Q. Robert, no turnovers, 10 points, is that reflective of what you're seeing in practices? EVAN FITZNER: I think it's definitely what we've been seeing in practice and scrimmages, our previous scrimmage against another team. He's done a good job as a freshman coming in, playing tough. It's tough as a freshman to come in and play well defensively, kind of run the team. He's done a really good job with it so far. Q. Evan, biggest step from that scrimmage on Saturday to tonight? EVAN FITZNER: I think we were better offensively moving the ball like Justin talked about. I thought we found the open man really well. Yeah, we played fast. That's what coach wants us to do this year. We put a lot of points on the board. I think that was the result of us playing fast, doing what we wanted offensively. Q. Talk about you guys being a little bit ahead defensively to where you are offensively as a team. Where do you feel maybe offensively you still have a lot of work to do? JUSTIN SMITH: I would say getting more comfortable within our motion, being patient on offense. We focused a lot on defense during the off-season. We're kind of implementing the same system, but it's kind of tweaked a little bit from last year. We're still trying to get used to it and trying to get comfortable with everybody in different spots. Q. Justin, where you are defensively, how different is it for this team just the length you can put on the floor and rotate through, maybe not just one or two lineups that have a lot of length, you can go with a lot of different combinations where you still have guys? JUSTIN SMITH: Like I said before, we're a very versatile team. That allows us to play a lot of different guys in a lot of different positions. We have an athletic, long team that's able to get in the passing lanes, make it difficult for the offense to score. We're going to look forward on capitalizing and using our strengths to the best advantage. Q. Evan, walk us through the last play of the half. EVAN FITZNER: I don't want to give away any of our plays. It's something we've worked on in practice, kind of a late-game situation. It was good that we executed it. Rob made the right pass. Q. The way Damezi lit up the scoreboard in the second half, how big of a weapon could he be down the road? JOHNNY JAGER: He's a shooter, as you can see. Put it up, he makes it. Having a weapon like that stretches out the defense. You have to stay with him. Opens up driving lanes. Kick it to him, money three. It's a big weapon. Q. What was the like playing against Chance Coyle, your high school teammate? JOHNNY JAGER: It was really cool. I was wondering if that was going to happen at some point tonight. I was a senior, he was a freshman. He's one of the guys I've grown up playing with. It was really cool to be out there with him on the court. Q. Guessing you probably go up against Rob in practice a lot. Anything stood out when you were going against each other in practice? JOHNNY JAGER: Coming in as a freshman, he's the strongest freshman I've ever seen. That dude is built, he's tough. When he's on the ball, defense is really good. It's tough to get around that guy. He's strong, quick, fast. He's just really solid all around. Q. Your thoughts how they played tonight. JUSTIN SMITH: They played a good game. They challenged us offensively and defensively. They gave us a little different actions that we haven't really focused on yet. I mean, they played a good game. We're looking forward to build off of it. EVAN FITZNER: They shot the ball well. Obviously in the second half, they shot a pretty high percentage. Coach was talking we need to kind of buckle down defensively in the second half, not let that happen. They did a good job of knocking down shots, running their stuff. Kudos to them. Q. You had a couple chances to play against someone else other than yourself. Anything surprise you guys? EVAN FITZNER: I think defensively has been the biggest positive thing, surprise, like we've talked about since we've been up here. We have a lot of length, a lot of athletic ability. I think we've done a good job both games defensively. I mean, at least I was pleasantly surprised. It's tough to really tell that when you're going against each other in practice. To see that in a game, it's good. Q. Justin, you talk about defense being a big focus in the off-season. Where do you feel this team has made the most progress defensively? JUSTIN SMITH: I would say we have our rotations down. Compared to last year, we have our rotations down a lot earlier than last year. We still have to work on ball screens, a lot of other different things. We're a little bit more ahead. We're just looking to build off of any opportunity we can to play. Q. You talk a lot about defense, rightly so. There's seven newcomers on this team. Five played tonight. Is it safe to say there's considerably more firepower this year than last year? JUSTIN SMITH: I mean, it depends. It depends on how you look at it. Last year we had a lot of experienced guys, but we were all adjusting to a new system. This year, the new guys, they've kind of had us bring them up through it, kind of teach them. They got a lot of early opportunities this year. Last year everybody was kind of going through it together. So having that experience one year under all our belts in this system, it's probably helped the younger guys having us be able to teach them. Q. Talking about the defense in particular, do you see the younger guys, new guys, picking it up faster than last year? You can talk them through it a little bit more than maybe anybody? JUSTIN SMITH: Yeah, definitely. It's different. When the coaches tell you... But having your own teammate being able to explain it a different way, having gone out there and done the stuff they're asking us to do, having that different perspective is definitely helpful. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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