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INDIANA UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 22, 2018

Archie Miller

Bloomington, Indiana

Indiana 94, Jacksonville 64

ARCHIE MILLER: First of all, to finish off non-conference play in that type of crowd was really, really nice to see, the fans that kind of came out. To be able to put that type of attendance in there tonight I thought was really special. Hopefully as we get into early January, we can continue to have that. It's important as we get into the Big Ten.

We played well tonight. We shared the ball. We were much better in terms of moving the ball. I thought our guys did a decent job of playing together.

Defensively we grinded pretty good for about 30 minutes, then obviously we took the foot off the pedal, which was a little disappointing. It's hard to complain when you have a lot of different guys in there contributing, also being down two guys that play an important role on our team.

We feel good about the win. Our non-conference rÃ©sumÃ© is done, we've gotten through it. A lot of ups and downs. Now, as we press forward after break, we'll get ready for the Big Ten gauntlet, so to speak.

Q. To what degree did you want guys, at least Juwan, focusing on the triple-double toward the end as opposed to just letting it come to him?
ARCHIE MILLER: I didn't realize it until we had the media where he was two points away. We drew up a play underneath out of bounds to make sure he got it.

Guys were definitely going to try to get him the deal. I think that's an incredible accomplishment to do that. At Indiana, so few people have done it. You have to be an unbelievable, complete guy to be able to be that type of efficiency. Took five shots in the game, you know what I mean? You can tell he completely dominated with his unselfish play.

It was good for him to be able to play the way he did tonight. He made us better.

Q. For a guy like that to have 10 assist, how much have you seen him grow as a passer?
ARCHIE MILLER: He's got confidence in his perimeter game right now, more so than anything, handling the ball in the open floor. He's looking for people. He hunts to get guys shots. He's terrific out of the post. He's finding guys out of the post, cutter, shooter.

Tonight when you put him against the zone, he's really dangerous because he can operate in the high post or low post. To be able to deal with that type of zone, playing through the middle, he again sort of picked it apart working the back line, whatnot.

He had all three levels going. He had the transition deal head up. Playing in the post, he created a lot of offense for a lot of different guys. Then once we got into the zone, I thought he was an important piece to cut it up.

Q. 25 assists this game. The ball movement was very good and crisp tonight. Five first half turnovers.
ARCHIE MILLER: We just spent a lot of time watching film of Central Arkansas's first four to eight minutes. We talked about in practice being sharper with your catches, more fundamental with things. We still had some one-arm zingers that come flying, whether that's out of the post. We got to try to tone that down.

I just think we have to be more fundamental, we really do. Less chances, less one-hand passes, whatnot. I thought tonight we were pretty secure in our ball security. Guys made right reads. There were a lot of good passes out there that got guys good shots.

Q. How long after you arrived here did you realize that Juwan could be the player that he is? Had you previously gotten a chance to see him play? How long before you realized how good he could be?
ARCHIE MILLER: Just individual workouts through our first early part of the spring, then getting into the summer, kind of seeing how he played, watching him as an inside-outside type of a player.

As we progressed last year and our team changed, went from big to a little bit smaller, I think you got to see him start to take advantage of his mobility, whatnot.

He can play with the big, he can play without a big. He can pretty much handle himself the entire game without any problems.

But his versatility, how he approaches things, you could pretty much tell he was really developing late last year with his incredible Big Ten season. He work worked hard this summer, then moved into this year's team, and he's taken a leadership role.

He is not greedy by any stretch. He doesn't have any stretches in the season where he complains, I'm not shooting. He just plays. It's good to see.

He's getting as much done as any player in college basketball for our team.

Q. Al Durham, with a career high tonight. Talk about his development as a perimeter shooter over the past year.
ARCHIE MILLER: He's worked hard at it. He's a stronger player, more confidence. He's a year older. Al really loves the game. He works on it. He's the guy that's in before practice, after practice, shoot around. He spends a ton of time.

Good to see him get rewarded. He had a slow stretch for a while where he wasn't hitting. Played right through it. Had a terrific workout yesterday before practice. One of his better practices. He showed. He played nice tonight. He didn't force anything. He was able to, in my opinion, take good shots. A lot of them were assisted, which was good to see. Al earned the right to play well tonight. He has worked hard.

Q. This break you have coming up, anything specifically as a staff you're looking to get accomplished with the extra practice time?
ARCHIE MILLER: Yeah, I mean, obviously we have a chance to tie some things up. We have to get a lot better offensively, as we've stated here in the last couple weeks, taking care of the ball.

You're going to see a lot of different styles in the Big Ten. One of the things you have to do is make sure you're getting a good shot, not turning it over. We're going to look at some things offensively where we can tidy it up, clean it up. Defensively we've got to keep getting better. Hopefully we get two of our best perimeter defenders back at some point in time. That will help our cause there, not having to play as many minutes.

Defensively I think we're going to have to take it to another level as we get ready to get into the Big Ten. I think every coach in the league would be lying if they didn't tell you, You got to strap it on coming out in the next couple weeks.

Once it gets started, every team you play, in my opinion, has a chance to win the league, make a Sweet 16. You're looking at top 10, 15, 25 teams. It's going to be difficult.

So I think we just got to take our time here after break, take it one day at a time, cross our fingers and hopefully get healthy as we enter league play. One day at a time.

Q. You said you aren't where you want to be offensively. Talking about Juwan, for a guy who scored so many points, how important has that been this year as you've had to adapt in a lot of new guys?
ARCHIE MILLER: He's just coachable. He's trying to do what we ask him to do. He knows when you play in the thick of it, he's going to have to make more plays, try to attempt more shots.

But he goes out of his way to play the right way. To me he doesn't really care how many points he scores. I think Juwan is looking at the big picture, saying, This is my last go, I want to have the best possible season as I can, I want to be remembered for a heck of a run as a senior, a good two-year run with us.

He has kind of changed the complexion of not only his own game, his own reputation, but he's had an opportunity to have a real big imprint on this group. He's a coachable guy, plays the right way. Good things are going to come to him.

Q. Devonte didn't shoot the ball like the other night. Played 35 minutes, five assists, two steals. Plus-minus of 30. How do you think he handled the extra minutes tonight?
ARCHIE MILLER: I thought he made good plays. I mean, he was very aggressive. He got downhill quite a bit off the ball screens, which we encouraged him to do.

Shooting the ball is one thing. As long as he takes good shots, he's going to have a chance to make him. Need him to be pretty solid taking care of the ball. I think he's 11 assists to three turnovers in his last two games, three steals a game.

He's doing a good job. He just needed to make a couple more shots tonight. His line looks good. He had a good week. He knows right now with Rob being out, he's back in there, going to play a lot of minutes. I think he's playing freedom.

Q. Clifton, Jake and Damezi, how valuable was this week to maybe get some young guys some confidence, let them see a payoff?
ARCHIE MILLER: I mean, you always want guys who work hard every day to have an opportunity to contribute. Those guys have been hungry to do so. All three of them had opportunities to do it.

Damezi is going to be vital moving forward with our perimeter group, where he is going to be able to make less mistakes, take great shots. When he does take great shots, be another guy that can stretch the floor for us.

The other two guys have to keep hanging in there. You never know with injuries and fouls who is going to get their number called. I suspect we are going to be in some real dogfights in the next couple months which is going to require our bench to go deeper. We'll keep trying to develop them. They just got to stay with it.

Thank you. Merry Christmas.

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