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INDIANA UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 14, 2019Juwan MorganRomeo LangfordBloomington, Indiana Nebraska - 66, Indiana - 51 JUWAN MORGAN: We can't start games like that, and that's been like a common theme this year, and it's just -- there's no excuse for it. You know, we've got to come out ready to fight. We can't always take the first punch and just keep taking body blows. Q. Juwan, the slow starts have obviously been a theme so far this year, but what's taking so long for that connection to kind of process for you guys to understand that mindset that needs to change early in games? JUWAN MORGAN: I just -- there's no one answer to that question. I just think, you know, as we get guys back and just over the course of practice and stuff just having everybody on deck to go, I think that would help us as far as being ready to -- being able to go at each other in practice, being able to know exactly who's going to be in and who's going to be out. I think it will come with time, but at the same time, it's just something that you've got to have. Like you can't wake somebody up and then they have to be ready to go. Q. Juwan, you guys got it down to three I think it was in the second half and from that point they kind of took control. From your perspective what changed at that point? JUWAN MORGAN: I think they just attacked us on the offensive end for them. I think they just -- they got to their spots, they were hitting shots, and we weren't doing anything to take them off. We just weren't tough throughout stretches of this game. Q. You talked about it a little bit there, but how difficult is it to address some of those intangibles or mindset concerns when you do feel like it's interchangeable parts in practice, guys have to miss time, guys maybe are limited, you don't have a full deck to work with? JUWAN MORGAN: As bad as it is, there's no excuse for it. You know, they're all here to play. They're all here to play big-time basketball. They have to be ready to go. They have to be tough. They have to go in, defend, get rebounds, and when they're in the right spot, they have to score the ball. Q. What about their zone caused you guys problems? Seems like you had a lot of issues with their 1-3-1. ROMEO LANGFORD: Really we just wasn't getting the ball moved. Really we were just playing a little bit too conservative on the 1-3-1, wasn't really attacking, and that's what you're supposed to do against the 1-3-1 is attack and get the ball in the middle, and that's what we need to work on down the road. Q. Kind of similar to that Maryland game, they were hedging pretty hard on those pick-and-rolls early, but you were able to find some space more in the second half. What kind of opened up for you on those plays later in the game? ROMEO LANGFORD: Really we had a little bit better spacing as the game went on on the pick-and-rolls, and their bigs kind of started getting in foul trouble so they couldn't hedge as hard as they could, and I just took advantage of that. Q. Juwan, it was another kind of game where you didn't get a ton of stuff from the bench, but you did have Clifton Moore come out and give you guys some help in the front court. What is it going to take to get him a little bit more involved even when he's playing limited minutes or just guys in general coming off the bench and helping you guys out down low? JUWAN MORGAN: I think it's just a confidence thing. You know, for Cliff and guys like Jake, I always tell them my story from my freshman year, like whenever -- I didn't play much, but whenever I got in, you have to be ready. You have to be ready to make the big play, regardless of what that is. Cliff got in and gave us some really good minutes, and I think he's just really come along, just as a defender, as a rebounder, and just being confident in himself. I think you saw a little bit of it tonight, and I think going forward he's going to be huge for us. Q. Juwan or Romeo, you talked about how they were hedging the pick-and-roll. You guys were trying to do that, too, but they had some success just with the slips in the lane, they got the first bucket of the game on a slip for a dunk, and they were converting those periodically over the course of the game. What was happening defensively for you guys when you tried to hedge and then the lane seemed to open up? ROMEO LANGFORD: That was completely all on us. We weren't really there on the help side, other men that weren't involved in the ball screen. We weren't all together as one unit during the ball screen so they was able to get easy dump balls, easy rolls to the basket in the beginning of the game and sometimes towards the end of the game, too. Q. Juwan, you guys lost three in a row. Got a tough stretch right in front of you, four of five on the road, Michigan at home. What needs to happen to get things back on the right track? JUWAN MORGAN: We've just got to be grown men about it, and then we just have to take this loss and learn from it. You know, it's just nothing else you can do. It happened already. We can't let the losses keep stacking each other, we can't let -- just like we can't keep letting bad plays stack each other in the game. We just have to be grown men about it, and we have Purdue on Saturday, and that's what we have to focus on, and that's what we need to be ready for. Q. Late in the first half, I think they went about 10 minutes without scoring a basket. What was different during that 10-minute stretch than the rest of the game? ROMEO LANGFORD: I think our energy level got up during that run. As you can see, when we're all together in one and we're all focused and ready, we can stop pretty much anybody from scoring, and we just did that in that little 10-run we had going on. But just like we always say, it's always the start in the game, that's what gets us in the hole that we're always in to begin the game with. We need to focus on getting better every day at practice to be ready on tip-off. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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