	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

INDIANA UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

February 1, 2019

Juwan Morgan

Bloomington, Indiana

Q. Just looking at the challenges for you inside with this team, obviously Nick Ward, but depth there, too, with guys like Tillman and others, just how do you attack a team where maybe you're going to have the front line guy but then also bodies, just experienced bodies behind him in the post?
JUWAN MORGAN: I think you just have to go at it like the same way you go at any day, just like practice and things like that, just attacking each person that comes in, just because they're fresh sometimes they're not mentally ready for the game to be in there, so I think just taking advantage of that, just being in the game, being ready to go on each play, and trying to catch them off guard. I think sometimes coming into the game fresh they're over-eager to do some things, and I think taking advantage of that, trying to get them to commit some early fouls, things like that.

Q. At Rutgers you guys scored 29 points in the first 15 minutes, you scored 29 points in the last 14 minutes. In between you didn't score. You got your second foul with 6-something left in the first half, so you had to sit for a while, and you watched the start of that. Did you see anything that changed in terms of how Indiana was approaching offense or what might be able to be done differently to avoid that kind of lull?
JUWAN MORGAN: Well, I think you said it right there, just the whole demeanor change. I think we didn't become a moving team, like a passing team. We were more so moving like guys on the dribble instead of with the pass and cutting away from the ball, and I think that's just been a point of emphasis that we got away from.

I think just going through practice each and every day, we've really echoed that and emphasized that, and I think guys are starting to see like how good we can be when we're moving the ball with passes instead of trying to dribble it everywhere.

Q. Archie was talking about kind of recreating some things here in the second half of the Big Ten season. What kinds of things do you think you guys can do significantly differently here in the last half?
JUWAN MORGAN: Just starting off, early on we were winning a lot of games just by being better defensively. Like we weren't really -- we're not known as knock-down shooters, we're not known for just scoring 90, 80, whatever points. We were known for getting it done on defense and really winning on that side of the ball, and we've really gotten away from that and tried to become an offensive team, instead of really letting our defense create our offense like we had been in the past.

Q. Kind of looking at the numbers from you guys in Big Ten play, seems like you can't really crack that 70-point barrier too often. What's maybe been a differentiating thing about the offense in Big Ten play compared to earlier games in the season at games like Marquette where the shots were going down and the points were going on the board?
JUWAN MORGAN: I think it's a lot of things, but I would say confidence and people's shot, I think, just like I said earlier, become a passing team. And then also just guys being ready to step up and shoot it. You know, a couple times people would be wide open and just pass it up just because they're like, oh, I'm not ready to take that shot or things like that. I tell them all the time, you put in the work to be here to take those shots, and we all trust you to take it. You've just got to shoot with confidence and knock it down.

Q. You talked about defense, that was something that really you kind of -- something you hung your hat on those first couple months in looking at games like Butler and Louisville and the way you kind of were able to take those games over with defense. What does this group have to do to get that ability back, and I know Big Ten play is a little bit different because it's a little more relentless than what you get in the non-conference, but what can this team do to get that defensive identity back?
JUWAN MORGAN: It's just attitude and effort. Anybody can play defense, it doesn't matter really how talented you are or anything like that, and that's what I try to preach to them every single day is like I always tell them, like regardless of who's in front of you, like you just have to take it as a personal challenge to try and not let them score. Of course we're not going to hold anybody to just zero points as a team for a game. We'd like to, but that's just unrealistic. But at the same time you just have to make everything as tough as possible and just everybody become that dog on defense.

Q. The last two games the team let up a 17-0 and 22-0 run. What can you do to keep that from happening in the future?
JUWAN MORGAN: Again, that's just on the defensive end, really locking down and not letting your man score. I think in those runs, teams were just comfortable. It's not like they were just -- a couple of them were live ball turnovers, but it's not like we were just throwing it to them and they were just going down and scoring. A lot of times they were just so comfortable that the net probably looked like ocean to them and they were just throwing easy chest passes, one-handed passes, things like that, and they were just comfortable, and so I think just making guys uncomfortable.

Q. How much would it help you to have De'Ron back in the mix now, just helping you defensively? You've had to guard a lot of tall guys, so having De'Ron back, how much might that help you?
JUWAN MORGAN: It will help a lot. De'Ron is a true back to the basket guy. He's not just an extra body. He's a great player. As you saw when he was healthy, the things he's able to do. He takes a lot of pressure off the front court, just being that man down there, and also that opens up things for like myself and Justin, just when people have to worry about him on the weak side, that opens up offensive rebounding opportunities for us.

Q. To kind of stay on the point to some extent, when it comes to the defense, how much is the difference just the lack of depth because basically over the course of a game when you're only playing six guys, it does get harder to kind of take that personal challenge.
JUWAN MORGAN: Yeah, I mean, it's hard, but we don't like to make excuses. Everybody is playing the same amount of games. All the best players are playing the same amount of minutes. You just really have to have that will and want-to to just step up and say, regardless of how tired I am, I just have to get this stop.

Q. Devonte Green coming back, what does he need to do to give you guys a lift to be effective?
JUWAN MORGAN: I actually talked to him yesterday. I would say that just -- being about team is not the right phrase. I would say just controlling what he can control. I would say that would be the best thing I was telling him. Just we know all the things he's capable of doing, and I was just telling him like not to try to over step those things. I was like, if you see something then do it, but also don't try to make something out of nothing. Everybody kind of knows that's what he's known, for trying to make something out of nothing, and he succeeds sometimes. But also it's just sometimes we don't need those things, and I was just trying to talk to them about that, and just really -- I think him and Rob are the best perimeter defenders we have, and I think just when those two guys -- it starts with them. Every jump ball the point guard brings it up, so just the tenacity they bring from the get-go is really what gets the rest of the team going on defense.

Q. Kind of in that vein, Coach talked about controlling what you can control and focusing on what you can control. How tough is it for a team that's obviously got a lot of youth right now, especially with some more experienced guys hurt, to just not get distracted, I guess, by everything that's going to swirling around like a seven-game losing streak, kind of the direction the season has gone and how hard can it be maybe for that group, especially those young guys, to just zero in on the one or two things that they really need to focus on most.
JUWAN MORGAN: Oh, man, it was hard. I didn't know how to go about it. I even talked to some guys before I talked to Rob, before I talked to Yogi, even Matt, just some guys that have led before and I know have been in situations where they've had to lead just because I didn't know how to attack that situation, and they were just saying things like, you just have to bring everybody together. All these guys come from winning high school programs, AAU teams, they're used to being the man, they're used to always winning, and when they did lose, it was rarely by anything more than like five points. So just really getting them to accept that like, A, everybody you play was the best on their team. So just really, if you can bring all those pieces together and just do -- find what you're best at and just continually do that on a daily basis, I think that will make us the best team possible, and just echoing that to all the younger players, and I always tell them, my freshman year we started out like 2-5, something terrible, and we ended up just -- after really coming together and bringing all the pieces that each person had and making it one unified group, that really made us the best team possible.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297