INDIANA UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 21, 2021

Khristian Lander

Postgame Media Conference

Louisiana 44, Indiana 76

KHRISTIAN LANDER: I was just comfortable, cool, calm and collected.

Q. Khristian, how have you been handling just the transformation with Coach Woodson here and your role so far? Is the attitude good?

KHRISTIAN LANDER: I feel like whenever my time is, whenever I'm called upon, I feel like I'm going to be ready at any time, so...

Q. Coach has talked about really since the summer feeling like you guys were further ahead defensively than offensively. Is that something you see manifesting? Is know it's early in this the season. I know it's only four games. Do you feel like that is something you can rely on?

KHRISTIAN LANDER: Yeah, for sure. I feel like we value defense really heavily. Tonight we had 27 turnovers, so that's pretty unacceptable. We definitely need to get better on the offensive end.

Q. Just a little bit more on the defensive side. You really had a lot of plays out there and you were really able to hold your own and stay in front of the guards. Is that something you are feeling a lot stronger on the floor, or is it something you've been focusing on, staying in front of guys more?

KHRISTIAN LANDER: I just feel like I've gotten stronger, gotten I think a little bit faster, so I just feel like especially going against Rob and X, they're pretty fast and strong guards, so I feel like going against them every day has helped a whole lot.

Q. I guess just to keep going on that, just that question, how do you think you are a better player now that you've been out, had 25, 26 minute game there. You get a sense of how you're handling an offense. How do you think you're a better player than a year ago?

KHRISTIAN LANDER: I just think I matured a whole lot in all aspects, to be honest. Defensively I've gotten stronger. Gotten my footwork a whole lot better. Taking different angles and stuff like that.

Offensively I just feel like he's given us the freedom to do what we do, so the offense is free flowing. So I feel like I know how to play basketball, so I feel like if I play off my teammates and we play together, then everything is going to come together.

Q. Khristian, you look so much more comfortable out there now. Talk about that, and if you're able, your ability to run the offense now as opposed to last year. You look very in charge out there now.

KHRISTIAN LANDER: Yeah, like I said, coach, he definitely just let us play. It's like a free flowing offense, let us make our own decisions. He believes in us and he thinks we all know how to play basketball and make our own decisions, so he just let's us play, and that's pretty much the key to our offense really.

Q. You just mentioned earlier about having more confidence this year. What has that process been like for you coming from not playing a whole lot last year to trying to gain that confidence back this season?

KHRISTIAN LANDER: I just think it's a whole lot more positivity around me this year, a lot more teammates, coaches encouraging me, just people around me in general that's encouraging me.

So I feel like that's just bringing me up more, and then the work that I put in is paying off, so...