INDIANA UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 12, 2021

Race Thompson

Jordan Geronimo

Postgame Media Conference

Indiana - 81, Merrimack - 49

Q. Jordan, in your mind, what's the key to a performance like that for you, 13 points, 13 rebounds, one or two blocks mixed in there as well? When you're playing well, what gets you going like that?

JORDAN GERONIMO: Really keep the right mindset. My teammates always just telling me keep playing strong, play with a lot of energy, because that's my game. Just keep reminding me to play strong. And with all of that, I just kept going. Just didn't stop.

Q. This is kind of random, but going on the energy topic, I think it's the second game in a row you've had an offensive rebound on a missed free throw. Is that something you are working on in practice?

JORDAN GERONIMO: Not really. It's just the mindset really. The ball is up, I'm going to try to get it, regardless of the situation.

Q. They brought zone there, and it seemed like you got better as far as the interior passing within that. How do you feel you improved, adjusted within the course of that game and got better offense going?

RACE THOMPSON: I think we've seen a lot of zone, like recently. We saw the Syracuse, the game after, and we seen it today. I think we're getting better. We work on it every single day in practice. The more we see it, the more we work on it, the better we get. And I think it's showing.

Q. Race, when was the last day you practiced? Tuesday maybe? Monday?

RACE THOMPSON: Yeah.

Q. Why?

RACE THOMPSON: I had the flu.

Q. Jordan, talking about rebounding, a lot of guys have had good leaping ability. You have that, but they don't always put that to use. You seem to be putting that to use every time a ball is in the air. How important is rebounding to you and getting that extra opportunity for the team?

JORDAN GERONIMO: It's really important to me because rebounding is one of those things that it's necessary to win games. If we run the ball, you get extra possessions, and extra possessions means more points.

I feel like all these little things matter. So rebounding is something that I'm gifted in, and God gave me this body to get rebounds. You know what I mean? So I'm going to use it.

Q. Race, obviously Wednesday night was tough for you guys. I mean, I guess, how much do games like this help just to regroup and kind of put stuff like that behind you?

RACE THOMPSON: Definitely helps to have a bounce-back game. Wednesday was definitely a tough loss, and we had time to reflect on it and find ways to get better.

So, I mean, games like today, just a little confidence boost, make you feel a little better coming to practice for six days before we play Notre Dame. Just feeling better about ourselves. I think it helps a lot.

Q. They threw that zone at you, but it felt like they were sticking with shooters a little bit. How did quickly did you and Trayce come to the realization they're spacing here, in between the two of us, we can really attack middle of the zone?

RACE THOMPSON: I would say about the second possession. I think I caught it one time, and I faced up, and it felt like it was one-on-one and they were glued to Parker and Miller and X on the wings.

After that we realized that. We talked about it the first TV timeout. From then on, they just said go play. You feel a double team, the guards will holler at you, and you'll know where to throw it out.

Q. On rebounding, it was 54 to 16. How much of that is a product of the scheme that you saw, the ability to rebound against with them extending? Did you see an opportunity to take advantage that, and how cool was it to see that number?

RACE THOMPSON: That's a really good number. I think when you play 2-3 zone, I think it's really hard to rebound out of it. So I had a couple offensive rebounds, Jordan had some, I think Mike Durr had a couple offensive rebounds, Trayce probably had some, Logan even had one.

I mean, when you're in a 2-3 zone, it's hard to match up and rebound. We talked about it from the get-go. I told Mike Durr, I said can offensive rebound out of the 2-3 zone, bro, and then you just push to the basket, get the rebound. I think we hit them in size a little bit too.

In a 2-3 zone, it's hard to rebound out of it.