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CROSSROADS CLASSIC: INDIANA VS BUTLERDecember 17, 2016Chris HoltmannKelan MartinTyler LewisAndrew ChrabasczIndianapolis, Indiana Butler - 83, Indiana - 78 CHRIS HOLTMANN: Listen, I'm really proud of our guys for that win. We played a heck of a team. You know, I felt like this a couple years ago, actually every time I've been a coach and coached against one of Tom's teams. They're one of the hardest playing and aggressive teams that we play all year, and he does a tremendous job with them. We have tremendous respect for how they play. We really do. I said that this whole week preparing for them, and I think our guys went in understanding the amount of respect that we have for his team and how they play. I can't say that enough. We knew they were going to make a run, and we figured that, and our guys were able to hold them off. We wanted to stay really aggressive throughout the whole game, and whatever happened happened, but we wanted to play the way we play. I thought we had really good leadership in those moments, and obviously Kelan's scoring ability there in the second half really stemmed the tide a little bit. We had a lot of contributions from a lot of guys. Q. They have out-rebounded teams by 16 on average. What would you have thought going into the game to counter that? CHRIS HOLTMANN: You know, we worked on it every day in practice, and there's a reason they're the seventh best offensive rebounding team in the country. They have big, strong, physical guys, and they go, and they go and you can tell they work on it. They're terrific. They're aggressive at it. We had some missed opportunities for us, there's no question, and we'll grow from that. But we also had some opportunities where we hit them pretty hard. Q. Kelan, after eight minutes you came out and you didn't have any points, didn't even have a field goal attempt. What changed from then on? KELAN MARTIN: Just letting the game come to me at the moment. I was seeing how they was playing me. They was denying me the whole game but Coach just told me start having lead cuts to get open, and then when I went back in that's what I did, and I started gaining confidence in myself offensively, and that's what got us started. CHRIS HOLTMANN: His patience was critical. It was critical, and it's a real, I think, sign of growth. Hopefully, right? KELAN MARTIN: Yeah. CHRIS HOLTMANN: I think it's a real sign -- listen, this is a fun game. This is a big environment. This is a terrific game, and for him, our leading scorer, that patience at that part of the game and not forcing things up, it's a real good sign. There's sometimes when you're a coach and a guy like him who has such an ability to score the ball just gets it going, and you say, hey, is that a tough shot. When he gets it rolling, you kind of just let him play a little bit. Q. Chris, could you talk us through the inbounds play? How often do they work the way you draw them up? CHRIS HOLTMANN: Yeah, I give AC a lot of credit for that because he wanted us to run that, and we had another late clock action that we were thinking about running, and AC recommended that one, and the read by Tyler and Tyler was critical, Tyler Wideman and Tyler Lewis, right? The pass was really important. You guys know it doesn't always work like that, and I was glad it did there. Q. Butler only had six turnovers and Indiana's defense is pretty known this year for being much improved, and with all that length, were you hoping for a figure that low, or are you a bit surprised it's that good of a number? TYLER LEWIS: Well, we're a team that always takes care of the ball I feel like, and that's one of my strong points as a basketball player is taking care of the ball. If I take care of the ball, I know the team is going to follow suit, and that's what we did today. CHRIS HOLTMANN: Yeah, that has to be what we're about, and our turnover percentage has been really good. When you have your starting point guard who takes care of it at the level he does, that really helps. Andrew is the same way. Both of our kind of point guards, point forward, point guards, really take care of the ball at a high level. Q. Andrew, you said you called that play; why? What did you see? ANDREW CHRABASCZ: I just knew there would be attention on Kelan, obviously with how he was scoring the ball, and then obviously with T-Lew inbounding, I knew he would make the right read. Just a spur of the moment, put something out there, and Coach just agreed with it. It's one-of-a-million chance. He's got to agree with that every once in a while. CHRIS HOLTMANN: You know, we ask our guys their thoughts. I think when you have guys -- AC is right, we don't always go with what they suggest for sure, and I don't always go with what our assistant coaches suggest, but I've got to give him credit. We were going to run a similar slip action there late that we've practiced, but that was a smart call on his part because Kelan obviously did demand a lot of attention there late. Q. Andrew, you've been in this program for four years now. Everybody is going to focus on that out-of-bounds play that worked really well, but you guys have success an inordinate amount of times off out-of-bounds plays, and that dates back to Brad Stevens' time here. What is it about Coach Holtmann's out-of-bounds plays that always seems to work? ANDREW CHRABASCZ: It's just always the little details, making sure you hit the right guys with the screens, hard cuts, just setting everything up, and Coach just draws up great stuff. Got to give him a lot of credit, obviously. But yeah, we just have to set up our guys as well as we can, and when we have guys, like I said, T-Lew inbounding the ball, he's going to hit the right guy more often than not. Q. Three wins against top-25 teams in non-conference. How much confidence does that give you as you get ready for the Big East schedule? ANDREW CHRABASCZ: We know we have a huge one against Vermont before the Big East, but obviously this hopefully will give us a little bit more momentum before Vermont and we'll get to the Big East because we know it's going to be night in and night out great competition. Q. Coach Holtmann, a couple of things. (Indiscernible) I don't think he attempted a shot after his last three-pointer in the second half. I don't know if you noticed that. And also, you had some concerns about this pre-conference schedule before the season began. At 10-1 now, what do you think? CHRIS HOLTMANN: I'll take it. (Laughter.) I did. I did. I wondered if I over-scheduled. My athletic director continued to encourage me to put these challenging games as possible out there, so he deserves the credit for that. You know, this is such an incredible event because you're playing really well-coached, terrific teams that are NCAA Tournament teams most years. A couple years ago when Indiana beat us, I heard the team picked in the Crossroads two years ago, whatever it was, that's going to go to the NCAA Tournament. I saw some people saying that before the seeding started. Well, I think three or four or all four of those teams went to the NCAA Tournament and a couple advanced. It's an outstanding event, and obviously we feel good about our start because we know what Big East play is going to present, and it's going to be a tremendous challenge for us. Our record right now doesn't guarantee us anything going into our first game in the Big East, but as Drew said, we need to enjoy this one and get back ready to go on Wednesday. Q. Coach, I think according to the stats, you guys did not have any fast break points but you held IU without a three until early there in the second half. Was that the plan, not try to run but try to get back and just keep them, or what was the plan there as far as IU's threes and not going for the fast -- CHRIS HOLTMANN: Tom would probably say they missed some clean ones there in the first half that they normally make, and I think that's the reality, and they probably missed some clean ones that they typically make throughout the game. I think we left Blackmon a few times we shouldn't have. But we certainly wanted to be aware of help and yet not over-help, and I think when you over-help against a team that moves the ball as well as Indiana and plays -- we're not playing a team hill and as aggressively all year as they will. They are just a terrific attacking team, and I think their ability to drive it and shoot it from all different spots presents terrific problems, and then Bryant was a load there in the second half. But back to your point, we were aware of Kelan's -- we tried to go to him late on a slice cut in the post, get him a touch, but that didn't work out, but we were trying to get him a touch there late. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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