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CROSSROADS CLASSIC: INDIANA VS BUTLERDecember 15, 2018LaVall JordanSean McDermottKamar BaldwinIndianapolis, Indiana Indiana 71, Butler 68 THE MODERATOR: Coach, an opening statement, then questions. LaVALL JORDAN: The Crossroads is a great event to be a part of. Put Indiana college basketball on that stage nationally, you should get games like that. Obviously we'd rather end on the other side of it, where the shot goes in for us. We've had those. Tonight the shot went in for them. I think it was a heck of a basketball game to watch. I'm sure hopefully a ton of people tuned in. Our guys had a lot of fight in them. Two really good teams, two really good programs competing. Somebody's got to win, somebody's got to lose. Unfortunately tonight we were on the other side. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. They were really scuffling there on the final possession. Did you feel with a second or two left, you had them where you wanted them? LaVALL JORDAN: We figured obviously Morgan and Langford -- Juwan Morgan is a heck of a college basketball player, he competed, he willed in some shots, free throws. We wanted to try to take those guys away, and we did. I've been telling our staff on film, Phinisee has been as impressive as any guard I've seen. He's poised, a tough kid. He ended up with it. I thought we did a good job containing, didn't let Langford get the ball, he heaved one in. Q. On Morgan, what makes him so tough to forward? LaVALL JORDAN: If he's hitting threes, he's a real problem. We know how good he is inside. He got a lot of work done in there, as well. But if he's making his free throws, 7-7 tonight, he stepped up and made threes from the corner. I think it was just his competitive will. You love having guys like that, that have that about them. We have a few guys like that, two of them are sitting with me, that will step up and make big shots, no matter how the game is going. Kamar had a huge shot down the stretch. That's the beauty of this game. That's why people talk about him as a good player, in the class that he's in. Q. Had you thought of using Jordan any more in the second half? Did you use him about as much as you thought? LaVALL JORDAN: It was dependent on the game. I thought he did a good job just kind of letting it come to him when he got in early, not trying to do too much. He was really locked in on the defensive end. We struggled to stop them, they shot 52%. He hasn't had the reps that these guys had defensively. That played a big part in the decision in the second half. Q. Kamar, the last possession, when you guys have them all the way out there, he's taking that shot, do you feel pretty good about the defensive possession you have to force him to make that thing? KAMAR BALDWIN: Yeah, I would say so. LaVALL JORDAN: We probably wanted him to miss. KAMAR BALDWIN: What Coach said. But I think we did a good job not letting too many guys get it. He just knocked in a tough one. Q. Sean, maybe not fair to ask a few minutes after the game, but do you feel like the Bulldogs even in defeat made progress in this game? SEAN McDERMOTT: Yeah, I think we played pretty well as a team. We stayed locked in. In the huddles, we were as connected as I think we've been all season. Guys were talking on the court. I thought overall we played a really good game and it came down to a final possession, and the kid made a tough shot. Q. Butler played pretty well on defense in the games coming up to this. Did you think you were able to maintain that? Do you look at Indiana's field goal percentage and you feel you were deficient in that area? LaVALL JORDAN: Yeah, it was kind of either high risk, high reward. We didn't turn it over, they scored it. Obviously Morgan is a low down there, so you have to make some decisions whether you're going to double-team or not. I thought the zone affected him some. If he misses a couple threes he made, maybe there's a different outcome to it. We've got to tighten some things up, no question about it. The competitive will that our guys showed I thought was at a high, high level. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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