BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 13, 2025

Dana Altman

Jackson Shelstad

Kwame Evans

Gainbridge Fieldhouse

Oregon Ducks

Postgame Press Conference

Oregon - 72, Indiana - 59

THE MODERATOR: Oregon is now with us. We'll begin with an opening statement by Coach Altman.

DANA ALTMAN: Hard-fought ballgame. Both teams really needed a win. I thought our ball movement was pretty good. I thought our offense looked good. I thought we took some quick shots that kind of took us out of rhythm.

Guys made a good effort. Jackson made some great individual moves. Nate was great on the defense, and six assists is great. So overall really good effort.

KJ's been giving us tremendous minutes. I thought he challenged a lot of shots today again. Was on the boards. Great effort again, seven rebounds.

I liked our togetherness, and we found a way to finish.

Q. KJ, Coach a couple weeks ago mentioned you were the X factor in this team with the eight-game win streak. How much does it mean to you to increase your activity that much?

KWAME EVANS JR: It's great to know I'm impacting the game at all levels. Coach is always saying we got to rebound and play defense, and that sticks to me because I've got to find a way to play out there.

I think me rebounding and playing defense and playing hard has really gotten the team going off the bench.

Q. Jackson, you guys played just these guys nine days ago and held them to 59 points and 36 percent shooting today. Can you talk about your defensive effort? What, if anything, helped just recently having played them?

JACKSON SHELSTAD: Defensively we really started to come together towards the end here. Ball screen, Nate's been giving us a really good effort, just affecting shots when guards get downhill. I feel like we're in the gaps more like weak side help and all that. I think that's kind of causing the team some problems.

Q. Jackson, they got within one or two points, maybe five, six times in the second half. What did you guys do to consistently kind of fend them off and keep them from ever really getting momentum?

JACKSON SHELSTAD: We knew they were going to go on their run. They had the crowd into it. We played in a lot of situations like that this season where games have come down to that towards the end of the game. We just know how to stick together towards the end and keep trusting our teammates and coaches to finish the game.

Q. Jackson, when you played Michigan State, looking ahead now you'll get them again, it was crazy, really two games in one. What did you learn from that, and how is your team better? These are the two hottest teams in the league.

JACKSON SHELSTAD: When we played Michigan State the first time, we played really hard the first half, we got a lead. Then the second half we kind of laid our foot off the gas, and they went on their run. We just know we have to play a full 40 minutes to compete with them.

They're going to play physical, play really hard, so we're just going to have to bring that same energy.

Q. Jackson, every time that they kind of got on a run, their crowd got into it. What is it like now to have to play silencer in what should be a neutral site game?

JACKSON SHELSTAD: We knew their crowd was going to be involved with it being here in Indiana. I feel like we play good on the road, and with crowds involved, we're kind of the away team. We just brought that energy and stick together for the full 40 minutes.

Q. For either one of the players, Luke Goode played their second highest minutes for the Hoosiers today. No doubt he was a player you wanted to stop today especially from getting hot behind the arc?

KWAME EVANS JR: When we went over their scouting report, he was their top shooter. We've got to shut him down and not let him get going. If he got one, it was going to be a tough night. We had to stop him from getting any shots off and make it hard for him to get baskets.

Q. With this being a noon eastern time tip, 9:00 a.m. pacific time tip, I was wondering how much prep time you had in Indianapolis and how much that time zone shift factored into your preparation for this game?

DANA ALTMAN: None. We left Tuesday morning, got in and stretched the guys out, tried to get them loose. Got up yesterday, went and practiced at a high school and got ready to go.

This is our fifth cross-country trip this year, so our guys are used to it. The school's been great. We've got a great plane that gets us where we need to be. So we didn't change our prep in any way.

Q. Can you just talk about the offensive production you got from T.J. and Brandon tonight?

DANA ALTMAN: Brandon gave us a big lift that first half, had a couple threes and got to the rim. Then the second half, I thought TJ did a good job of getting to the basket and really taking his time, making some plays, nose to the goal, got to the free-throw line. Needed to hit a few more, but he got to the line.

Those two guys are old, and you expect your experienced guys to make plays, and those two guys did. I thought Nate showed great maturity. He scored 36 the other night, and you think, okay, he wants to come back. You wouldn't have known if he scored 30 tonight or 2. He just played. And 6 assists, 1 turnover, he just played.

Shows great maturity. When a guy gets 36 and 12 as a career game, and the next doesn't get the looks that he wants and the shots that he wants and just plays through it, that's a sign of a winner. I thought he played really good without scoring a lot.

Q. Dana, as you mentioned, this is your fifth trip east or to the central time zone. I think you're 5-3. You've been pretty successful most of these trips. How did you have to acclimate yourself, your team to these types of trips, and then coming back home, which sometimes is even more difficult to play that single game after that? How much mentally tougher do you think this team is because it's had to face all those trips?

DANA ALTMAN: We talked about it before the season, and I told him we're not going to talk about it anymore. We didn't discuss it. We didn't talk about it one time. I said, I don't want to hear anybody making excuses. I said this after the Wisconsin game, we wanted to be in the Big Ten. You guys aren't moving. We're not moving Oregon. So we knew there were going to be trips.

Fortunately for us, like I said, our school's been great about making sure we can compete. So we try to get the guys up, try not to let them sleep the whole four-hour trip, tried to get them up so Tuesday night they'd get a reasonable amount of sleep and we'd get acclimated a little bit to the eastern time zone.

Other than that, we do not talk about it. No excuses. If we get there and we don't play well, it's just part of it.

The guys have handled it good. Probably harder on the old coaches than it is on them. They've done a great job.

Q. Ballo had five offensive rebounds, and so did the Ducks. What kind of went into that margin?

DANA ALTMAN: I thought Nathan was coming off the first half to help on drives, and then we had nobody cracking down on him. We talked about it at halftime, and he didn't play a lot the second half. He was given us problems with those offensive rebounds in the first half.

Again, Reneau was playing so good, he was giving us fits. He had 19 points on 15 shots. He did a great job. His offensive rebounds in the first half, I can remember two or three came on Nate going to help in penetration, and then the guard not cracking down on him to block him out.