Jan. 7, 2013

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Penn State Men's Basketball
Penn State vs. Indiana
January 7, 2013

Head Coach Patrick Chambers

Q: What kind of mismatches do you think Christian Watford brought to you guys?
A: Look that's not one guy that is eight guys, nine guys, that's a deep team. It's the reason why they are a top five team in the country. We have a freshman trying to guard him. We have to do what we do and play Penn State Basketball to the best of our ability. There is no time for gimmicks, it's January. We have our foundation in and we just have to do a better job of it. He is a very good player. He can post up, shoot threes, drive the basketball; he had a very good game.

Q: Sometimes your offense was going well and you would get defensive stops and create turnovers, but then you couldn't get anything on the offensive end.

A: Yeah when you play a team like Indiana, you have to produce points. If you don't produce any points, it is going to be a long night. I saw a little bit of last year in tonight a little bit. We couldn't take care of the basketball in certain parts of the game and some of our decisions were poor. We worked on that the last couple of days and unfortunately, give credit to Indiana, we were rushed, we were sped up and we looked very uncomfortable out there where we needed to move the ball side to side, get touches, work it like we did on the four game winning streak. We played a top five team in the country; you don't play those (other) teams anymore. We have to continue to work. If we can hold them to 30 points in the first half it is a whole different game. We came out and defended, we just somehow have to take better shots and take care of the basketball.

Q: Talk about Ross Travis's performance tonight and what he brought to the table.

A: Well, Ross finally made some shots for us, which were great. He made some threes for us, which were great. He has to continue to play that way and continue to play great team defense. We need his energy, we need his effort and we need production out of that three spot or that wing spot. Wisconsin, we didn't get much production there, but today we get some production out of him. We need everybody, you know? We have eight wins and the eight wins were where everyone contributed in some way. We need our bigs to get back. Even though you're going against Cody Zeller and Watford, we got to get touches, do what you have been doing all year. No stopping now.

Q: Coach, you might have been struggling to score, how come your bigs could not get any easy baskets inside?
A: I mean obviously 51 points tells it all right there. But I think what Indiana does a good job of, we don't get ball reversals, and they cut the court in half. When we were trying to move the ball side to side and get opportunities because they down ball screen, they don't let you go off the ball screen and our bigs were supposed to set flat screens and there were a lot of different things that didn't get done. But again it goes back to you can't let missing shots dictate your effort and you can't let making mistakes dictate your effort. You know, 19 turnovers, that's a lot of mistakes, especially with a great team like that. If you tell me we are going to hold Indiana to 74 points, I'm telling you, we are in the game, we are in the game. I mean, what do they score, in the eighties every game, near 90? The goal was to try and keep them in the sixties. You need everyone to contribute, everybody, no matter how deep we go in our bench.

Q: What do you take out of all of these offensive rebounds?
A: Look, our guys played hard, they tried. It's not like they didn't play hard. They played hard, and they competed. You know, the ball didn't go down for us and there was one possession where we missed four consecutive. Then I think we missed two more back-to-back. So it was one of those nights that the lid was on the hoop and you know, let's give them credit again, you got a seven footer in there with long arms and you got Watford in there with long arms and we are sped up. So hopefully we start to calm down a little bit, exhale a little bit, take a breather, and go up strong and start converting them because I still think we are a pretty good team. We really are. I really believe that. We haven't showed that, we didn't show that today. I felt like we showed that against Wisconsin and we got to show it on Thursday.

Q: Some of the things that seemed to frustrate you the most was some of the decision making when they picked up the dribble, passes that went on. Is that the nature of playing a team like Indiana or do you think they took a step back from where you feel they are as a team?
A: I felt like they pressed a little bit, Jermaine (Marshall) and D.J. (Newbill). I think that is why you saw so many turnovers. When you get deep and get three guys around you, you got to protect the ball, you have to keep your dribble, you got to make better decisions, you have to step through. We can't get too deep and we can't get trapped like that or we will turn the ball over.

#11 Jermaine Marshall
Jr., G

Q: What did you think of their first half defense?
A: I think they were really solid team on defense. They stick to what they do and do it well. We kind of played into their game plan.

Q: Did anything they did on defense affect the way you guys were shooting?
A: I think they just mixed it up a lot. They do what they do well, like I said. We have to play harder, that's it.

Q: You played against all those guys last year, are they playing better now because they've had so much more time together?
A: Definitely, they have great players come off the bench. It's almost like they have two teams coming at us. We have to just stick to what coach (Chambers) is teaching us.

Q: D.J. (Newbill) didn't have his biggest night tonight. Do you guys think that's because of what Indiana was doing defensively?
A: You can't work it out every night. But like I said, they played great defense, we haven't been in those situations as much lately.

#43 Ross Travis
So., F

Q: This is the most we've seen you since your injury, how are you feeling? How were you today?
A: My knee feels fine, just rehabbing and icing it every night. I came out aggressive and confident tonight that's all.

Q: Do you feel comfortable being such a big part of the offense?
A: Yeah, definitely. Coach told me if I have an open shot to take it with confidence, and that's what I did tonight.

Indiana Head Coach Tom Crean

Opening Statement: First off, I am extremely proud of our teams efforts defensively. We are on the road and held the team to 32 percent shooting. We had 56 deflections, which is not the biggest number of the year, but when you have 32 deflections on the road in the second half when your offense is off, though our offensive wasn't bad we shot over 50 percent. Bottom line is the three-point line, and we game planned hard for Newbill, for Marshall, Taylor, Colella. We could have done a better job on Travis for sure, but we had some plans for their inside game and our guys were extremely locked into that. They were extremely locked in and learned another valuable lesson in the sense that sometimes even when your shot's not there, or your free throw isn't there, or when your decision making is not there, as long as your defense is there you have a chance to stay in the game. I think we have a group of guys that two games into the league truly understand that there is a lot of room to get better. It's one thing to know it as a coach, to set a plan up for that as a coach and for your coaching staff, but it's different for your players to completely understand that, and that's our key right now. To come on the road and have two road victories where we have held teams to an average of 58 points and 32.5 from the field in two games on the road, that's something we haven't done in the past and that's something we can build on. We have a ton of respect for Penn State and I think that shows in the way that our guys played tonight. They know that bottom line with this team is that they never go away. They never go away, and they are extremely well coached. The bottom line with them is that you have to come in and match work ethic and you have to match their toughness, and I thought our guys did that tonight.

Q: You've had a lot of really great starts this year, but 31 points in the first ten minutes, you had to be pretty happy with that.
A: We were moving things around defensively, no question, and our defense keyed a lot of that. We did different things schematically and brought pressure from different places. I thought our guys were really locked in, and we played a lot of guys, nine over eight minutes, and we are trying to work more guys in. Derek (Elston) was not up to it tonight, just in the sense that he tweaked it a little bit today and we decided to hold him out. Hopefully he will be ready to go here in a day or two and certainly be ready for Saturday. I was thinking he would have a really nice game tonight too. Our guys were extremely locked in, being aggressive, being on the attack, and they did that.

Q: You mentioned the defense was playing on Newbill for a while and you obviously had Yogi (Kevin Ferrell) on him, how happy were you with that?
A: Extremely happy, Yogi is drawing big assignments. D.J. Newbill is really good. I mean he his really good, and he has got some serious strikes and our job was to do the best job that we could to not let him get to those. A lot of things obviously run through him and run through Marshall. They are both very good players and our guys were a little more familiar with Marshall than they have been with Newbill and now they are very familiar with him. Again, I think that just goes to show not only how much respect our guys have for Penn State, but also for preparation and for the game. Yogi Ferrell is the epitome of somebody that has been well-coached, the disciplined player that has got great speed and quickness and just a presence, and really just wants to be a really good defender.

Q: You mentioned being aggressive early, but talk about how Christian (Watford) came out of the gate.
A: Well we wanted to get him going, and we went to him right off the bat. We felt that was a big part of our game plan and he responded. The thing I like best about the way he played is that we want him to hunt. We don't want him to make up his mind early, we want him to hunt by offense and movement and meeting what is there. I think he did a great job with that, whether it was getting to the rim or whether it was the post up game, and he did an extremely good job. He was one of our catalysts defensively.

Q: How happy were you to see Jordan (Hulls) start it up?
A: I really didn't think too much about that. There were a couple things throughout the week in practice that he needed to be reminded of offensively, just a little bit in the sense of follow-through and his pull-up. I think he really went to his pull-up tonight rather than shooting a floater and there is a place for that, but he has got such a great shot that you want to make sure that he is getting that last bounce, he is getting his hand through the ball and his follow-through is good. He did that and he had that kind of week. We had a great week and Jeremy (Hollowell) and Hanner (Mosquera-Perea), unfortunately for Hanner he had the fouls and so he really could never get into a great flow, but Jeremy came in and did some good things and those guys really blended in. We rarely, up until yesterday a little bit and today at the wal- through, had gone with the starting group and we really mixed the lineups this week. You've got to get the most out of a week and now we have time off until Saturday, so we really wanted to be creative and have a lot of live action when we were going. At the same time I think our guys were really fresh and full of energy tonight. We didn't overwork or anything like that, but guys got better.

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