Opening statement: Obviously a very, very tough opponent. You know, Haas and Swanigan will play in the NBA. They're big, they're talented, always well coached, always tough. You know they're shooting the ball well. They're coming off an extremely impressive performance against Iowa. I think they're one of the best teams in the league, and it's a tough road experience, so it will be a good test for our guys.
On if it's another big test for the big men...
"Yeah, very much so. This, even more so than Michigan State. They're really physical. Swanigan is an NBA player, and Haas is huge. He'll play in the NBA. We have to do our best to guard them without fouling because so much of what they do from an offensive standpoint is predicated on throwing the ball inside. Almost everything they do is that, so it really revolves all around that. If you don't play post defense, you're in trouble.
On if he's stressed to Reggie Lynch to stay out of foul trouble to increase his minutes...
"Well Reggie, it's not stay out of foul trouble, it's play defense without fouling. It's just like screening. Oh, I didn't set an illegal screen. No, the goal is to set a great screen. The goal is to play great defense. Great defense is doing it without fouling. He's got to get better at that; that's been an issue for him most of his career. You know it's funny, we have not been able to work with Reggie, so it just feels like now, we're really able to work with him on that. He'll get better."
On if Florida State resembles Purdue...
"Yeah, I mean there are some similarities. Haas and Ojo are huge. Now, Jonathan Isaac is a different player than Swanigan, but there are similarities. Michigan State is very similar from a physical standpoint to Purdue. I think we've moved on from Florida State to be honest. Last game is fresh with our guys from a physicality standpoint, from a post defense standpoint, so we'll talk about that.
On how to defend a player like Ward or Swanigan...
"It's hard. Bakary I thought did a good job on Ward, even Eric was okay, you know. But it's difficult; you have to do your work early on those guys. It's a different dimension than Michigan State because they really, really try to find them every single time. And then they make you pay with really good players: Vince Edwards, Cline, Dakota Mathias. All those guys can make shots and they burn you if you over-help too much. That's what a good team does, and they're a very, very good team.
On talking on his blog about wanting Murphy to get the ball more and Lynch to finish above the rim...
"...I think with Murph, I think throughout the flow of the offense, we need to find him ways to get the ball more. I think he's pretty effective down there. And with Reggie, he's just too below the rim. I think he gets his shot blocked a lot. I think it's just a consistency thing for him to work on. You know, last game you can't take much away from it because he didn't play much. But I thought that Murph has been pretty efficient. We have to continue throughout the flow of the offense to look into him. I think that defensively we're very, very difficult to guard when we're driving obviously because we get fouled a lot, but we have to look to him more often."
On the mindset of Big Ten road games for the new players...
"I've talked to them a little bit about, last game you have a devestating loss, right? You can't look at it like that. You have to say, okay, it's one game. I remember my first year, I want to say we played like three top ten teams in like two weeks, or whatever it was. I mean this league, you've got to learn from the last game, and you have to move on. As disappointing as Michigan State was, you now get to play a top ten, top 15 team in the country on the road. You get another great opportunity, then you go at Northwestern, another great opportunity, then you play Michigan State again. Because this league is so good, you're going to have so many really good opportunities to get really good wins. You've got to learn from the past game, and you got to get over it. You got to move on; you got to get better."
On Bakary Konate not playing much at the start of the year and now seeming like the first one off the bench for Reggie Lynch...
"Well they're all important, but Bakary does a pretty good job versus physical bigs. The one thing about Bakary is he's strong. He is physical; he likes contact and doesn't shy away from that, and in the Big Ten, you need that. Where we got to get him is to stop fouling. He had some fouls in the Michigan State game where there was just no point. If we can get him to stop doing that, he's a valuable weapon off the bench. He's tough, he's physical, he's a very good defender. He gives us another dimension where we don't necessarily have to play small with Eric at the five, and I like that rotation."
On if Jordan Murphy's role has evolved from last year to have more jumpers and perimeter attacks...
"Not really, no I don't think he's taken a lot of jumpers. I think he needs to continue to get points, offensive rebounds, transition. I do like him driving off of a ball screen pop-type situation. I don't think he's taken a lot of jumpers, but I do think he's a matchup issue. We need to put him in spots to make the defense pay. He's kind of that undersized four; he's difficult to guard. He's a bit of a matchup issue."
On how he tries to utilize Murphy...
"We run a ball screen offense, so it's just kind of roll, pop. If you do roll, roll into the post, throw it in there. If you do pop, look to drive it, or look to reverse it and set another ball screen. So I mean there are multiple things that you can do throughout the course of our offense if you're doing it properly.
"I think our offense is behind our defense -- it's very clear. But that's five new faces all trying to figure out what to do, where to be. So that needs to catch up because our defense is pretty good right now, but we got to get our offense moving in the right direction. We're very good getting fouled, but we're still not moving the ball like we need to move it."
Last edited:
