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INDIANA UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEDecember 3, 2019Devonte GreenTrayce Jackson-DavisJustin SmithBloomington, Indiana Indiana - 80, Florida State - 64 Devonte, give us your overall view of how things were flowing tonight for you? DEVONTE GREEN: I think every player feels a hot hand – it’s just something you feel. I can’t explain it, it’s just a feel thing. Shots were dropping tonight so I guess I just had the hot hand. Q. With the offense more broadly, Devonte, I'm sure their length caused you guys more problems than you would like with the turnovers but in terms of points per possession, the efficiency, the way you got to the free-throw line, what was working across the court for you guys in both halves offensively? DEVONTE GREEN: I think, we just we found open teammates, we drove to kick a lot and the pressure was tough. But we stayed as poised as possible. Q. Talk about staying poised. It didn't seem like mistakes bothered you guys too much tonight. Do you think that's fair? DEVONTE GREEN: We knew this team would cause turnovers, we knew turnovers were going to happen in this game, and we knew we just had to move on to the next play. Q. For any of you guys: Just the crowd that you had out there, any thoughts on just how they were able to feed you? JUSTIN SMITH: They brought a lot of energy. They really helped us when we were going on a couple runs. And when they started coming back, they really gave us energy. And I mean, this is the best place to play basketball in college basketball. So they helped us a lot tonight and we were able to get the win. Q. This is for Tayven Jackson's older brother. This is the first time you played against somebody, you played size, but you haven't played that many athletic, big, NBA-type bodies. How did you feel out there? TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS: I thought I felt good. Really big compliments to my teammates for putting me in open positions to score. I got to the line well tonight. Didn't drop as many as I should have but just got to keep working at it. But credit to Florida State because they're a great team and they wreaked havoc and we handled that pretty well. Q. This is for Justin and Devonte: Can you guys both discuss what you learned through the course of last season's ups and downs to get to the point where you are now to be playing both as well as you are now? JUSTIN SMITH: I would say that you can't dwell on the mistakes. You can't worry about what people are saying about you. You can't, you just got to have a next-play mentality. And when your head is clear then things start going your way. And we put a lot of work in in the off-season and it's paying off right now. DEVONTE GREEN: Just to add on to that, I think it's just maturity, having experience under our belt. And like he said, we put a lot of work in. So just trusting in the work that we put in that it's going to pay off. Q. Devonte, Florida State came out swinging early. They were swinging throughout the second half. When you're checking back into the game for the second half, what's going through your mind? DEVONTE GREEN: Let's win this game. Q. Devonte, I want to ask you about two individual shots, like, late in the second half. Basically, there was the, I don't know if it was a pullup, but kind of that spinning jumper right on top of the foul line. And then the one where you were kind of trying to sell the foul on the three-point shot and managed to put it together. Take me through each of those. How did you manage to pull that off? DEVONTE GREEN: I practice those shots. So, and also they hack, we hack a lot in practice, so I'm used to getting fouled. So I thought it was a foul, but if not, it's all right. It went in anyway. Q. Justin and Trayce: I just want to get your guys' thoughts. When Devonte gets going like that, kind of, is it, I mean, have you guys seen this a lot in practice? I know, he's had a really good games, but when he gets going like that, what do you think? JUSTIN SMITH: I tell him to keep shooting, but I tell him to take good shots. DEVONTE GREEN: Every shot is a good shot. (Laughing). JUSTIN SMITH: All right. But, I mean, when he's hot, he doesn't miss. In practice, in games, he's a microwave, so just got to let him keep playing. TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS: What was the question again? Q. When you see him get going like that, you think what? TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS: Green light. That's what I think. Every time. Q. Devonte, what is it like on the flip side? On the one end, you're scoring and doing all this stuff, but when you're not scoring you had some turnovers there in the second half. You were, what are you thinking, is it, you're either, it's a home run or a strike out for you for about 15 minutes there. What's that like? DEVONTE GREEN: Like I said, they are a good defensive team. They bring a lot of pressure and they cause a lot of turnovers. I just, like I said also earlier, I just got to stay poised and move on to the next play because I know turnovers are going to happen and especially against the way they play defense. So I mean, I just say move on to the next play and adjust to my mistake. Q. Justin, what would you say as far as your team's defensive intensity today? It seemed like you guys were pretty locked in on that end of the floor. JUSTIN SMITH: Yeah, I mean, we have taken big, big strides in the last couple games defensively. This was our first time playing where we had the atmosphere we had a bigger team that we were playing against, a lot of different players who do a lot of different things. So, and especially in the first half, we really rose to the challenge. And in the second half we kind of got away from it at the beginning, but we were able to really buckle down and get defensive stops when it really mattered the most. Q. Trayce, you've kind of been asked a similar question to this, but were you itching to face competition like this? You came to Indiana to play teams like this? TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS: Really, we're just focused on each game one at a time. Just have that mindset of just whatever team's in front of us we're going to play as hard as we can and then we're going to move on to the next one and then to the next one and then to the next one and that's our mentality. We're not going to take and overlook any team. And there's just another team on our schedule and we just have to bring our all every game. Q. For Justin or Trayce: 35-25 rebounding margin. Coach said this was a game that was going to come down to the boards. What kind of physical mindset did both you guys take inside there? JUSTIN SMITH: Box out. They bring four or five to the glass. So we really had to focus on boxing our man out, especially the bigger guys. And then going after the balls, not just letting them bounce. Bringing them in with two hands and being aggressive on the glass. Q. To follow-up on that more broadly, I think Ken Pomeroy had these guys No. 1 in the country in average height. A lot was talked about their length around the rim. You guys have talked about how versatile you feel like you can be when you go big. Was there a bit of, I guess, a prove it mentality tonight, whether it be in rebounding, you outscored them in the paint as well, I think you had a couple big blocks in the second half, just a feeling of we're not going to, nobody's going to be able to match our height, I guess. TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS: Yeah, I mean a lot of people have been saying, like, we have been facing littler teams. How are they going to do against the big dogs? Well, you witnessed it, so I would just say that we just got to play hard and just do our thing. Q. For anyone one of the three of you guys: In three key stretches, 12-0 run, 9-0 run, then they close with a kick. You guys really made them play in the half court. How much of an emphasis was that in this game? DEVONTE GREEN: I think it was a big emphasis. We knew they were a transition team. They scored off of forcing turnovers and also off crashing the offensive glass and we knew if we could just get them to play in the half court it would be to our advantage. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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