INDIANA UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 12, 2026

Darian DeVries

Postgame Media Conference

Indiana - 90, Tennessee Tech - 66

Q. I guess, first of all, defensively it looked like you guys were -- it was a lot better in the second half than the first half. It seemed like connectivity, communication, all that. In your eyes, what was the difference?

DARIAN DeVRIES: Honestly, I've got to watch the tape again, but I thought we were good in the first half. We forced a lot of really tough shots that -- some tough misses, air balls, and some stuff like that that were hard to corral.

I thought defensively for the course of the game -- because this is a really good offensive team, and they put a lot of stress on your defense just by their -- almost by their lack of size because they've got five perimeter guys out there. They put your bigs in some tough spots.

You look at their scores and what they did with Mississippi State and Western Kentucky, we were really concerned coming into this game about being able to minimize how many good opportunities they got. I thought overall defensively, I was pretty pleased.

The offensive rebounding for them was the big setback for that. But first shot defense, I thought was one of our better outputs.

Q. With Samet, you mentioned their size. Was that a point of emphasis to get him the ball coming into the game, then he suffers that injury. At what point do you know he's going to be good to come back? Just talk about his absence a little bit.

DARIAN DeVRIES: Early in the game we wanted to get it inside. They had been doubling, and first possession they didn't come double. Then we ran a couple of things to get him a little bit more where he was screening and getting him on the move.

I thought in the first half, to be honest with you, it almost went against what we should be doing because we were trying to pound it inside, and I thought we got almost too stagnant trying to do that.

In the second half we wanted to ball screen more and get those guys out in space and then get them in roles because they were trapped. I thought that opened up the floor a lot more and gave us driving lanes, and then we were still able to throw it inside and give us advantages that way.

We were a little worried about letting the game get too chaotic because that's how they play, and I think we almost went too far overboard and made it too structured and let them really load up on us. I thought once it got free flowing a little bit, the game opened up on our end.

Q. The way Lindsay kind of came off the bench and really provided an impact, can you talk about that?

DARIAN DeVRIES: I thought offensively, again, he opened it up. We didn't shoot really well. We didn't get a ton of 3s up for the game, 20 for us, which isn't a ton. I thought he got some pretty good ones there in the second half and kind of broke it open, if you will.

Q. When you're sitting down and building out a nonconference schedule, is there some sort of intentionality behind scheduling a team that plays as uniquely as Tennessee Tech or Bellarmine?

DARIAN DeVRIES: There's a little bit of whatever, you're taking who you can get as opponents and things like that. This is one of those games that you don't sleep as good at night because you're preparing for 40 minutes of press. You just know what the game's going to be like.

I knew this was what the game was going to be like, and they were never going to stop. So it was going to be 40 minutes of you don't get to relax. Like Markus, you don't get to relax because we're up by whatever. You're going to have to break the press every single time.

I thought, again, the guys -- and we talked about 40 minutes of focus to do that. You just can't give into it. I thought they did a really good job. I thought Bryce and Markus did a good job of handling the press. I thought Mustaf, Trevor did a good job of entering the press.

We had a couple turnovers in it, and you're going to have it some when a team commits that much to that pressure, but overall I thought we handled it pretty well.

Q. Coach, one of your big emphasis points in the team as well that they told us was physicality throughout the off-season and through the early portion of this season. 28 fouls on Tennessee Tech tonight, 36 trips to the free-throw line. It's been a trend of getting to the line this season a whole bunch. How would you assess the physicality of your team up to this point, especially tonight?

DARIAN DeVRIES: We're winning some margin areas, and we had been really good at rebounding. Tonight was the first night maybe I was disappointed in what we were there. But we've been winning the margins with free throws. We haven't been fouling as much. Where last year we did, this year we flipped that script a little bit to this point where we're getting to the free-throw line.

We're trying to create driving opportunities, which long term now, we'll be able to get some driving kicks as teams start to collapse a little bit, getting our bigs established where we can throw it inside.

I mentioned this after our Syracuse game. Samet, even though he's not -- tonight he did, he was 9 for 10 -- but he's not always scoring, but he's still a force down there. He's drawing fouls. We're taking the ball out of bounds sometimes on those fouls, but it's getting us closer to that bonus in the first half.

The bigs with the physicality, they're impacting the game, not just by scoring and rebounding, but by drawing fouls too.

Q. It seems that Markus is always looking at you and your staff throughout the game, always communicating. How has he progressed as a leader since he's come onto campus now through four games in the regular season?

DARIAN DeVRIES: I think he's doing a terrific job. I think he's really understanding what we need from him, what we need from him to lead this team. He had seven assists, two turnovers tonight. He got pressed for 40 minutes, however many minutes he was in, but great floor game.

I thought he took over too. He distributed. He scored. He put a lot of pressure on the defense. He's really bought into what we're trying to ask, and then he's trying to go execute it. So I like what he's doing there.

Q. Kind of to follow up on that, you had a quiet night until after -- you have the third foul, and you kind of pulled him aside as he's going to the bench. I don't know what you said, but the message to him because he had to sit out three long stretches. What were you saying to him, and how does he have to avoid the foul trouble he's had a little bit, kind of picking up those early fouls?

DARIAN DeVRIES: Some of it, we've got to get him to be a little more careful. He just wants to be aggressive. He wants to go. Then defensively sometimes, when they start to drive, he'll get a little aggressive with his bumps or grabs or holds, and he's too important for that.

It's been several of the preseason games and things where I'm having to take him out a minute, two minutes into the game. On top of having to pull him out, it's just hard sometimes to get back into a flow when you're only out there for a minute, then you've got to sit for three, four, five minutes.

It's something he's got to continue to work on and just have maybe a little more discipline with not fouling in those situations. It's not a lack of effort. It's just got to be a little more disciplined with his physicality.

Q. It seemed like Jaeden Mustaf had the ball in his hands as a ball handler and playmaker more in the second half. Was that an adjustment, and what do you like when he does have the ball in his hands in the half-court?

DARIAN DeVRIES: They trapped us more in the second half with some of their pressure. We had our 3 man taking the ball in tonight, where typically we have our 4 man. With him taking it in and them going and trapping Markus, it ended up back in his hands. When they threw it back, he was our primary ball handler.

It was more a result of them taking it out of Markus' hands and having Mu, which we have the ultimate trust in him being able to handle. I thought he did some good things, made some good decisions there and got downhill and attacked, drew some fouls, and got to the free-throw line.

Q. You obviously mentioned how impactful Samet can be. For him to go out and get his eye poked and come back and score 12 points, to be just as effective, what do you think that says about him as a competitor?

DARIAN DeVRIES: Yeah, I thought it was good. Like he went back in the locker room, got stitched up, came back, and said I'm still big. I'm going to go post up. So I thought he had a great game. I thought it was nice to see, and it was good to see us find him too.

I thought the guys did a nice job of locating him and getting him some good opportunities there.