Indiana men’s basketball’s Tayton Conerway and Reed Bailey spoke with the media following the Hoosiers’ 86-69 win over Kansas State on Tuesday night at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Here’s what they had to say:
Q: Tayton, can you talk about what the game plan was to slow down Haggerty and how you guys executed it?
CONERWAY: We wanted to do it as a team. We wanted to build walls, make sure we got back. We knew they played good in transition so if we could slow them down and make them have to run their
sets and make somebody else beat us we knew we would have a good chance.
Q: That was like the premier home out of conference challenge, right? What do you feel like y’all proved tonight?
BAILEY: I think we proved we can hang with the best of them. They came in averaging 90-something points a game and that’s a tough ask when you got a guy like that that can score 30, oh like you said, PJ Haggerty but I think it just showed that we’re just scratching the surface and we’re here to stay for sure and we just want to keep out and keep playing our best ball.
Q: For either of you. You talk about the pace you guys want to play at, the way you want to shoot the ball, but on a night like this when the shots aren’t always falling, and even more than that, the pace of the game is so broken up by fouls, how much does maybe this team’s experience shine through that guys aren’t just thrown off by that. Guys aren’t taken out of the rhythm by that. Guys just keep playing through it even when games are broken up as this game was?
CONERWAY: I think the experience helps a lot because everybody on our team knows that basketball is a game of runs, and if you play a good team, they’re bound to go on their run. But how you respond is probably going to be the answer to the outcome so just sticking together and definitely picking it up on defense, having each other’s back we knew we’d come out with a win.
Q: Reed, you had 14 points in the second half. Looked like you were really aggressive. What was the change from the first half to the second half for you?
BAILEY: No, I think that’s just all credit to my teammates and having belief in me to be able to do what I can do but I think it was just going in there with the mentality that I’m just trying to get the ball, especially when offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding, that just helps our team in whatever aspect, again, extra possessions or getting out in transition, so I think it was just all credit to my teammates for believing in me but also just trying to find a way to win.
Q: Reed, what does it say about this team that Tucker, your leading scorer, has 9 points on the night but you guys still find a way to put up 86 points? What does that say about you guys as an offense?
BAILEY: We just got a bunch of dudes who know how to play basketball. That’ve been doing it their whole life. The coaching staff, they instill the confidence in everybody every single day to go and do what they can do. Tucker having 9 points, that’s not going to happen too many times but I know he has trust in us to be able to pick that up because everybody on this court can do what they can do.
Q: The offense started to click it seemed when you two specifically started scoring in the paint. Was that kind of a counter to what Kansas State was trying to do to you guys?
CONERWAY: Yes, sir, we knew they were going to play out on our shooters. And we knew that one-on-one we don’t have — we don’t think that too many people can mess with our guards and our capability. So definitely just getting a piece of the paint and making the right play and that just happened to be the good outcome.
Q: Tayton the energy that Conor brings to this team, how does that impact you on the court and can you talk about the effort he had tonight on Haggerty? Seemed like he frustrated him at times, was hounded him full court. It seemed like ut wore him down over the course of the game.
CONERWAY: Yes, sir. Just a guy like that, a lot of people just see it during the games and stuff, but he’s like that in practice. He’s like that everywhere. That’s just Conor.
I told him on the bench, like, man, you’re one of my favorite players to play with. You make basketball so much easier. Just putting him on somebody like PJ, and then he didn’t back down, man. He wanted all the smoke. He’s been talking about it three days ago. He’s excited for this game. He wanted to so what he could do, so stepping up to the challenge and he executed, so it worked out.
Q. Tayton, when Reed’s playing like that in the second half, what does that do for you guys offensively?
CONERWAY: Makes basketball easy, man. He a big ol’ guard, man. He knows what is he’s doing down there. He plays the five fours but he can dribble. He can shoot. He can pass. He’s a Swiss Army knife. There’s nothing he can’t do.
Q. Guys, rebounding has been something you guys have been chasing but tonight you out-rebound Kansas State on both sides, offensive and defensive ends of the ball. How much of a point of emphasis was that for you guys going into this game?
BAILEY: I mean, I think rebounding, that’s one of the things that’s really going to put us over that, push us over the line to be as good and as great as we can be and that was definitely a point of emphasis not only this past week but just the whole entire season coming from Puerto Rico to our exhibition games and coaches are preaching that and everybody’s buying into being more physical and just going to get the ball.
CONERWAY: Thank you. Appreciate y’all not asking about them turnovers.
