Indiana men’s basketball head coach Darian DeVries addressed the media following the Hoosiers’ 91-57 win over Eastern Illinois on Monday night at Assembly Hall in Bloomington.
He was asked about everything from offensive flow to his deeper rotation in game one. Here’s everything he said, courtesy of ASAPSports.
DeVRIES: Before we get into the questions, I know a lot of you are wondering why Prince Moody didn’t play tonight. He suffered a knee injury in practice and will be out for an extended period
of time.
We’ll continue to get him evaluated but don’t anticipate having him back for quite some time, so unfortunate news there.
Q: Game 1 in the opener, I think it was nine made 3s. Obviously the offensive flow, Markus was saying this new group is going to take some time. What did you like and didn’t you like as far as the offensive flow in Game 1?
DeVRIES: There were some really good moments throughout the game offensively. I thought some of our transition was pretty good. I thought Markus and Bryce did a good job of getting downhill. I thought Mustaf got downhill. There were times where we got a little stagnant.
Again, I thought their aggressiveness to continue to get in the paint, press their defense a little bit, get to the free-throw line. There was a lot of good things there in the big picture that’s going to be something we’re going to need is though type of paint touches.
The 3s, I don’t worry about. We’ve got to continue to shoot and make sure we’re taking the right ones and get good opportunities there.
Overall I was really pleased with the offensive stuff, and again the offensive rebounding, we finished at like 38 percent from an offensive rebounding rate. It’s something we talk about every day. It’s got to be a strength of ours, and I thought it was again today.
Q: On defense Jaeden said you gave him a reminder about your expectations in the second half and they showed you what it looked like at the end of the first half. Is it frustrating when they lose focus like that because you know what they did in the first half?
DeVRIES: I thought midway through the first half our defense really, really turned up. I thought we weren’t aggressive enough early in the game. I thought our ball pressure and activity really picked up in the second part of the first half.
We had 14 turnovers we had created in the first half, 22 overall, so it’s still good. They lived in our paint way too much in the second half. We got messed up on some switches and some things we were working on there.
Overall, it was good, but you can’t allow a team just to parade right to the rim. We did it way too many times in the second half.
Q: Coach, five assists, one turnover tonight from Markus Burton. What did you see from him in the playmaking department?
DeVRIES: He’s had a really good couple of weeks. His aggressiveness has really cranked up. It’s not just scoring. He’s being aggressive and making plays. Sometimes that’s with him finishing it with a shot attempt. There’s other times he’s getting in there and getting everybody to collapse and then he’s spraying it out.
That’s exactly what we want from him. Five assists, one turnover, great stat line, and he was 7 of 9 or something from the field. Overall just a great night.
I thought even defensively we’ve got to keep him from fouling, picking up a cheap one every now and then, but overall I thought his tenacity on the ball was really good tonight too. He did some good things there, especially late in the first half.
Q: To extend that out, even going back to the preseason, it feels like Markus and Bryce have been pretty consistent for you. You’ve got a group that’s got to figure things out, still learning to play together. How important is it to have the trust that I imagine you have in the guys who are running things with the ball in their hands?
DeVRIES: Yeah, to have two guys like that, and they’ve both different in how they attack and what they bring on the offensive end, but they’re both incredibly efficient with it.
I like having both out there, one out there. It’s just if you need to sub one, you just know there’s not going to be a dropoff. I can put the other one in, and we just keep rolling. Those guys are going to be critically important to us all year.
Q: A two-parter on Markus. He hadn’t played in a game since last December. How hard is that to do, to go and be as efficient as he was tonight with that much time off? Second, is he a better 3-point shooter than you thought you were getting? I just thinking in the Butler game and this game he shot it really well.
DeVRIES: I think just the three exhibition games this summer allowed him to work through some of that. He’s gotten better week to week and month to month from June till now. He’s got his burst back. He’s getting to his spots again. And then with the 3-point shooting, he’s put a tremendous amount of time into it, to his credit.
Coach Johnson’s been in the gym with him a lot working on it, and he’s really bought into being an efficient 3-point shooter. So far early in the season, you can see that time he’s put into it. I like the ones he’s taken too. He’s aggressive, but he’s finding the right ones. So that’s important.
Q: I think you had nine guys who played at least 15 minutes. If everything works out, is that what you envision in terms of rotation, nine, ten players?
DeVRIES: I’d love for it to stay that way. There might be nights where maybe you go with a guy or two a little longer because they’ve really got it going and you want to keep them out there, but I love being able to continually sub. Those guys, their versatility, their ability to go out there, I know what I’m getting. They’ve proven that all summer and fall. I trust those guys when they’re out there.
Again, it’s a luxury to have. Foul trouble, whatever it is, where we can stay deep in our bench. I thought the end of the first half and a good part of the end of the second half, I thought our depth really wore into the game. That was certainly a positive for us.
Q: Trevor Manhertz with 11 points tonight, obviously played pretty well throughout the preseason. What did you think of his first true collegiate game, and what did he kind of show you tonight?
DeVRIES: Trevor did some good things. I thought he got comfortable there late. He hit a couple of shots and things. He’s very confident, and he’s shown that throughout our practices. Like a lot of new guys, he’s still learning some things too.
He’s going to continue to get better and better, and that’s what I love about him. He has upside, and he’s not even close yet to scratching it. He’s long, and he’s got a great feel and IQ. He’s going to continue to get better and better.
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