Don Fischer made some headlines over the weekend for his on-air comments during Indiana's game at Wisconsin. Following the flagrant foul and ejection of sophomore CJ Gunn, the legendary radio play-by-play man said he was "embarrassed for the program." Though the Hall of Famer simply said what a lot of people were thinking, some outlets and fans took what he said the wrong way. On Monday, Fischer joined Indiana Sports Beat Radio with Jim Coyle and clarified his comments.
"Concerning that situation, I know I get a headline in the paper about my statement, and I probably should have said it differently," said Fischer. "Look, you can't do what Xavier Johnson did in the Rutgers game. What you did in the Wisconsin game, CJ Gunn, he got baited. And you know what? You can't do that. That's an emotional thing. That's responding to what somebody does. These guys have to understand, you're not gonna get away with that kind of stuff. You've got to be smart. You've got to use your head in these situations. It's always the guy that reacts that gets caught. Understand that, and have that in your mentality."
Fischer continued: "I'm sure these guys have learned from that. But you've had two situations like that occur within the last two weeks. That just can't happen. And Indiana has rarely ever... I think there's only been one other year where a player was kicked out of a game, and it was in Tom Crean's first or second year. But there's only one player that's ever been kicked out of a ballgame prior to this season in my 50 plus years at Indiana. My frustration of that level led me to my comment which got viral attention. That's another reason I'm not on social media. People were trying to take it like I was saying I was embarrassed for our whole team. I was embarrassed for our team that these guys did that. And I didn't explain that. And of course it looks like I'm disparaging the team and the program and everything else, and that's not the case."
In the conversation, Fischer also explained he believes this Indiana team has the talent to win, but thus far, "something is missing." He also mentioned he doesn't believe it's a selfish team, and thinks this group largely gets along with one another. Later in the interview, Fischer acknowledged the challenge that Mike Woodson and the other coaches have moving forward.
"From a coaching perspective, Woody has to figure out: 'What do I do about this?'", said Fischer. "He's got so many things on his plate in regard to these players and trying to get this thing turned around. That's why you get paid the big bucks. Sometimes you're dealing with 19, 20, 21 year old guys that just make mistakes like all college athletes do. And it's a struggle to say the least. And your hands as a coach at the college level are at the palms of players who can do something really stupid, and then you're in trouble."
Watch Don Fischer's entire interview from Monday's show with Jim Coyle below:
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