From the Locker Room: Iowa

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Indiana head coach Archie Miller and players Romeo Langford and Juwan Morgan met with the media following the Hoosiers' 77-72 loss to Iowa Thursday night.

Videos and transcripts from their availability are below, along with videos from Iowa's postgame availability, featuring Iowa head coach Fran McCaffrey and players Jordan Bohannon, Tyler Cook, and Joe Wieskamp.

ARCHIE MILLER: Well, tough game. Hard fought. Obviously Iowa deserves a ton of credit with their play. They made really, really big baskets, timely baskets and they came up with about five to seven balls, especially in the second half that were right there for the grabbing and we couldn't get it, and first half, you know, give them credit.

They were good against our turnovers in transition. They got a lead. But I wasn't terribly disappointed in our team tonight. I thought we were really together again offensively, whether it was the man or the zone we continued to be able to get 17 assists in the game, which is something we've got to keep doing and we shot a good percentage, as well.

19 points off of our turnovers probably hurt us more than anything but give them credit. They are really hard to guard and it showed tonight.

Q. You talked about the need for programs to get older over time. There's two, three-year veterans, Cook and Bohannon.

ARCHIE MILLER: They have been doing it all season long. They are 18-5. They just beat Michigan at home last week.

You watch them on film, I mean, they are unbelievably well-coached offensively. They have got great pace. They have got an inside-out attack. They have got multiple shooters, and they have the ability to play some zone, as well, and stay big. They don't have to play man-to-man with two big guys in the game the whole game. They mixed it up with their defenses tonight and stuck with the zone most of the time.

We had some good possessions, not, but without question you can watch their team, they are much improved from a year ago. Their young players are now getting a little bit older, but they are really in sync.

Q. The first half, the three-point shot really hurt you, was it just not getting up, not knowing they could shoot that far --

ARCHIE MILLER: We closed out soft and we -- what I mean by that, is we closed out short. We were short on a lot of close-outs and they got range, and you know, Weiskamp got going early in the game. I think he made all four of his 3s in the first half.

Part of that was they had to go small at times because of their foul trouble, and that small lineup presents some challenges at times with their spacing and ability to shoot the way they did.

And we also had some breakdowns in transition, as well, but I think they made seven in the first half. End up making three, and I think all three of them the second half were unbelievably big daggers by Bohannon.

Q. Some of those shots, you talked about Iowa making tough shots. It felt like you worked them to the end of the clock a lot and they were make something tough ones. How much of that was you guys struggling to close out possessions or how much was them finding a tough shot, I guess?

ARCHIE MILLER: We were in a lot of situations under ten on the clock. I mean, the game -- even in the first half or the second half, so at the end of the day, that's going to come down to guarding the ball and getting a long rebound or a 50/50.

You know, Bohannon made an unbelievable step back on Al midway through the second half late at the clock.

Obviously the big one at the end there was really, I think it was a pretty deep shot, as well. They also got some plays in and around the basket under ten seconds where we committed a silly foul or didn't get the first-time rebound and we had some breakdowns at the finish line in terms of being able to close out possessions with good stops.

They were able, for whatever reason, I saw three or four balls deflected on the pass that land in play and they get it and there was a few that were raked out of the paint and it was on the ground and they get it. You have to find a way to get those balls, you know to, win this type of a game. We were never able to get it even and then play with a lead. We were always constantly clawing.

And again, like I said, they were having a great season. They have a really good team and this game right here, it's going to be evaluated just like Michigan State: Are we in check with our attitude; did we come together; did we play hard, and did we play unselfish, and I think we did a lot of those things.

We just weren't quite good enough to finish this one off just in terms of being able to get one-time stops and then obviously being able to quality-possessions with shots when we needed to in those last maybe five minutes.

Q. Michigan State, I believe, it was 27 points off the bench. Tonight, 7. Is that just circumstantial or is there anything you can point to?

ARCHIE MILLER: I mean, if you look, De'Ron and Devonte had, I believe, 24 of the 27.

So if you look at De'Ron and Devonte tonight, De'Ron, although he played 22 minutes and I thought he did some good things to for us, he had 7 assists, zero turnovers and end up scoring four points, makes some free throws.

And then Devonte didn't play as well as he played the other night. In his 16 minutes tonight, he didn't have what I would say a solid game just in terms of being able to take care of it and being able to get into a rhythm offensively.

So those are the two big cogs coming off the bench, and from a scoring standpoint, obviously they didn't give us the scoring.

But De'Ron and Devonte both contributed in the game and that's more of what we'll have to get from them.

Q. You mentioned the 17 assists and 21 three-point attempts. What did you like about the way your offense was moving even with the shots not falling, and what did De'Ron do against the 2-3 zone that allowed you to unlock some things?

ARCHIE MILLER: The first half, the turnovers hurt us. We had eight at halftime and end up finishing with 12, so we didn't turn it over as much in the second half, which is good.

De'Ron gives you high-post and a low-post guy, he can catch it down there and he can command it in the paint and he's a good passer out of the post, as well. He's good against the zone. He wasn't able to get as many shots up as he probably is normally accustomed and us being able to find him to get him the shot but he was fine.

Our zone offense in the second half, we end up shooting, I guess, we ended up shooting 48 percent, 49 percent from the game.

And you know, in the first half, I think from three, we were 4-for-12, so in the second half, obviously, you know, 7-for-21 in the game with some timely ones.

But our offense, to me, you can scrutinize it and you can go through it, and our defense wasn't able to finish it, you know, finish possessions tonight. And we had that on Saturday. We were able to get one-time stops and rebounds and be able to hang in there.

Tonight, we fouled, we didn't come up with the loose ones, the long ones, and they made some big ones and some tough ones, as well, at the end of the clock.

Like I said, they are really good, and we'll take this and we've got to get better from it. We've a fast turnaround and Ohio State on Sunday, so it's going to be the same thing.

Q. To follow up on that, De'Ron had something like 11 assists in the last two games. Just how much of a factor does his passing need to become for you guys because it feels like a lot of those have set-up 3-pointers in particular?

ARCHIE MILLER: Like I said, he's a good low-post player with a good feel how to get the ball from the low-post to either dive, the other guy or outside on the skips, and tonight I think he did a really good job. He hit Dustin a couple times cutting. He caught one left elbow, skimmed it left corner to Devonte for a big three.

He's doing a good job in terms of handling the ball for us. He's always been a good player in terms of with his back to the basket, being able to understand what's a good shot, bad shot and being able to deliver the ball out from the high-post.

Again, his 22 minutes to night, I think 25 the other day, he's playing tired, right now, as well. He's got to continue to work through that, but he's a lift for us right now. He's been a lift.

Q. Outside of De'Ron, you had ten assists and 12 turnovers. How would you grade the perimeter passing?

ARCHIE MILLER: I thought the first half, in particular, we were lackadaisical and probably a little bit sloppy with them. Devonte did not have the best floor game tonight.

Our other guys, one here, one there. Rob's 4 to 1. Al is basically 1 to 1 and Romeo is 2 to 1, so it's not like 10 to 3 is very bad from your perimeter.

It's just you have a couple possessions there that didn't go well that felt bigger than they were. Whether it was a couple turnovers in the part of the game that obviously we had some odd lineups in. Had a little bit more inexperienced team playing with one another.A

nd you know, big deal, Juwan. You know, it's tough. It's tough for our team to not have him on the floor for that amount of time with foul problems. We have to find a way to keep him on the floor with fouls and he has to be a little bit smarter, I guess, and it was tough when he got that fourth one so early.

Q. Looking ahead to Ohio State game, do you think that's a big game for the team for Tournament chances?

ARCHIE MILLER: Every game's a big game.

Q. Third straight home loss for you guys. Is there anything you need to do better to harness the crowd in the building --

JUWAN MORGAN: I think it's just, you know, you answered your own question in there, just harnessing the crowd in there, the energy, really getting over that hump where we get the lead from ten to six to four to three.I think that's when we really need to use the crowd behind us and really get that one stop that they been looking for for the whole game and then going to capitalize on offense.

Q. There's been a few instances where you found yourself in foul trouble. Is it a product of your position or anything that you can do or keep in mind moving forward that could maybe avoid some of these situations?

JUWAN MORGAN: I think it's a little bit of both. I they have to be more mindful of where I'm at and the time to score, just some of those were, you know, a layup where we're down two, a layup won't really hurt us, so I cannot really, just let it go but not fouling in that situation. Then a couple other times, I thought I was just, you know, in the right place at the right time and they told me I wasn't. If the ref calls it a fall, it's a foul, so you can't really argue it.

Q. For either of you guys, Iowa had a lot of late-clock buckets. How much of it do you feel it was your defense not closing out a possession or Iowa hitting tough shots?

ROMEO LANGFORD: I think it was a little bit of both. We had good defense for the majority of the game and like majority of the shot clock and sometimes we kind of loosened up and let them get a late, late shot clock point or maybe just fouling them. Also down the stretch, No. 3 hit like three or four big-time shots down late in the shot clock. So we have to give credit to them for hitting clutch shots.

Q. Weiskamp and Bohannon hit so many threes, but they have so many guys on the team that are able to make shots. How tough is it to account for that many threats on the floor at one time?

JUWAN MORGAN: You know, that's a tough situation to deal with, but at the same time you just have to be locked in and you have to know who you're guarding and always have a hand in the face.The guys, the D-I players, they are going to hit shots, but at the same time you have to make them as uncomfortable as you can and make them earn every single shot.I think he was really getting lost and the defense getting himself lost and his teammates were finding him, so we have to give credit to their offense on that.

Q. Took you a while to figure out there zone. What did you guys struggle with early and what did you manage to figure out as the game went on?

JUWAN MORGAN: We were just kind of -- hopped on the perimeter for a little bit but I think as the game went on, De'Ron in the middle, myself in the middle, Evan in the middle, we just really started getting the ball into the paint and then passing out to perimeter shooters.And I think even when they helped us with shots, they were still making the defense have to work by driving the baseline, driving the middle, make them have to find the other shooters and making them have to guard three, four, five extra passes.

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