What Darian DeVries, Reed Bailey Said After Indiana Basketball's 91-78 Loss at Ohio State

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Indiana men's basketball coach Darian DeVries and senior forward Reed Bailey spoke to the media after a 91-78 loss to Ohio State on Saturday night at The Schottenstein Center in Columbus.

Here's what DeVries and Bailey told reporters during their near-five-minute press conference.

Q. Coach, let's talk about the end of the first half. You guys are down three with about seven minutes to go, and they push it to 17. What did you feel were the big things there in that seven-minute stretch?

DARIAN DEVRIES: “I thought the biggest thing there was just the 3s. We weren't able to get a stop there the end of that first half. So that was a huge stretch right in there. I thought we were back and forth a little bit, in decent shape. And then they got going, they got a couple drives to the rim, hit a few threes, and the lead exploded.”

Q. Darian, I guess just more broadly, defensively, in the last few weeks, just kind of where have things kind of gone wrong for this team? It feels like there have just been kind of too many of these performances where a team kind of gets loose on you for a stretch and you can't kind of get control again.

DEVRIES: “I would say in this stretch outside of the Minnesota game, we've given up too many 3s, like too high of percentages, too clean of looks. And that's really caught up to us in those games.”

Q. Yeah, Darian, in the first half, a bunch of uncharacteristic turnovers. Did you feel like you had the urgency when you kind of came out? I know you guys were throwing up threes, but what you were seeing there in that first half, whether it was shooting spaces or something on the floor, or turning the ball over, what did you see?

DEVRIES: “I thought offensively it was fine early. We had a few uncharacteristic, just careless turnovers that we don't do a lot of, but we did in that half. I thought as the half went on, they went to a little more switching and denying and things, and we got stood up. I thought as the game went on, we adjusted and we were able to get downhill and get to the rim and stuff. But it was a little too late on that offensive end.”

Q. How do you rally after a loss like this with a huge week ahead? Just how do you rally after this one?

DEVRIES: "I think the biggest thing is it's the next chapter now. The regular season's over. Now, it's you prepare for post-season play. Post-season play, it's just you get ready for that next one, and you play as long as you can, and win as many games as you can, and that's going to be our mindset. So, worry about the one in front of you. The one in front of us is going to be Wednesday, and that's really all we care about at this point.”

Q. Reed, I guess, just how tough is it just not being able to get that stop, not being able to get the kill when you guys are coming back like that?

REED BAILEY: “I mean, you need it to be able to come back in that game, and then we were right where we wanted to be. I think it was right around the beginning of the three-minute mark, we cut it to 11, and you know, I think that we just got to find something to be able to dig deeper at that point to be able to come out and keep going back.”

Q. I guess for both of you, Reed and Sam played together a lot on the court out there in the second half. I guess, what led to that, and how well do you think it worked?

DEVRIES: “I thought they did a great job. We were able to, neither one was in any foul trouble. We thought there was an opportunity there with their size and things that we could get for, get a little more size on the floor. I thought Reed, his ability to drive the ball, we could still keep it spaced enough. So, I thought both those guys did a really good job of coming in, and even though they haven't done a lot together, and gave us some really good minutes there.”

Q. Reed, you had a lot of success around the rim, and Sam as well. What kind of led to that from like Ohio State's defensive side? Did you see anything that kind of allowed you to have that success around the basket?

BAILEY: I'm not sure. I mean, Sam's been doing it this whole entire second half of the season, and he keeps getting better at it. So, we have all the confidence in him, and he showed that he can get down there. And score around the rim against the best of them. So, I don't know if it was Ohio State, but he can really get down there and score a goal.

Q. Reed, just in the locker room, what's it been like? I mean, you lost 5-of-6, and now you're trying to talk about turning the page. And have you guys been able to kind of get, have you had any kind of looming doubts from these losses, or have you been able to shift your focus? And what do you think it's going to be like going forward?

BAILEY: “Yeah, I don't think so at all. I think we just have a lot of motivation to come into the Big Ten Tournament and show what we really can do. I mean, just having that bad taste in your mouth, I think it's motivation enough to really come out and try and make a run.”

Q. Darian, I mean, you talked about turning the page before, but just what's the frustration level of having a first half like you guys had today, knowing how important this game was?

DEVRIES: “I think, obviously, we want to play well. We want to put ourselves in a position to win the game, and for us to have a stretch like that, it's certainly disappointing. But our guys are going to continue to battle, that's all I know. So, we're going to get home, we're going to get ready for our next game.”