What Darian DeVries Said Before First Indiana Basketball Rivalry Game vs Purdue

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana basketball coach Darian DeVries met with reporters Monday afternoon before the Hoosiers (13-7, 4-5 Big Ten) face No. 12 Purdue (17-3, 7-2 Big Ten) at 9 p.m. Tuesday inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

Here's what DeVries told the media during his 12-minute press conference.

Opening statement ...

DEVRIES: "I want to start off by congratulating the football team on national champs. And what an incredible season that was. It was so much fun to watch them compete all year and to finish it off the way they did was very fitting. So it was, again, congratulations. What an awesome, awesome deal."

Q. Darian, just looking back at that Rutgers game, did anything stand out on tape that you didn't kind of see during the game or anything that would translate to this Purdue game coming up?

DEVRIES: "No, I think in general, I liked our activity at both ends of the floor. I thought defensively we were able to be pretty connected, got a lot of stops and a lot of iso situations in that game too. So, overall, I thought our ability to get stops and get out and play and transition a little bit and then our ability to keep the floor spaced and find shooters and certainly making shots is a big part of that too and everything looks a little better there. So, but overall, I just thought it was a pretty complete performance at a place a lot of people have struggled over there to come away with a comfortable win and we were able to kind of control it from start to finish."

Q. Yeah, just how have you approached trying to learn how much this rivalry means within the state and just kind of how have you approached trying to instill it within the team this week?

DEVRIES: "Yeah, I think it's something that from your first day on the job, you understand the rivalry. And when you're around college sports and stuff, you understand all the different rivalries across the country and there's a lot of good ones and this is certainly one of those that is a pretty special rivalry. Certainly excited for my first opportunity and our team's opportunity to be a part of it."

Q. Yeah, Darian, I guess when you look at Purdue, what challenges do they present and what makes them so effective shooting three-pointers?

DEVRIES: "Yeah, I think first of all, they got really good players across the board. I think they all understand their roles and the main facilitator of it all that gets it started is obviously Smith and he's as good as there is in the country in terms of being able to play pick and roll and reads and, finding ways to exploit your coverage. He's as good as I've seen out there in doing that and then such a competitor to go with it and then all the, I feel like all their parts just really fit well together. And they're able to play off of him and they can go inside, outside, but I think a lot of their catch-and-shoots are what you want them to be. There are catch-and-shoots where he's able to generate some attention, get guys pulled over because they got a post-up opportunity or you got to stop the drive and now they're playing advantage basketball."

Q. Coach, are there things that you think having Nick on the court with Tucker and Lamar kind of unlocks for your offense that maybe haven't been there earlier in the season as he got more healthy?

DEVRIES: "Yeah, it certainly gives us just that one more guy that can go get four, five, six threes and space the floor. It gives us some advantages there to maybe get more downhill and I thought we were able to geta little more of that in the Rutgers game where we were able to get in the paint with some post-ups with Tucker and Lamar or some drive opportunities that now you got that extra shooter spotted up and I thought that's been good for us as he's continued to get healthy these last few weeks. You've really seen what he can do for us."

Q. Darian, I know you've only been here a few months, but have you had much interaction in the past with Coach Painter and how familiar you are with him and what he likes to do with his stuff?

DEVRIES: "Yeah, we actually, when I was at Creighton as an assistant coach, he was the head coach at Southern Illinois for a little stint there, so they had a really good team. That was a good rivalry within our league, so I've followed him for a long time and he does such a great job. They used to be all defense and then their offense maybe lacked and now they're elite, elite offensively, and they run so much stuff and it's been from just a coach-to-coach standpoint, being able to follow his career and watch how he's continued to evolve at both ends of the floor, he just does a good job with everything."

Q. Yeah, Coach, just big picture. I was curious, kind of like how much you guys sort of look at your resume at this point, what's necessary to be comfortable on Selection Sunday. I know you're, I think it's like 35th in the NET, 26th in Bart Torvik. How do you guys approach that just as faras paying attention to the resume, thinking about, 'Okay, what do we need to have a chance to be comfortable? Do we feel we're solid? Are we bubble?' Just how do you look at that as you get down to the final five, six weeks of the regular season?

DEVRIES: "Yeah, for us it's really just about trying to win that next game and then just stacking the wins as many as you can get because that's the only thing really you have in control is right now is try to win that very next game and every night's an opportunity in this league to improve your resume. So, we got X amount of opportunities left, wherever that ends up being with postseason play or Big Ten tournament. So, we just got to try and take advantage of every opportunity in front of us and try to get as many wins as we can to put ourselves in a good spot."

Q. Coach, thanks for the time. Just, I think tomorrow's the halfway point of Big Ten play when you look at the number of games played. How would you assess so far what you've seen from your team and going down the stretch, it seems like the play at times has kind of been up and down. You've had some really good games, obviously some games where you struggled. What do you need to do to be more consistent kind of over the last 11 games here in the regular season?

DEVRIES: I think you basically said it right there. It's just that consistency from game to game and even within a 40-minute game. I felt like even in a few of our losses, there's been some really good stretches in there for 25, 30 minutes. But it's a 40-minute game like we've talked about and being able to sustain that over the course of a high-level game for 40 minutes is something that we're still continuing to strive for. I truly believe it's in there and you see it in flashes. But there's some of those things that continue to haunt us and those are the things that we've really tried to prioritize and focus on. And in our last game, I thought we did a good job with it. We didn't turn the ball over. The rebounding battle, we did a good job with. And then we avoided those three, four-minute stretches at critical moments that have really kind of crippled us."

Q. Yeah, hey Coach. Sam Alexis has really kind of settled into a nice early starting role for you guys with bringing a lot of physicality on both ends of the floor. How have you really seen him adjust since the start of conference play to now or the last three games? He really seems to have found a comfortable spot for you guys on both ends there.

DEVRIES: "Yeah, I think Sam's done a great job really these last few weeks. I think his approach has been really good. He's brought a lot of energy and enthusiasm to practice. I think that's really elevated his game and it's carried out on the game for him. And you can see his confidence growing. And we've asked him and he's got to be that for us because he does have a lot of personality for our team. And he's someone that we can certainly feed off of his energy as he comes out on the floor. But I like what he's doing. I like his approach right now. And we just need to continue to get that from him as we get to the second half."

Q. Yeah, Darian, just how much of a challenge is it to defend Braden Smith and the ball screen action, especially with the drags they do, the re-streams, and then his passing on top of it? How difficult is that to prepare for?

DEVRIES: "Yeah, it's incredibly difficult. And you go through and you watch every game that they played this year, and everybody else finds it really difficult too, because nobody's really been able to slow them down. Because he's just so elite at having a feel for where the ball needs to go and understanding coverages and being able to play-make from it. And then his speed and athleticism, even for not being overly tall, he's able to get to a spot, elevate and finish over that 12, 15-footer kind of fades away and he can get over a 6-foot-10 guy. So, he just has that just unique knack to have a late decision-making pass, and it really stretches your defense in every way possible."

Q. Darian, this last couple of months there's been such a spotlight on Indiana University with this football run and such. I'm curious if that helps you in any way, and when you're out and about talking to kids and coaches and such, and what you might be able to benefit from as the basketball coach in Indiana for all the football success?

DEVRIES: "Yeah, I think it's been awesome, not only for the football program, but it's been awesome for all of athletics and our school and the exposure that that brings. And even throughout the fall, being able to bring recruits in and have them at an atmosphere in the football game that we have, that only adds to our ability to recruit and have good recruiting weekends. So, I think it's awesome all the way around and certainly excited about what that does for our program as well."

Q. Kind of a two-part question here on Tayton. He clearly wasn't 100% the other night, but he comes in the second half and kind of gives you those two back-to-back layups. I thought it was a pretty crucial part of the game. How important was that? And then how have you kind of seen him respond the last couple of days to treatment? And is this something you think is going to linger for a long time or is this something that maybe in a couple of weeks he's closer to 100%?

DEVRIES: "Yeah, we'll have to see on that. Everybody heals differently at their own pace. But yeah, he certainly hasn't been able to do a lot. So, we were able to get some very valuable minutes from him, thankfully, and I thought he came in and did a good job. Gave us a nice little lift there in the second half with those back-to-back baskets, clearly when he's not 100%, which I think says a lot about his ability to go and still compete for us in that moment. But we'll hopefully get him healthy as soon as possible and be able to get him out there in more of that full-time role."

Q. Yeah, Coach, a lot of people obviously talk about Braden Smith and the backcourt and the wings of Purdue specifically, but what about their frontcourt just kind of opens things up for whether it is Braden Smith or any of the shooters on the perimeter to give open looks or any additional driving lanes for them?

DEVRIES: "Yeah, their interiors, I mean, it's really good. I mean, you got a four and a five that are just big, take up space and they can finish down there and they got lob threats coming off the bench. And so they present a lot of problems because of their physicality and ability to put you in some hard spots. And they know what they're doing. They know where they want to get their angles, they know where to get their space and then elite offensive rebounders — two of the best that there are in the country right now. So even when you do a good job and you get them to miss, now you got to clean it up, with two guys down in there that they're posted up ready to go get it. So yeah, it's like I said, it's a very balanced team. Obviously, Braden has the ball and he's doing a lot of it, but everybody else really understands and plays to their roles well and their bigs are a big part of that."