Here's What Trayce Jackson-Davis Said After Indiana's Loss to Penn State
CHICAGO — Indiana got knocked out of the Big Ten Tournament on Saturday, falling to Penn State 77-73 in the semifinals. It was the second loss this season to Penn State.
Indiana senior Trayce Jackson-Davis led the way with 24 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. He passed Don Schlundt to move to No. 3 on Indiana's all-time scoring list.
Now it's on to the NCAA Tournament, with Selection Sunday coming at 6 p.m. ET. Here's what Jackson-Davis said when he met with the media after the game, with the full video and transcript.
QUESTION: Trayce, I know last Sunday you mentioned you wanted one of these and one of those (Big Ten banners), so when you fall short today, how do you look at these last couple days, and what does it mean, if anything, headed into next week?
TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS: Obviously you're upset, but at the same time, we've still got the NCAA Tournament. We're not sweating like we were prior years. We know that we're in. We're going to go back, fix what we did wrong in this game, and then focus on whoever we got to play after Selection Sunday.
Q: You guys obviously made a real frantic rush to close the gap. Do you guys need to bring more of that intensity earlier in the game that you played with at the end?
JACKSON-DAVIS: Yeah, absolutely. I think we played lackadaisical in stretches throughout the game. We would make pushes, but then we would kind of relax, and they would start to step on us a little bit. But we need that intensity throughout the whole game. And we can't played scared. I thought overall we played kind of tentative. We weren't shooting the ball when we should have been. We've just got to fix those things, and basically that's it.
Q: Trayce, the toughest thing about sports is the finality of it. Your Big Ten career is over. How do you want to be remembered, and how will you be remembered? Two-prong question there.
JACKSON-DAVIS: Obviously it's bittersweet, but I know that I left everything I have out there on the court. I think Indiana fans and fans in general that enjoy college basketball will appreciate that. But at the same time, you can't dwell on it too much because we've still got some ball left to be played, and we're just going to see what happens in the future, and we've still got to take it one game at a time.
Q: Trayce, what can you guys take away today, because the next loss will be your last loss in college. What can you take away today and learn to try to prevent that?
JACKSON-DAVIS: I think that just our intensity. We've got to be more intense on the ball. I thought that late in the second half we had that, and if we would have had that during the whole game, I think it would have been a different outcome.Again, credit to Penn State. They played very well, and they hit some tough shots. Sometimes the ball doesn't bounce your way.
Q: Trayce, they seem to be able to play high on ball screens and kind of take Jalen's mid-range away. How were they able to do that and also take you away on rolls and other actions going to the basket?
JACKSON-DAVIS: I think they did a really good job with pressuring the ball and getting out and touching. Sometimes the shot's off. It happens in the game. You're not going to get every shot you take. But he was still getting them up, which I'm proud of. He has to be confident in himself.At the same time, sometimes you miss some shots, and you're going to dwell on it a little bit. I know he wanted to hit that last one. But at the end of the day, we've got to wash it out and get ready for the next game.
Q: Trayce, you mentioned tentative play being an issue. How much of that was on your guys, and how much of that was Penn State's defense?
JACKSON-DAVIS: I think it was a little bit of both. I think sometimes I'll cross-court it, and then there was one more, I felt like sometimes we can shoot it and pump fake it and try to drive instead of just taking the open three. Just little things like that where they were just creeping in a little bit. But at the same time, you can't be afraid to shoot the ball. We've got a great team. We've got great shooters, and that's what really spaces the floor for us. So when we're not doing that, they can just pack it in.
Q: What makes Penn State a unique and difficult matchup? They beat you twice, and the first time was pretty one-sided.
JACKSON-DAVIS: I think just they don't play big. They can play small ball and really space the floor, and they've got shooters from one through five, and they play very physical for even when they do play small ball. I think it really helps they're good on rotations. So that's a great team, and they executed their game plan very well.
Q: What do you feel are the most important things for this IU group to do really well to have a chance to make an NCAA Tournament run?
JACKSON-DAVIS: Just the biggest thing we've got to do is, first and foremost, listen to Coach, execute our sets, execute our game plan. And just play as hard as we can when we step on the floor. Play for each other, and I think that's the biggest thing. When we play for each other, usually good things happen.
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