What Archie Miller Said About the Loss to Purdue
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Here's what Indiana coach Archie Miller said about the 74-62 loss to Purdue on Saturday at Assembly Hall:
"Obviously very disappointed in our performance today. In that type of environment with our fans and crowd, it was really ready. And we got off to a decent start. But our turnovers in the first half really killed momentum. And their run at the end of the half was really a deflating deal.
"To be able to come out of halftime and find a way to score the ball a little bit but not be able to get the stops continued to be the second half of the problem.
"But Purdue deserves credit. Executed well. They've got some guys stepping up right now and coming outside of maybe a tougher start. Wheeler's three 3s to start the game and you've got some guys obviously at the right time of year stepping up and playing well and making -- they got a lot of contributions.
"And our offense, in particular, in the second half, when we needed it to be more efficient, wasn't. But give them a lot of credit. I'm disappointed for our players. I'm disappointed for our fans. I'm disappointed for everyone that came back for the reunion. And I'll take full responsibility on the loss today.
"For us, we have Iowa coming in here on Thursday, and Iowa is a terrific team. They're a team that, as you watch them play, has had an unbelievable year so far. And Luke Garza is a first-team All-American but they have a slew of other guys playing really well.
"You're only as good as the next one. Today, as disappointing as it is, you have to find a way to be about the right things over the course of the next three, four days, to give yourselves a chance to play against another great team. And one way or another, you have to earn the right to break through. And we're at home again on Thursday. We've got to find a way to do that.
"I think there's some plays that you'd like to have back that are silly. There's some inexperience that happens as well out there. And we had two illegal screens today, two cross screens that were called illegal screens. Same play, called the same screen illegal both times. You don't see that much in the Big Ten, an illegal cross screen by a small on a big. But obviously that was the way it was going to be called. There's two right there.
"I think there was two underneath out of bounds where they made a good play on it when we had Race open under the basket. And there was some sloppy play with 10 turnovers -- clearly played a huge role in the confidence level of how the first half finished.
"You've got to be able to respond to that. We were down a couple weeks ago to Maryland after a tough first half. We were able to get right back in it. And it's 56-50 there with nine to go, nine, eight to go. We had our opportunities. Big and-one by Haarms on the pick and roll. Was able to knock that down and kind of just took the air out of the run.
"But no question about it, the turnovers continue to be a problem. And it's not like you're not talking about them but you've got to continue to work through it and get better.
