What Sam Alexis, Conor Enright Said After Indiana Basketball's Win vs Wisconsin

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana men's basketball senior forward Sam Alexis and senior guard Conor Enright met with the media after the Hoosiers' 78-77 overtime win vs. Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington.

Here's what Alexis and Enright said during their near-five-minute press conference. The transcript is courtesy of ASAP Sports.

Q. First of all, it seemed like you made the conscious decision not to foul early, you tried to trap them. What was the plan on that possession, and how did it unfold that you eventually dropped the charge?

CONOR ENRIGHT: We were trying to get a turnover first, trying to see if they'd cough it up. Honestly, I was kind of panicking, trying to get a hold of him because he was wasting time, 15 seconds, something like that.

Then I just saw his shoulder go into me and figured from a foul I might as well try and get a charge. It worked out.

Q. Sam, your thoughts? Physically, how are you first of all? Second thing, just take us through your effort where it's a fight all the way through, and kind of take us through what it's like from the guy who's out there on the floor having to battle all the way through?

SAM ALEXIS: I was just cramping out there, but Coach tells us every day in practice just to bring the intensity. I felt like we had a good practice last practice, and I thought it just carried over into the game. I was just trying to do what I did in practice yesterday.

Q. Conor, what was the mood like in the huddle when you guys give up the big lead late in regulation and you had to kind of focus? Did it feel similar to the UCLA game where you were able to stable -- get things going again?

CONOR ENRIGHT: Yeah, it was similar to UCLA. It was very calm and collected, no screaming at each other, pointing fingers, kind of just next play mentality, which I think we've gotten a lot better as the season went on.

You can tell with a senior group like this, obviously we don't want to blow leads and go to overtime and do all that, but we still battled together and got it done.

Q. Why are the huddles that way? When you get punched like that and blow a lead, I would imagine it would be so easy to spiral. Why is this team so strong up top, so mentally tough, and can handle a spot like that?

CONOR ENRIGHT: I think just because we've played so much basketball. We know guys are out there giving their 100 percent, so pointing fingers isn't going to do anything for us. So just staying together, that's what Coach has been preaching to us every day, even since June. I think that's just showing what we worked on.

Q. Can you guys both talk about Lamar's ability to make clutch, clutch free throws with a lot of pressure?

SAM ALEXIS: He don't really miss in practice or like ever. So I don't really think he feels any pressure, to be honest, when he's shooting them.

CONOR ENRIGHT: If I had to pick a guy, I would put Lamar out there every single time to shoot every free throw in the game.

Q. When the whistle was made on that last play, what was your confidence level it was going to be called a charge instead of a block?

CONOR ENRIGHT: Very low, very low, but we got it. I was a little shocked myself. I thought next play, we've got to get a bucket.

Q. Conor, can you just talk a little bit about Sam's offense performance tonight, but just how you've seen him grow the second half of the season here from the first half of Big Ten play?

CONOR ENRIGHT: Yeah, he's been awesome. I think today was a big example because we were kind of low energy and flat because guys have been sick the last couple days. I think Sam came out and set the tone right away, offensive rebounds, defense, and he picked it up in the second half too.

His energy spreads to other people. He's been doing that every day in practice, in the weight room. It's contagious. Him just being around has been awesome for us.

Obviously when Sam goes and gets whatever he had, 15, 20, whatever, it's awesome.

Q. Sam, 13 in the second half, a lot of pure post-ups, was that something you guys talked about at halftime, or did that kind of just happen throughout the game?

SAM ALEXIS: I mean, it just happened through the flow of the game. It happened through the flow of the game.

CONOR ENRIGHT: He was cooking. So we kept giving it to him.

Q. Sam, the last few weeks as you guys have rallied and picked up a few big wins, it felt like this team has just found a way to keep fighting down the stretch. No matter how the game is going, just keep on fighting. Where does that come from with this team?

SAM ALEXIS: We've got a whole bunch of seniors. It's our last year. We're all trying to make it like a big year for us. So we're just trying to go out there and play hard and make it fun.

Q. Conor, 44 points in the paint this afternoon. Was that a concerted effort at all today?

CONOR ENRIGHT: I think we thought that we could get them in drives. We thought we could get downhill, which was a kind of point of emphasis in practice, so I thought we did a good job of doing that. Yeah, it was just the coaches giving us a good plan.

Q. Conor, when I talked to you in the spring, I think you said you might have been a Wisconsin fan going up. How did it feel to pull Wisconsin on Wisconsin to get a key charge like that?

CONOR ENRIGHT: Yeah, it was awesome. That was my younger years. I'm an Indiana fan now, though. Yeah, it was great to get a win out there against them.