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What Malik Reneau, Miller Kopp Said After Indiana Basketball's Win Over Cougars

Indiana forwards Malik Reneau and Miller Kopp address the media following the Hoosiers' 104-59 win over the Saint Francis Cougars in their final exhibition game of the season. Read their full transcript, or just watch the attached video.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Hear from forwards Malik Reneau and Miller Kopp as they addressed the media following their 104-59 win over the Saint Francis Cougars for Indiana's last exhibition game of the season.

Kopp totaled six points while Reneau tied fellow freshman Jalen Hood-Schifino with 15 points as the team's second leading scorers.

Q. Malik, you start the other night, play a lot. What things are working well for you getting going in your college career?

MALIK RENEAU: Just being an energizer off the bench and just showing that I'm able to do anything on the court, helping my team out with rebounding, posting up, stepping out and handing the ball on the perimeter.

It's just showing that I can do a lot of stuff and just being a spark plug off the bench.

Q. Miller, you've seen these four freshmen all summer long and now a couple exhibition games. Is there anything they've done the last two games that has surprised you?

MILLER KOPP: Yeah, no doubt. There's no surprise over here because Coach, even the first exhibition, Coach has a lot of trust in Malik to put him in the starting lineup, and we believe in him, too.

There's no surprise on our end. We've seen what they can do. They compete their butts off.

When it comes to game time, we trust them, and they're only learning a lot more every single day, so we're in a good spot.

Q. Miller, more broadly, that second unit, it seems like you guys talk about doing 1 v. 2 scrimmaging in practice. I recognize that can be interchanged, but when you see Malik, Tamar, Jordan, Trey, what makes that group work?

MILLER KOPP: Well, the first thing that comes to mind is just energy and toughness. The guys coming off the bench, Coach Woody says all the time that our bench is as important as our starting five. That rings true. You can tell that anybody who comes off the bench is coming in with energy and life.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter really who starts or whatever. Whenever anybody is in the game, we're playing our tails off.

Q. Malik, you've been around Jalen more than anybody. Have we only seen starting him because he had some NBA moves after today and he looked like he could have jumped in the basket a couple times. Talk about him and what we can expect down the road from him.

MALIK RENEAU: What you can expect from Jalen Hood-Schifino is just a leader, someone that's going to be there every day working hard every single day and ready to go. He has a pro bag. He gets to his spots. He's a very impressive player to me.

Q. Malik, they obviously threw a bunch of double teams at you; how do you feel about how you handled those? Did you see more of that tonight basically in how they --

MALIK RENEAU: I think I held up pretty well, just understanding that the double-team is coming, getting the ball out to my teammates who were open, and getting them in a position to be able to catch and just shoot.

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Q. Miller, both your threes you were pretty open there; you were able to take your time for your shots. What's going through your mind on those, and have you changed anything in your shot this off-season?

MILLER KOPP: No, I haven't changed anything. Those shots are weird because usually I'm not that open, but I do practice those shots where I have more time than normal. Yeah, no, it's just another shot.

  • WHAT WOODSON SAID: Indiana head coach Mike Woodson addressed the media following the Hoosiers' 104-59 win over the Saint Francis Cougars. Read his full transcript, or just watch the attached video of the entire press conference. CLICK HERE
  • GAME STORY: Indiana looked sharp in its second exhibition game on Thursday night, beating Saint Francis 104-59. Five Hoosiers were in double figures, led by senior star Trayce Jackson-Davis, who had 19 points and nine rebounds. The season starts for real on Monday night when the Hoosiers take on Morehead State. CLICK HERE
  • PHOTO GALLERY: Here's our look at Indiana's victory through the lens with action from Thursday night's game against Saint Francis. CLICK HERE
  • WATCH HOOD-SCHIFINO BEHIND THE BACK: Indiana freshman Jalen Hood-Schifino made a crafty behind-the-back move through the lane against Saint Francis for an easy layup. CLICK HERE