What Miller Kopp Said After Indiana's Loss to Penn State in Big Ten Tournament Semifinals
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CHICAGO – Indiana senior Miller Kopp scored six points with three assists, two rebounds and one steal in the Hoosiers' 77-73 loss to Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals.
Here's what Kopp said after the game.
Q: Miller, what are the emotions like in the locker room for you guys right now?
Kopp: I think just hungry. The one positive thing about this is our season's not over. That's what we said, and we'll learn from it and take the lessons into the tournament.
Q: Miller, defending Penn State when they have a guy like Pickett who demands so much attention and they've got shooters around him, how difficult is that defensively?
Kopp: They just play through him the whole game, so the tough part is making sure we have a guy on him at all times and being active off the ball, too, because I know he runs their team in terms of assists and getting guys open. So it's just a full, full team effort, really.
Q: Did you see anything different from the guys, I mean you guys trail by 15 with like two minutes left and were able to get it down to one. Did you see anything different from the guys on the court in the last couple minutes?
Kopp: I think we just played desperate because we had to be. At the end of the day, it was really about just fighting and clawing our way back possession by possession. At the end of the day, we didn't get it done but the fight was there.
Q: Miller, defensively they seemed to really clog up everything and not let you guys get into your offense cleanly. What were they doing to disrupt you guys?
Kopp: I think they did a good job with their rotations out of our post-ups with Trayce. They had their rotations down and got out quickly and closed out and stuff. I think they just did a good job of clogging up the paint. They just tried to make it as tough as they could on Trayce and Fino getting in there.
Q: Miller, you said that this team obviously has to learn from this, but from here on out learning is not an option anymore. What do you think is the element that this team needs to get the consistency that it needs to make the kind of tournament run that you've wanted?
Kopp: I think just playing the type of basketball we want to play on both sides of the ball. For us, it comes down to sticking to our principles and being almost as perfect as we can in those. So for us it's about sharing the ball on offense, getting Trayce the ball as much as we can and really getting stops, rebound the ball and play in transition. That's really when we're at our best."
