Mike Davis' post-game comments - indystar.com
"He ran out of gas. He ran out of gas. I saw it at the 5-minute mark when he normally makes those plays. He missed a lay up and he got a shot blocked that he normally doesn't get blocked. But hey, they played the same amount of minutes that we played. They did a great job of wearing him down. But he did a great job for us. I told you guys last year I thought he was one of the best players in the country. Tonight he went against the big man in the country, and Marco played well.''Hey Mike, any idea why he ran out of gas??? Could it be because he played 34 minutes, 19 of 20 in the second half. Sean Kline only played 6 minutes and Ben Allen 1 minute. But then again you never haved subbed for your stars and they have always worn down at the end of games. And that was when you played the slow down offense. If you are going to push the ball, you better play some of that depth you keep talking about.
"Un-freakin-believable. And that was the disappointing thing about it. But I guarantee the fans if they continue to come and continue to support us, we do have a nice product that we have on the floor, and we're going to give them their money's worth. We didn't do it tonight in the first five minutes. You have an older team but it's an inexperienced team from being in games like this. We're Indiana. We deserve to be in these games, we're supposed to be in these games. And once we realize that I talked to a couple of the guys and they said they didn't sleep last night. I slept well because I watched the film of those guys and I watched our film and I know we're good. But for them to have that mindset. It shouldn't be any different to sleep against Eastern Michigan than it is to sleep against Duke because we are a very good basketball team. But unfortunately we have that mindset and sometimes when you have that mindset what happens in the first five minutes is going to happen.''Mike, the atmosphere in Assembly Hall is always rocking and the fans are behind the team when good basketball is being played. Unfortunately good basketball wasn't played the last 2 years. The big question is after you get your big contract extension and half your team is gone next year, what will next year be like? Call me crazy, but I sleep better when the team I root for is consistently good, not good one year... bad 2 years... good one year... And speaking of sleeping... what are you talking about? That last sentence doesn't make any sense at all.
"It goes back to guys not being able to sleep. How can you not sleep? I'm the one who should not be sleeping, not them. What are they worried about? Just play basketball. But it's a learning experience for our guys."Okay... now I'm really confused. What goes back to guys not being able to sleep? And just a minute ago you said you watched film and were able to sleep and now you are saying you are the one that shouldn't be able to sleep??? Too much talk about sleeping and absolutely not enough about basketball.
"Marco is unbelievable. I think when we do get D.J. back on Dec. 10. I'm just kidding, he's not coming back Dec. 10. Don't write that. But when we do get D.J. back we can go to D.J. a couple of possessions, go to Marco a couple of possessions. It won't be a lot of wear and tear on Marco. But he showed up. He scored 34 points. We're going to go to him every game. No matter who we play they know we're going inside to him.''Hmmm... this will be a strange offense with both Marco and DJ in together. What will the other be doing while the team is going to the other one? Standing around and resting? What will the guards be doing? Standing around and watching? Sounds like Mike is singling out one player again... just like he did with Bracey. I wonder how this will affect the other players?
"That's the way they played us the last time we played them. Coverdale, Hornsby and Fife, I think we may have made two or threes the whole game. Jared Jeffries scored a whole bunch of points. So we knew that. But our game plan is to go inside any way. It didn't matter. I told our guys at the half it doesn't matter if we make a 3-pointer all night. We're not trying to lead the country in 3-pointers. We're trying to win basketball games. If Marco needs to score 40 or 50, then let him score 40 or 50. I thought they did a better job, a lot better job tonight, of taking our transition away. And the reason they did that was because our four man took the ball out too slow. We have never taken the ball out that slow since we've been working. We've never gotten it out that slow. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was just the game. We were walking it and taking the ball out. We have scored lay ups on teams that have scored lay ups on us, and 3-point shots on us, right back to back. So we have to back to the drawing board and work on getting the ball out quicker and pushing the ball up. I thought Earl Calloway did a great job tonight. He was really big in a game like this. Coming from a junior college and being able to play the way he played, just shows great signs for him as a basketball player later on.''If Marco needs to score 40 or 50, then let him score 40 or 50??? Sounds like Mike is singling out one player again... just like he did with Bracey. I wonder how this will affect the other players? And the comments about the team playing slow... ever think that maybe Vaden and Strickland were just a bit tired playing 39 and 35 minutes respectively? Name me a team that pushes the ball and doesn't substitute? There aren't any because it can't be done. That style will wear out your players and they will be dead for the last 5 minutes of each half... just like what happened last night. But who am I to judge? You got the $900K salary and $300K bonus. Brilliant!
There was so much that could have been talked about in that post game press conference... yet Mike talks about sleep and Marco...
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