Northwestern Coach Chris Collins Reacts to Win Over Indiana

Northwestern defeated Indiana 84-83 on Sunday at Assembly Hall behind 26 points from Boo Buie. Here's what Chris Collins said, including full video from his postgame press conference.

Jack Ankony | Jan 8, 2023

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Northwestern Wildcats

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Northwestern moved to 12-3 overall and 3-1 in Big Ten play with an 84-83 win over No. 15 Indiana at Assembly Hall.

Here's the full transcript of Northwestern coach Chris Collins' postgame press conference, plus video from Collins attached below.

Opening statement...

Collins: It's always special to play in this building. I always feel fortunate. This is one of the iconic, in my opinion, iconic places in all of college basketball as someone who's loved the game so much, so when you come in and you see all that red and you see it packed, man, your juices get flowing. Just really proud of my team today. I thought the start of the game really set a good tone for us. I thought our execution early in the game was really good. We knew they were going to have a lot of energy coming off the game against Iowa the other night, and we knew how important the start of the game was going to be, especially with the crowd. So our ability to kind of get open shots, share the ball, I thought we got down hill and got some dunks and some open 3's and then had the lead there at the under-four timeout and we knew that's why they're a heck of a team and they're well coached, they're not going to go down without a fight. I'm just happy they ran out of time. Hood-Schifino, I mean, the shots he was making in the last three minutes and then obviously Galloway throws in a three-quarter-court shot and we were fortunate we had one more point than they did and made our free throws. We didn't have any turnovers in that stretch, and just feel fortunate to come away with a really big road win.

On Northwestern's points off turnovers...

Collins: Even though we gave up 83 today, our defense has been our calling card. Our offense has been the one that's been a struggle. Our defense has carried us all year long, and then today we needed all of the offense. I thought we did some good things in terms of creating turnovers, but they're very difficult to guard because of what Trayce can do. He's not a prototypical low-post player. He gets the ball out at the mid-post and he drives it, so it's really hard to know when to help off of it. I thought our ability to get 25 points off of the turnovers was a huge stat to the game because they weren't able to get their defense set. We were able to attack in transition and gets some easy ones and you've got to be able to find a way to do that on the road.

On road wins over Michigan State and Indiana...

Collins: We have a lot of heart. And it's still early. Every game, we've played four now, and we've got 16 to go, but to play the schedule we've played these first four games, to play Ohio State, Illinois and Michigan State and Indiana, two of those on the road, and to come out of that 3-1, that's a really good stretch for our guys. We're not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. We have a lot of limitations, but our guys really battle and they really fight. There's power when you have a together group. Everyone knows their roles. We know our guards are the ones that are keys. They have the ball in their hands, they make good decisions, and those other guys are just filling into their roles nicely. We get good production, the bench guys are coming in and they're helping us. Matt Nicholson's emergence. I thought Ty Berry's game today, a double-double with 11 rebounds was huge from the wing position. Just really proud. I just love going into those locker rooms, you can tell when a team's really together and they laid it all out on the line and super proud of our effort today.

On Boo Buie's 26 points...

Collins: He was fantastic because Chase went down a little bit, his back locked up on him early there in the second half it kind of tweaked on him. I was like, 'Where's he at? Where's he at? We've got to get him back in the game?' But Boo's ability to play the pick and rolls kind of the rest of that game, I thought he made really good decisions for him to only have two turnovers and they were really trying to come after him. I thought he got downhill. He made some big-time floaters. We executed, had a really good score out of a timeout one time when we were bleeding a little bit, a sideline out of bounds, he got to his right hand and made a couple big shots over Trayce, which is not easy, he's such a great shot-blocker. He was fantastic. You come in here and you get 26 points on the road against a talented team like that, and then you add 19 and 8 from Chase with six steals, those guards certainly were worthy of playing as big-time players today."

On limiting Indiana's runs...

Collins: I felt like any time they started to go on – they had mini runs – but I never felt like we had that eight-minute drought that sometimes we've had where we can't find a bucket. I felt like even though they hit us with maybe an eight-point run or a seven point run, we found a way to get a layup or we found a way to get to the foul line, or someone stepped up and made a big shot when we needed it. That's what you have to do in these venues. That's what's so fun about playing in the Big Ten. You know these crowds are going to show up and the students. There's nothing better, in my opinion, and you're going to be tested. We told our guys with the communication, it was loud. There were a couple times even after the game where Boo said to me, 'Coach, I know you were calling a play, but I didn't hear crap because it was so loud in there.' Having older guys, too, I thought Robbie Beran played a great game for us today. Having him as a senior, Boo is a senior, Chase is a senior, Ty Berry is a junior who has played a lot. That's where you really lean on your veterans.

On Northwestern's defense...

Collins: We've been pretty active, defensively. If you look at our numbers, we haven't been giving up 80-plus points. I think Pitt was the only team to really do that to us early in the year. We've been forcing more turnovers this year, and part of it is Chase. He had six. He had half those steals, so his activity I think becomes infectious. We're finding a way with our defense to be aggressive. We only had eight guys that we're playing, so it's really hard for us to press and get up the floor and do that thing. But how can we be aggressive in the half court? And I think we've done a good job. Our hand activity. We do some trapping in the post that can cause some turnovers and then having, in my opinion, as good a defender as there is in the conference in Audige, certainly helps that number as well.

On his team playing hard...

Collins: Our guys know we have no chance if we don't – we come in to every game saying we've got to be the hardest playing team on the floor. If we're not, we're not going to win. That's not disparaging to the talent. We have good players, but in terms depth, in terms of size, in terms of scoring prowess, some of these teams with that they trot out, we don't have, but we do have a lot of heart and we do have a lot of fight and we're really together. We talk about those things – can we do those things at an elite level? And if we do, hopefully you'll put yourself in a position to win some games. Fortunately for us, we've won some close games. We've taken a lot of flack throughout the years for not being able to close. These guys deserve some praise for closing today. We've closed at Michigan State. We've closed some games this year that hopefully some of the experience and maybe not doing as well in the past has rubbed off on this year. It's the leadership. It's about the guys. That's when you can have fun coaching a team when you can spend all your time as a coach worrying about game planning. I'm not worried about attitudes. I'm not worried about who's worried about their roles. Everyone is in such a great place with that. Now we can really just say, 'What do we need to do to beat this opponent?' and that's what's made it a really fun team to coach so far.

On if he cares if Northwestern is ranked...

Collins: No. Our guys have goals. They want to play meaningful games when it matters in late February and March. Is it a feather in the cap to the program? Absolutely. If someone says you're a top-25 team and players like that, but it doesn't matter. You guys follow this league. To me, everybody's in the top 25. Every team we've played, we've played four games so far and all four of those teams are just really good teams and they just told me we play Rutgers next, so I'm really not looking forward to that one either. This league is going to be about that. We can't get caught up in rankings. It was a great week for us, a 2-0 week. We took care of business at home, we went on the road and won. We've got to get home and get rested and get ready for the next one on Wednesday.