What Tamar Bates Said After Leading Hoosiers to Win Over Kennesaw State

Indiana basketball guard Tamar Bates led the Hoosiers to a 69-55 victory over Kennesaw State on Friday. Bates scored 19 points off of three triples in his season-high 31 minutes of play.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana guard Tamar Bates led the Hoosiers to a 69-55 win over Kennesaw State before the Hoosiers take a 13-day break for the holidays.

Bates scored 19 points off of three triples in his season-high 31 minutes of play. Read his full transcript below, or just watch the attached press conference.

On how the offense has been consistent over the past few games...

BATES: "Pretty much the same thing I said in Vegas. It's not a secret recipe or any mystery as to why anything is going, or I guess you could say going my way on offense. It's just putting the work in that's all, by myself and with the team just also knowing that my teammates and the coaches have confidence in me to go play my game."

On bringing the spark off the bench...

BATES: "I mean just depending on the flow of the game, I always want to try and pick my spots and do what I can to bring us some energy because we need that tonight.

It wasn't necessarily a slow start. It just wasn't too much energy in the group on both ends of the floor, so I just tried to find a way where I could bring the spark in. Tonight that was running the floor and getting on the rim."

On his confidence when the shots are falling...

BATES: "Well honestly I was really confident off the first three and that shot went in and out, and then the pull-up was in and out too, so I knew it was going to be a pretty solid shooting night, but yeah I feel like that's a thing for pretty much anybody.

Like if you see one fall, two fall, especially consecutively, you're just itching to get the next one up."

On if the nail, slot, rim assignments get changed for a good three-point team like Kennesaw State...

BATES: "We always stick to what we want to do. Tonight we had to extend our nail a little bit, cause we were like really deep on the free throw line, and we wanted to bring it out more where the three-point line is just so we can get out to the shooters a lot quicker cause yeah, you guys saw they were making a lot of shots, a lot of threes and that's where most of their offense came from.

It's really just we always stick to what we want to do but when adjustments need to be made, we'll do so."

On Bates' mentality of getting extra work in...

BATES: "I just keep the same schedule, same routine for home games. It's hard for away games just 'cause the games are at different times.

I keep the same routine pretty much. I did the same thing last year, so just keeping the same routine every game just so it all feels the same coming into it."

On his pre-practice stretching routine...

BATES: "I mean, just 'cause I want to take care of my body, just be able to play, just be available like I always say.

I mean, we put so much work in on the court, in the weight room, we got to take some time to really rewind and take care of our bodies, stretch and recover.

I started, like, stretching, really trying to invest more in my body in high school, like my junior and senior year. More so my senior year because that's when I got more into the yoga, meditation through my team. That was things we did two, three times a week.

Those habits just built over time. That's just something that is second nature now.

On if he changed his shot mechanics...

BATES: "I wouldn't say I changed my shot mechanics. Just more so calming down and shooting the ball, having that mentality where just to shoot the ball in the game the same way when I'm in there working out and it's empty. That's pretty much it. Just calming down, not being so tense really, taking a lot of pressure off myself."

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