Dusty May press conference after win at Purdue

I mean, we need to deliver a lot of punches, whether it was the first or second, or we knew this was going to go— how many rounds? 10 rounds. We do 4-minute games and there's— there's 10 rounds, and we knew this one would go all 10. And so if we took a shot, then we had to respond, and our guys did that over the course of the game.

That was impressive the way we answered those runs with really sound play. Dusty, you've got a lot of underclassmen that have been very effective for you guys, particularly tonight.

Yeah, I thought our guys did a really nice job of getting the advantage and keeping it other than the last 2 or 3 minutes of the first half. Part of that was on me. I'd say at least half of it was on me. We didn't— we got into a little bit of a one-on-one attacking catch-up mode, and that wasn't what got us to that point and built the lead.

And then the second half, I thought our spacing was pretty good, but we know how we're built, so certain games are going to dictate us doing some certain things. And I thought when they put 2 on the ball, Elliot Cadeau made really, really good plays to just get us in closeouts. I thought we drove the ball, we drove it to kick it, and when we— when they had made some adjustments, we finished well around the rim.

And when we didn't, I thought our guys were aggressive on the glass. So overall, we just played a good, solid basketball game.

Um, we're going to try to spin everything, even, even the Yaxel Lendeborg video from last early summer, whatever. We're going to try to take everything as something that is a bonding moment together. And so this is great for our fans, it's great for recruiting, it's great for the attention that it puts on our program and our prestigious university.

But as far as do we care, absolutely not. April 7th, before number one, that's— that's what we're ultimately concerned with. But in the meantime, we're trying to win a Big Ten championship, and we're trying to set ourselves up for the best seat possible and things like that. So the number 1 ranking, absolutely not.

I mean, obviously, when you become number 1, you do it on a week where you have to go to Purdue and play Duke on a neutral site, and you know it could be short-lived if you let it affect you at all. And so our guys, we just get to the next thing. Now, tomorrow seems like our first off day in a long, long time. We've been in a stretch run, I don't know, I don't know what it is, but I know how it feels.

So we need to get back, regroup, and start preparing for Duke. And then even we'll change our focus a little bit with this game where this is going to be more of a break recess from Big Ten play where now we're going to treat it like a Sweet Sixteen because you're— I'd say first round NCAA tournament game, but Duke's not— we're not going to be playing Duke in the first round.

So we're going to treat it like a Sweet Sixteen, hopefully Final Four type of game where we're going into with a short prep. We don't know them very well. Can we get our guys, and then can we execute a game plan? And if we do it well, then it'll be an awesome win.

If we don't, then it'll be a great learning experience for us moving into the next month.