Underwood: Excited to be here in New York. Excited for the opportunity that is the Big Ten tournament. In what I think is the greatest basketball venue in all the world.
Underwood: We face an Iowa team coming off a tremendous win in Iowa against Northwestern. Fran has that team playing as well offensively as anyone in the country.
Underwood: We were not very good defensively in that first game. We didn't have Te'Jon, who is an important piece to us at the defensive end.
Underwood: Mark Smith was in practice yesterday. Still fairly weak. Expect him in uniform tomorrow.
Underwood: We're going to show some highlights & some clips of what this venue has meant to basketball. The Jordans, the Magics. I want our guys to understand where we're playing.
Underwood on playing in a tournament other than the NCAA tournament: Haven't even thought about it. If it comes up, we'll talk about it as a staff. As long as that Big Dance is still out there, that's where all my focus is right now.
Underwood: Yesterday, we were at NYU (practicing) at one of their rec buildings. Wasn't a full length court. Today, we're at the Nets facility.
Underwood: Da'Monte has been great on the glass. I showed our team clips of Te'Jon in the Rutgers game. The way he denied Sanders the ball. He had three of the best offensive rebounds we've had all year.
Underwood: I'm very critical of myself. I self-evaluate all the time. I really appreciate our growth. I knew it was going to be a battle... The growth of this team has really, really excited me.
Underwood: It's quite an accomplishment for Trent to make the All-Freshman team. Trent has improved as much as any freshman I've had in a long time. Couldn't even get the ball across halfcourt at Eastern. Excited for the future.
https://twitter.com/DPiper247
ray:
