IU Coach Todd Yeagley and junior midfielders Nikita Kotlov and A.J. Corrado took questions following Indiana's 4-1 NCAA tourney opener against Xavier on Sunday afternoon.
Yeagley on Xavier: I'd like to congratulate Xavier for an outstanding season. They're very well coached, they are disciplined and they have some good attacking players. They scored 48-49 goals this year and that is quite impressive.
Yeagley on the second half: I thought we adjusted well, we went a little bit more direct than maybe we'd like to have gone, but again that was what the game was giving us. Our guys respond and we need big plays from our players. Today Nikita's first goal, the way that opened up the game was fantastic and obviously the rest came after that.
Yeagley on possible Notre Dame matchup: We know them really well. We have seen them a lot this year because of our tournament and then we went to theirs. After this year's game we said it felt like a tournament game. It was very evenly fought and you knew it was going to be a restart or a great play and it turned out to be the restart that got that win. This group is very confident playing Notre Dame and we are familiar with the setting there if we were to advance.
Yeagley on today's result: I thought today was a good example for us that we need to take care of business each and every moment that we have. We know the next one doesn't come unless we do that. It was a very difficult second round game.
Yeagley on Hollinger-Janzen's play: Femi is just starting to come out of his shell. He has tremendous abilities and stretches the game for us. I thought he had one before that he maybe should've shot. We need to be more aggressive with those, maybe one gets through and deflects in from someone's leg similar to his goal.
Kotlov on his second goal: A.J. passed me the ball and I had a few yards to run. They gave me a little more time and did not close me down. I just hit it and it went in.
Kotlov on opening up the game: The scoreboard didn't show how the game went really well. I think it was a lot closer. They were a great team and that goal opened up the game more. There was a lot of open opportunities for us to run with it then hold the ball and try to kill time.
Kotlov on scoring late this season: It took me awhile to score my first goal this year and Coach has been telling me after you get one they will keep coming and they have been. Today, I felt comfortable on the ball and I had two great passes to put two away. My teammates made it easy for me today.
Corrado on second half defensive adjustment: Going into halftime like Coach said, "We both had our moments." So we kind of took what we felt had gotten us the better run of play and tried to expand on that. It was playing tight on the ball in the defensive half and getting the ball forward while smothering them so they didn't get the opportunity to use their attacking players.
Corrado on being down/tied at halftime: The tournament is different, really no matter what the score is at halftime during a tournament game the energy is high. The attitude is let's go out and get them. It could have been 2-0 us or them we were ready to go back out and make it happen. It was do or die.
Corrado on Bushue's play: He brings a lot to our team, there is no question about that. When he is out there he fights extremely hard. So when he is out there you know that he is on your side. That is comforting and at the same time, people feed off of it. When he is working his tail off it just spreads. Other people start doing the same.
