Players Q&A: Lamar Wilkerson, Reed Bailey react to Indiana's win over Penn State

Indiana basketball guard Lamar Wilkerson and forward Reed Bailey spoke with the media Tuesday night following Indiana’s blowout 113-72 win over Penn State.

Below are their full Q&As, as well as a transcript of the conversation (to be added once it became available).

Watch on Youtube! Hit that Subscribe button please!

Q. Lamar, 10 threes, school record. 44, building record. Take us through what happens when you’re shooting that well.

LAMAR WILKERSON: All credit to my team and the coaches. Coach told me today was going to be the day that I got hot because I’ve been having a rough couple games. He fed me the ball. I seen one, two, three go in, then after that they just like find the hot hand. They kept feeding me. The shots kept going in.

Q. Is there a moment in a game like this where you feel like even more than normal, a certain confidence, flow, rhythm?

LAMAR WILKERSON: For sure. Hole looked big as the ocean today, man. So I was just throwing it up there. It just happened to go in. All glory to God, man.

Q. Were you just shooting for 10 at the end to get a nice round number? Did you know that was the record with 10 made threes?

LAMAR WILKERSON: Not at all. I was just shooting, man (smiling).

Q. I think you were like 5 of 23 from three in the last three games. How challenging was that, how hard was that? How relieving is it to have an outing like that?

LAMAR WILKERSON: I was in my head about it a couple days. Even in practice, my coaches came up, my teammates came up, just keep shooting the ball. Shooters shoot. Shoot the ball, everything is going to work out. It’s a numbers game.

Q. What is it like out there watching someone get hot like that and keep filling it up?

REED BAILEY: You guys saw it for yourself. It’s pretty cool. We all knew he could do it. We’re all here. When he gets hot, we’re just trying to help him get some open shots. When it starts falling like, that it’s hard to come by open looks, but he works his butt off. We all saw it coming.

Q. Lamar, at what point did you realize you’d have a special night like this?

LAMAR WILKERSON: It never crossed my mind actually. We lost the last two, so we were coming as a team, collective, trying to get back to the way we was playing. The ball was just going in.

Q. Reed, how bad do you feel like Lamar needed a night like tonight after the last few games he had?

REED BAILEY: I don’t know. I can’t speak on it for him. I know that like me personally, I have nothing but trust in Lamar to be the shooter he is, the belief in him to be able to go out and make shots.

So I’m not going to speak from him perspective. But it was a great night. It’s amazing, but not surprising.

Q. Reed, you were perfect from the field, as well, from the free-throw line. What was working for you?

REED BAILEY: Probably when we’re making shots, it opens up the middle of the floor. That’s everybody, credit to ‘Mar finding me on some of those rolls, then everybody else.

Yeah, I think we had 30 assists. That’s just credit to everybody moving the ball around, trying to find the open teammates, playing unselfish basketball.

Q. Lamar, when coach comes up here after the game and says he still has confidence in you, what does that make you feel?

LAMAR WILKERSON: That just installs confidence in me. Every day coach sees how hard I work. He’s always trying to get me open, trying to find ways to get me open shots. We have discussions about it.

It helps install my confidence in me every game.

Q. Reed, coming off the Louisville game, was there a main message that coach delivered to you guys?

REED BAILEY: Yeah, it’s just keep being ourselves. There’s always things we’ve been working on, whether it’s being more physical or sharing the ball, all those types of things. But just getting back to how we played some basketball.

30 assists, you think about the beginning of the year. Yeah, just being more physical, then playing with an edge, playing with effort, having fun.

Not yet a member of TheHoosier?  Join our community for Just $1 for your first week and get a complimentary year of The Athletic included with your membership. Join here!

Make sure to follow and subscribe to all TheHoosier social media platforms so you never miss any of our content including X, Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Pocket Casts.