It was an interesting and somewhat dramatic week in Big Ten basketball, with more upsets, the Bruce Weber Rant and a major cut at Purdue.

Here are some responses in the coaches' words, from the weekly Big Ten conference call:

Indiana's Tom Crean on the road loss to Iowa and his team's inconsistency: "There are certain constants you've got to have on the road. And certainly, at the end of the day, you've got to shoot a pretty high percentage, you've got to be able to make some easy baskets, you've got to find a way to get to the foul line. But more importantly than that you've just got to have a collective, defensive mindset where you just totally understand what you're trying to do. And then in answer to that, it'd be a lot simpler. Because we don't. The bottom line is, we played one of the harder preparation teams in the country, in Northwestern and got better as the game went on, especially defensively. [Sunday] I didn't think we got better as the game went out, we got off to a great start, but we didn't continue to handle things, especially on the defensive end with some screening and switching. You can really not afford many breakdowns on the road, and we had too many of those throughout the game at costly times."

Illinois' Bruce Weber on Illinois being a team – player-wise and staff-wise – that is searching for answers: "Yeah, I mean, look at our games. We literally had six games, eight games in a row where [the final score differential] was under four points. First time since 1929 when they did the jump balls and had the peach baskets and they scored 19-16 in all the games. It takes a toll on you in a game like Minnesota when you thought you won the game and there's a call and it takes your heart. And you respond but sooner or later, it takes a toll, it takes a toll on the kids. And that's my big job to help the kids, there's no doubt about it. That's our staff – we've got to keep fighting, keep plugging away. I thought they were great the first part of Nebraska and then I think it all just took a toll on us."

Northwestern's Bill Carmody on John Shurna's unorthodox shot: "Well, you know, it is a funky-looking thing. He shot the ball in high school but he didn't take a lot of threes being a big kid, he was inside a lot. But he stepped out and in AAU you could see -- in warmups, mostly -- that it looked a little different. But when he got here my assistants were saying this and that and we were talking about it early on -- but the thing we noticed was that it went in a lot. So we didn't mess around with it.
I've seen guys over the years that look a little different, put their elbow in, do this, do that and I remember the guy with the Pistons, "Microwave." Vinnie Johnson, his thing was nasty looking, but it went in a lot. It's the same thing with John. So we never did anything with it. In the end his release is great; it looks a little different like a punch, but he's 6-9 but it comes off his hand great and follows through really well."

Purdue's Matt Painter on the incident that resulted in the school suspending D.J. Byrd for a game and dismissing Kelsey Barlow: "As a coach it's just disappointing, because you're playing good basketball, you're moving in the right direction and then you have a distraction. But I think it kind of also will bring out the true character of our team here. any time you face adversity like this, it's time for the next guy to step up, it's time for everybody to come together and play the game the right way and act the right way. So hopefully we can all learn from this – even those that aren't with us."