What Mike Woodson Said After Indiana’s 89-73 Loss to Gonzaga in Battle 4 Atlantis
PARADISE ISLAND, The Bahamas – No. 14 Indiana suffered another big loss in the Battle 4 Atlantis, this time falling 89-73 Thursday against No. 3 Gonzaga.
Here’s what Indiana coach Mike Woodson said in his postgame press conference.
On how he fixes Indiana’s defensive struggles in a tight turnaround…
Woodson: “Well, we don’t have time to practice to try to get it fixed. We play tomorrow at 11, and we’ll get up early tomorrow and watch some film and prepare for whoever we’re gonna play. I mean, we’re not connected right now, defensively, and I thought the first half it showed again. The second half, we played a lot better from a defensive standpoint, and I thought defensively we connected a little bit better. But good teams like Gonzaga and Louisville, you can’t spot them like we did, and that’s hard to come back against good teams like that. But our guys didn’t quit. They competed the second half, and hopefully we can build on that and get ready for tomorrow at 11 o’clock.”
On what he’d say to fans who are concerned about the big picture of the program…
Woodson: “Well again, right now my focus is on our team and a new team that’s got seven new players that we’re still trying to work things out and work through it. I’m gonna keep dishing it ‘til I get this team where I think it should be.”
On what the last 24 hours were like in terms of his message to the team…
Woodson: “Well, the main message – we had to play harder than what we did yesterday. I thought we came out and competed early. Then we hit that dry spot right before the half that gave them the cushion. Second half, I thought we competed. But again, unfortunately, you gotta play two halves and we weren’t able to put two halves together tonight.”
On what has caused opponents to go on big runs the last two games…
Woodson: “Well again, I won’t call it conditioning. We were in foul – Malik didn’t play hardly any in the first half with the foul troubles. I don’t like to second guess, but maybe we gotta start thinking about playing Malik with two fouls early to see if he can get through it. The last few years we struggled with that once he got into foul trouble. We tried that before, and he’d pick up a third one or a fourth foul and now you really gotta sit him. So we just gotta keep working, try to work through it. We got one more game before we leave the Bahamas, and my focus is on trying to get a win before we head back to Bloomington.”
On why Gonzaga had a 42-27 rebounding advantage, and how he can fix that…
Woodson: “Well again, it’s a major problem that we’ve had. A lot of it is we’re not putting bodies on bodies to block out, and that’s gotta stop. We gotta get our guys competing from a rebounding standpoint. I thought we rebounded against Louisville pretty well, but then you go in tonight’s game and you don’t rebound. That was probably the difference in the ballgame tonight.”
On what the team’s identity is defensively and what details are being missed in that area…
Woodson: “Well again, I thought we were on point from a defensive standpoint heading out here to the Bahamas. I thought our defense was kind of where we wanted it to be, and these last two games our perimeter play has gotten exposed. I gotta fix that. We gotta get guys sitting down and not having miscues in terms of our defensive coverages. That’s something that we gotta go back to practice and continue to work on and see if we can improve it and get it better.”
On what he attributes Gonzaga’s 36-14 advantage in points in the paint to…
Woodson: “Again, a lot of it is our believing in one another and believing in our rotations and being in the areas where we’ve played to protect the paint and to get out [to the 3-point line]. And we’ve been very awful in that category the last two games. We’ve been pretty good this year in protecting the paint, and then we scrambled out to guard the 3-point line and we’re not giving ourselves a chance there, because we’re not in position to protect the paint and guys have lost a little confidence in that area and I gotta get it back.”
On if defense was why he pulled Myles Rice early and his message to Rice after struggles…
Woodson: “Well, he has struggled, and I gotta somehow help him get back. You know, get his confidence back, and get him back to where he feels comfortable to guarding the ball, because that’s where it starts defensively. And I just think the two guards we’ve played out front these two games have kind of had their way in controlling the game. I thought Kanaan did a good job early on, but we gotta have that from Myles as well. We gotta get better guard play, because if we plan on making a run or making a good run in the Big Ten, then our guard play has gotta pick up.”
On Oumar Ballo’s improvements and performance against Gonzaga…
Woodson: “No, he’s gotten better since we’ve gotten him. I have no complaints with big fella. He’s doing everything that’s been asked of him. We just gotta get the supporting cast clicking on all cylinders. We’ve played some pretty good basketball, and I know you look at our opponents we’ve played – it’s not the Gonzagas and the Louisvilles, and that’s no knock against the teams that we have played, but we gotta get where we’re competing against top-notch teams like the Gonzagas and Louisvilles. And we’ll get there, we just gotta keep working at it.”
