Mike Woodson Recaps Indiana Basketball's 89-80 Win Over Wright State
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Hey, Coach.
00:01 With the number of threes you guys have given up to your first three opponents,
00:05 what are some defensive adjustments or changes or improvements that you'd like to see?
00:10 Just us switching correctly and getting next to a guy before he shoots the basketball.
00:18 That would help.
00:23 I really don't want to talk about it.
00:25 I like to talk about my grandbaby.
00:29 I should send a shout out to Mariah Adams and her husband for having our first grandbaby tonight.
00:36 Way to go, Mariah.
00:38 You're listening.
00:40 All right.
00:41 Go ahead.
00:44 Congratulations, I guess, first of all.
00:46 Thank you.
00:47 And back to the game.
00:50 We spent so much time the last two years asking you about Trace.
00:52 Kalel obviously plays that position differently in some ways.
00:56 There's some things you ask him to do similar, but just kind of with a guy that can move around the floor
01:01 and stay in the offense the way that he can with his jump shot, with his three-point shot,
01:05 just how much can he give you when maybe you're trying to fit some other pieces together,
01:11 just an anchor point for you, I guess?
01:14 He's doing everything we've asked him to do since he's been here.
01:18 And he's rebounded the ball.
01:20 He's blocked shots.
01:23 He's made shots on the perimeter.
01:25 He's made shots down low.
01:27 I just want to keep him in that space.
01:31 Mike, I need to ask you a question.
01:33 In extension to that, did you expect him to have so much confidence?
01:35 I mean, he seems to be kind of growing, but did you see that in the preseason?
01:38 Or were you kind of interested to see what would happen in these first few games?
01:41 He seems to be playing with a lot of confidence, especially with his back to the basket.
01:45 Did you expect that right out of the gate from him?
01:48 Guys, he's a young player.
01:49 All these guys are young players.
01:51 And sometimes on certain nights you get good things from some of these young players.
01:56 Sometimes you don't.
01:58 That's just how it works.
02:01 And he's been playing extremely well.
02:04 You know, he started out a little slow when we first got together,
02:07 and he's picked it up and he's doing all the things that we've asked him to do.
02:12 And we've just got to take it a game at a time
02:15 and keep him in a good place where he's doing the things that he's been doing for us.
02:21 You got it.
02:22 You're right, Jack.
02:23 Congrats, Mike, on your family good news.
02:26 Thank you.
02:28 As far as the team is concerned, of the things that have cropped up in the three games,
02:32 whether it's free throw shooting, three-point defense, shot selection at times,
02:38 where is the most level of concern that you have,
02:42 or is it just collectively about everything?
02:44 Well, it would be a major concern had we lost those three games.
02:48 We won them.
02:51 Be curious to see what you guys would really be saying had we lost the games.
02:56 You know, we haven't put a perfect game together.
03:00 The game before this game we made our free throws.
03:02 We didn't make them tonight.
03:05 You know, the three ball has been a major concern.
03:07 We haven't shot the three ball very well.
03:10 So, I figure if you put all those together, boy, life might be pretty good.
03:15 I wouldn't probably be having this conversation with you.
03:18 But that ain't the case.
03:20 So, we just got to keep working, take it at a time, a game at a time,
03:25 and see where it leads us.
03:27 Jack, you're left, and Mike.
03:29 Hey, Mike.
03:30 The offense seemed to click a lot more today, early 54 first-half points, 89 total, I guess.
03:35 What was kind of your message or some of the adjustments you made in practice this week
03:38 to try to get the offense clicking a little more?
03:40 I thought we got out to a great start the first time this unit, you know, in a real game,
03:47 established themselves on both ends of the floor from a defensive standpoint
03:51 and putting the ball in the hole.
03:53 And then we gave up three straight threes.
03:58 They were sitting at 30 with about, I think, four on the clock, four or five on the clock.
04:04 And you can't go in giving up 19 points, basically, is what we gave up going in at halftime.
04:13 And that's something we hadn't done since, you know, this unit has been together,
04:19 a 19-point stretch in five, four, five minutes.
04:23 That's just too many points.
04:25 And they made a game out of it going in at halftime.
04:28 So, those are things that we got to clean up.
04:30 But I was pleased with the guys in terms of how they started the game on both ends of the floor
04:36 because we hadn't seen that in the first two games.
04:40 Coach, on the offensive end in the first half, there seemed like a real emphasis to push the pace
04:45 and attack in the first 10 seconds of possessions,
04:48 and it seemed like you had a lot of success with that.
04:50 Did you emphasize that going into the game?
04:52 Did you like what you saw?
04:54 And did you feel like the guys got away from that a little?
04:56 No, I thought we got away from it, but we had been working on that in practice
05:01 and trying to push the pace, get more ball movement, body movement,
05:06 and I thought we established that early.
05:09 And it didn't hurt us that we were getting stops and getting out.
05:12 So, you know, all those things play a major role in terms of how you play offense.
05:18 And, you know, it was kind of nice to see because that first unit had been struggling
05:22 in the first two games coming out of the box.
05:25 So, we just got to figure out how to put a complete 40-minute game together
05:30 the way I like to see it.
05:32 Mason, front of the trap.
05:34 Coach, getting to talk to Malik earlier this week,
05:36 he kind of talked about how he and Khalil have been kind of coming together
05:39 both in terms of their progression on the court and off the court chemistry-wise.
05:43 What are you getting from them that you like so far, and what's next for that duo?
05:46 No, they're playing well together.
05:48 I mean, you know, when you talk about going against teams that got big bodies,
05:54 you know, they got to play that way.
05:56 We call it buddy ball.
05:57 They're really connecting in terms of, you know, making plays for one another,
06:02 you know, high-low plays, you know.
06:05 I mean, they're both extremely good passers with the basketball.
06:09 They're giving passers.
06:10 If you're open, they'll give you the ball.
06:12 You just got to do something with it when you get it.
06:15 Trucker, second row on the left.
06:17 The first three opponents have hit the offensive glass really hard,
06:21 14 offensive boards for Wright State tonight.
06:25 Is that a concern going forward, or is it just smaller teams just taking threes?
06:30 No, I think it is a concern.
06:33 You know, and a lot of it is because the three teams are really taking a lot of
06:38 three-point shots against us and long shots, long rebounds.
06:43 And, you know, our guards, you know, I can't have my starting guards play 26,
06:47 28 minutes and get one rebound a piece.
06:51 You know, that just can't happen.
06:53 Hell, I can get a rebound at 65 years of age probably, stumble into one.
06:58 I mean, they got to help rebound the ball.
07:01 I think Ware and Malik are doing a great job, you know, as far as rebounding it.
07:08 But the surrounding pieces, man, we got to pick up the scraps, man,
07:12 that are out there.
07:13 And, you know, our opponents are beating us to those balls.
07:16 And we got to figure that out.
07:19 I guess just quickly on X, I recognize it sort of just happened right there at
07:23 the end.
07:24 Just what happened and where is he at?
07:26 I have no idea where he is right now.
07:29 You know, I'll know more tomorrow when I come in.