Mike Woodson Reacts to Indiana Basketball's 86-70 Loss at Nebraska
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00:00 >> Yeah, Coach, obviously a lot of different things to talk about, but
00:03 you guys allowed them 1.4 points per possession in the second half,
00:08 only scored 0.9 points per possession in the first half.
00:11 What are the big things you see that you guys need to do to fix the defense and
00:13 fix the offense?
00:15 >> Turn the ball over, that will help.
00:17 We had 19 turnovers with 27 points.
00:25 I thought that was the difference in the game.
00:27 I mean, we go out on the road, you gotta play differently than you do at home.
00:32 You gotta defend, you gotta rebound, and you can't turn it over.
00:37 And I thought tonight that was the biggest problem.
00:40 And when I look at the stat sheet and look at their perimeter play,
00:45 they outplayed our starting two guards who were awful tonight.
00:50 Their two guards were really good, one, two, and three.
00:57 >> Mike and then Todd.
00:58 >> Yeah, Mike, you guys have had 36 turnovers in the last two games.
01:03 Is it something you've seen in practice that you saw this coming at all?
01:06 And how do you fix that as a collective effort when you guys,
01:10 the turnovers are piling up at such a high rate?
01:13 >> Well, again, I mean, practice has been pretty good.
01:17 But we preach a lot about not turning the ball over,
01:20 cuz that's huge when you win and lose the basketball games.
01:24 And over the last two years, we've been pretty good in that area.
01:30 The last two games, we've exploded the other way in terms of turning
01:35 the ball over, and that's something we just gotta, somehow we gotta fix that.
01:40 Because you can't win, you can't beat anybody, especially on the road,
01:43 you're not gonna beat anybody turning it over 19 times.
01:47 >> Todd.
01:48 >> Mike, Nebraska was making it difficult for
01:51 the guards to get the ball into the, or the turnovers were a symptom of that.
01:55 But what do you think they were doing to make it hard on you guys?
01:57 >> Well, I mean, I think a lot of times we were trying to
02:00 create things that weren't there.
02:03 They put two on the ball, and that's been pretty good for
02:07 us when teams put two on the ball.
02:08 We are able to pull it and get rid of the ball, and
02:12 that pass leads to something good.
02:14 Tonight, we tried to fight the two on the ball, and
02:20 we were throwing it away.
02:21 I mean, we just had some unforced turnovers that were just unacceptable.
02:27 But hey, we gotta go back and fix that,
02:31 because you're not gonna beat anybody in the Big Ten doing that.
02:34 >> George.
02:35 >> Mike, what went into letting Xavier finally get a chance to play after
02:39 missing seven games?
02:40 >> Well, he's our senior.
02:43 He's our starting point guard.
02:46 He only played 14 minutes tonight.
02:49 So I mean, he's had a few practices under his belt, and
02:54 we thought he was ready to go, and we played him some tonight.
02:57 We started him tonight.
02:58 >> Yeah, Mike, obviously, defensively, you have a lot of new players this season.
03:04 Is it taking longer to kind of get the guys to kind of build the cohesion on
03:09 the defensive end and kind of understand maybe what you're wanting out of them?
03:12 >> You could say that.
03:13 I mean, we've had our moments where we've been down in some games,
03:17 we've made some big time runs, and it was because of our defense.
03:22 And this team is not as good as we were defensively in the last two years.
03:27 And a lot of it is because we do have new faces, but we gotta overcome that.
03:33 I gotta get over on the hump when it comes to defending and
03:37 rebounding and not turning the ball over.
03:39 It's my job to do that, and we failed in that area tonight.
03:43 >> George, last question.
03:48 >> Mike, how concerning is it not knowing which team is gonna show up?
03:55 I mean, of course, the turnovers were a big factor tonight, but
03:58 I mean, you don't really know whether you're, most likely on the road,
04:02 is where you're having all the trouble, but not knowing which team is gonna show up.
04:06 >> Well, again, we've been competitive off and on.
04:11 I just gotta get us competitive for 40 minutes.
04:14 I thought the Michigan game on the road, we were solid from beginning to the end.
04:20 And was able to come out of that building with a win.
04:23 And that's how you're gonna have to play on the road in the Big Ten.
04:27 At home, you gotta defend at home, you got games at home.
04:31 I mean, we got our fan base, we seem to play a little bit better, but
04:35 it's different on the road.
04:37 You gotta do all the things right on the road to win basketball games, and
04:40 we didn't do that tonight.
04:41 >> All right, thanks coach.