Mike Woodson Reacts to Indiana Basketball's 71-65 Win Over Ohio State
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00:00 (microphone feedback)
00:03 - Yeah, Coach, I wanted to get your thoughts
00:09 on what has led to Malik's impressive improvement.
00:12 The foot works better, he's got more scoring moves.
00:14 Can you kind of take me through that development process
00:16 of getting him to the point he's playing at?
00:18 - This summer, you know, he put a lot of work in.
00:21 He never really left campus.
00:24 Got his weight down, the baby fat that he had last year
00:26 is trimmed down, and so you just gotta tip your hat to him.
00:31 He put the work in this summer, and it's paying off.
00:34 - Mike, Roddy Gale and Bruce Thornton were 0-for-12
00:39 over here to your right, Mike.
00:41 They were 0-for-12 from three-point range.
00:44 Ohio State only hit two threes in the second half.
00:46 What made the three-point defense better,
00:48 especially after halftime?
00:49 - Well, it wasn't like we were touching them.
00:53 I thought our defense from the 15-minute mark
00:55 on was pretty good, but the second chance
00:58 shots that they got, they had good looks.
01:01 You know, we just, we were so awful
01:03 rebounding the ball tonight.
01:05 And they had good looks on spraying the ball back out.
01:09 They was just bouncing funny,
01:10 and we couldn't come up with it.
01:11 But for the most part, when we were setting
01:15 in our half-court defense, we were pretty good
01:17 in terms of switching up and touching
01:19 and making sure guys weren't just facing up,
01:22 shooting threes in our face.
01:24 - Mike, on your left, in the town.
01:25 - Yeah, Mike, you were blunt in your assessment
01:28 of Xavier's play against Nebraska.
01:30 Did you feel like it was being a step healthier today,
01:33 or did you feel like he was motivated
01:35 to kind of erase that game?
01:38 - Well, you can blame me a little bit,
01:39 because, again, he hadn't had much floor time in practice.
01:44 And I just didn't want to blow him out the first game.
01:49 And he was a little irritated at me, and I get that,
01:52 'cause I only played him 14 minutes,
01:54 but his 14 minutes were awful.
01:57 You know, I don't care how you look at it.
01:59 You get 14 minutes, you gotta be positive
02:02 and do some things that help us win the game,
02:05 and he didn't do that.
02:06 And today, I told him I'd shoot around it.
02:09 I was gonna play him, let him loose.
02:12 And I thought he was used to that.
02:14 I gave him the game ball, him and CJ both,
02:17 because I thought CJ was excellent
02:19 coming off the bench for us.
02:23 - Mike, you got 18 points out of X tonight, too,
02:25 and in 34 minutes, he didn't have a single turnover,
02:28 and you only had four as a team.
02:31 I mean, after what you went through
02:32 with the turnovers Wednesday night,
02:34 how do you explain going from 19 to four
02:36 against a team that's just as aggressive defensively?
02:38 - It brings a smile to my face.
02:40 That's all I can tell you.
02:42 I mean, that was miserable, sitting through that
02:46 in Nebraska, just giving them the basketball.
02:48 And, you know, we talked about it.
02:50 We watched the game when we came back as a team,
02:52 and after I watched it a couple times,
02:56 I mean, it was just, it was awful.
02:59 But we rebounded from it, and learned from it,
03:02 and only had four turnovers a day, which is kinda nice.
03:06 - Coach, you brought up CJ before,
03:10 and obviously he gave you some really big minutes
03:12 off the bench, and, you know, a big part
03:14 of the improved backcourt play as a whole.
03:15 Just what allowed him to come in
03:17 and be so impactful tonight?
03:18 - His last few days of practice has been tremendous.
03:22 And, you know, I'm telling all these guys,
03:25 you know, it's how you practice, man,
03:29 that carries over into a real basketball game.
03:33 And you don't bring it in practice,
03:36 you're not gonna bring it in the game.
03:37 I've always believed that.
03:39 And I thought the last two days our practice was just,
03:43 it was tough, because I wasn't real happy
03:45 about the Nebraska play and how we played.
03:51 But he had two good days, man,
03:55 and I thought he deserved to play.
03:58 And I thought he responded, which was kinda nice.
04:00 - Yeah, Mike, sticking with CJ,
04:03 what do you think it'll take for him
04:05 to kind of stack together more consistent performances
04:08 like he did tonight?
04:09 You know, we've seen him do it, like, at Michigan,
04:10 but, you know, kinda had a lull there.
04:12 - A lot of it is just, you know,
04:14 these young guys, it's the mental part of it.
04:17 Knowing exactly what we're doing.
04:21 When we go into a game setting
04:22 and putting the game plan together,
04:26 it's mentally, your mental approach has gotta be on par.
04:30 And if I don't see that,
04:32 then how can I have confidence in playing you?
04:35 And I thought these last two days,
04:38 he was right on par, man,
04:39 in terms of what we wanted, Caleb as well.
04:42 You know, he didn't play as much,
04:43 but I thought tonight, you know, I was gonna play him.
04:46 I came into the game with the attitude
04:48 I was gonna play him both.
04:49 And CJ stepped up and gave us
04:52 some important minutes tonight.
04:54 - Revisiting rebounding, I think they had 49.
04:58 You guys finished with 27.
05:01 Why do you feel like the gap was that big tonight?
05:03 - A lot of it's because how the ball
05:05 was bouncing off the rim.
05:07 And the big fella, Felix, he had a lot to do with it.
05:11 I mean, he kept balls alive.
05:13 And, you know, and I told Ware and Malik,
05:17 you know, they were awful tonight
05:19 in rebounding the basketball.
05:20 Their bigs basically kicked our butts
05:23 in terms of going to the glass.
05:25 And, you know, you're not gonna beat a lot of teams
05:28 in the Big 10 with that kind of margin
05:30 in terms of rebounding.
05:32 We got away with it tonight,
05:33 but we gotta be much better as we go to Rutgers.
05:36 - Woody.
05:38 - You talk to a lot of players,
05:41 whether it be visitors or home,
05:43 and they always talk about,
05:45 the crowd gave us inspiration.
05:47 The Nebraska players talked about
05:48 the way the crowd motivated them.
05:50 And Ware talked about the crowd,
05:51 the way it motivated the Nebraska players.
05:55 What do you have to do when you go on the road
05:57 to get the crowd out of the game
05:59 and just play basketball
06:01 and get the crowd out of the game?
06:03 - Well, I can't ask the crowd to stay home.
06:05 That's for damn sure.
06:07 You know, I wish I could.
06:09 But I just think you gotta have
06:11 a mental toughness about yourself.
06:13 Just like we played the last 15 minutes of this ball game.
06:17 That's what you gotta take to the road.
06:19 And somehow I gotta get our team understanding that.
06:24 And you gotta do that for 40 minutes,
06:25 not just 15 minutes.
06:27 So, you know, that's on me some,
06:29 but I gotta get these guys to understand
06:32 what it's like to play on the road and win on the road.
06:35 All right, let's go.
06:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]