INDIANA UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 21, 2021

Mike Woodson

Postgame Media Conference

Q. Mike, through four games now only allowing 20 points in the first half through the defensive effort. Just great again tonight right out of the chute. Only made two of their first 29 shots.

MIKE WOODSON: Well, again, I got to give the players all the credit. They were paying attention to details, especially when we're game prepping for our opponents and they're going out and executing, so it's kind of nice to see from a coaching standpoint.

Q. In particular on defense, how important is it that you've got bigs that you can trust to switch onto smaller guys, or at the least handle the screen action so that they're not dropping and leaving space for somebody to get in the lane or shoot over a screen?

MIKE WOODSON: Well, again, our defense, we don't switch a whole lot with our bigs. We let four and fives switch, but fours and fives have a responsibility from a defensive standpoint, and then our guards that are on the ball have a responsibility.

And those responsibilities have been executed pretty well, I think, from a pick and roll standpoint. Our pick and roll defense has been pretty good because our bigs are active and able to be up, and we are demanding our guards get into the ball and take onus on guarding the ball.

It kind of goes hand in hand.

Q. Coach, why do you think your offense was so feast or famine today? 22 assists and 27 turnovers, and I think at one point you said there is a goal of 12 turnovers a game. What happens if you go over that?

MIKE WOODSON: It's a lot of running that's got to take place tomorrow. But at the end of the day, this is something we haven't been accustomed to doing and I'm a little disappointed about that.

I our point guards had eight between them, and Geronimo is doing things that he shouldn't be doing with the ball. So those are things that we can clean up, but overall I think it was a total team effort. Everybody that was thrown in the game tonight was ready to play.

That's important when you trying to build winning ways.

Q. What are your thoughts about how Khristian handled his opportunity tonight?

MIKE WOODSON: It was perfect. Again, I've always said next man up. Yeah, he hasn't played a lot, but he was ready to play. I thought he gave us some positive minutes, did a lot of good things on the floor on both end of the floor.

We just got to get him running our ball club a little bit better and taking pride in not turning the ball over.

Q. Did you see that big game from Parker coming, and how important is that for you to have that on your team?

MIKE WOODSON: Well, again, I saw that game -- I saw Parker in one of our exhibition games shoot it like that. I know he's capable. I've seen him in practice do it as well.

You know, he was ready to shoot tonight, which was -- wasn't no hesitation. He caught it and let it go.

As we move down the road he's going to have to do that for us, along with Miller and guys who do get wide open looks. They got to feel good about it and knock them down.

Q. What do you have to do to get Michael Durr to get going? I know he had the operation and looks like he's not in that great of shape. What do you got to do?

MIKE WOODSON: Again, I thought he played well tonight. I really did. He missed some chippies around the bucket, but Mike is big body, and for us, we need Mike to rebound, plug the hole up, and then when he gets it down there, make plays.

That's what he's been capable doing in the past, and, yes we got to get him in better shape. I think for the most part he played about 15, 16 minutes tonight. I thought he played some positive minutes. I really did. Just got rebound better for us.

Q. Along with the movement only the defensive side of things, I saw Khristian Lander and Tamar Bates were doing some great off-ball movement on the offensive side as well. Has that been an emphasis in practice, or is that just something they've just improved upon?

MIKE WOODSON: No, I think but they're capable of doing that. They've done some things like that in practice. You know, that group, that second unit was really good tonight in terms of the pace and how we want to play.

But, again, it's good to play with great pace, but you can't turn the ball over. You got to get shots. That's the beauty about running your offense. You run the offense to get good shots, not give it back to them where now you got to go play defense.

Q. Seems like on any given night someone can shoulder the burden of the scoring. How important is that depth for you guys to make a deep run like you want to?

MIKE WOODSON: Again, guys, we're just taking it one game at a time. We got a long way to go. I like the progress of our ball club because I think guys are committed individually and they're a ball team, and that's important when you're trying to build winning ways.

Q. I'm wondering what your process is for watching film? After a game like this, when do you like to stop, explain things? How do you drill it in that taking something you;re watching and being able to apply it when you do get on the floor?

MIKE WOODSON: Well that's all a part of coaching and playing basketball. I mean, films are wonderful tools to learn. You know, sometimes players can't see it on the court when they out there playing and dribbling and running up and down.

But film gives a tool that when things are not right, you can always show it. The beauty about the film is it don't lie. It points right to what you are trying to get across to the player, good or bad.

So we'll break this tape down, and if I got to go turnover by turnover, they going to see it and know about it.

Q. Coach, what kind of adjustments were you kind of focused on at halftime between -- toward the end of the first half and getting into the second?

MIKE WOODSON: Well, again, you got a big lead like that, you hold a team to, what was it, 14 points?

Q. 14 points.

MIKE WOODSON: You know, I just tell guys at halftime, Man, listen, we been in this position a few times where we didn't come out and play like we got the lead.

So I'm always hammering that into them at halftime. You just got to do the things that got you the lead, and the defensive end was the reason you were in the position you were in.

So you got to stay solid in that area. I thought we were pretty good the second half for the most part.