INDIANA UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 23, 2022

Mike Woodson

Postgame Media Conference

Michigan 80, Indiana 62

Q. Obviously they got open for I think 11 for 19 from three. Seemed like a lot of those were wide open. What did you see go wrong as far as getting out the shooters on defense today?

MIKE WOODSON: Got to give them a lot of credit. They played a great game. I told Juwan that after the ballgame. I just thought our rotation, I thought our intensity starting the game, when I look at the stat sheet and look at the plus/minus, everybody had minuses, so that just lets me know we weren't there tonight, which that's on me. It's just unacceptable, especially coming off a great game like the Purdue game.

Q. You went to Galloway and Phinisee just a couple minutes into the second half. What were you missing from the starting five, and what were you hoping to get there?

MIKE WOODSON: Well, again, our starting five the last two games has dug a hole. They've been pretty good all year, but our bench bailed us out in the Purdue game, but tonight we just -- we got down so much. We'd make runs and then we'd kill ourselves by giving the run back. When you make a run -- we haven't been down a whole lot this year like that, and when we have, we've gotten stops.

I thought 80 points is a lot of points to give up for us. We've got to defend every night in order to put ourselves in position to win.

Q. You've been emphasizing home court all year, and this is the first loss at home. The energy level, how disappointing is that considering the fact that you guys are here?

MIKE WOODSON: Well, it's disappointing, but again, it's my job to make sure that they don't drop the rope and we come back and go to work tomorrow and get ready for Penn State.

Q. Kind of going off of that, after that win against Purdue on Thursday, what's your message to the team on keeping momentum going forward?

MIKE WOODSON: Well, again, Penn State is next. We've got to go back and break this tape down and actually see where all the breakdowns were and why our plus/minus was all minuses. Those are areas that we can learn and grow as a team.

But Penn State is next, and I've got to get them ready to go for Penn State. We can't go back and get this one.

Q. I know you weren't here before the season, so you've got nothing to do with that, but this team has had a penchant for not performing after big wins, and whether it's this team or any team in sports through your experience, what is it about responding to a big win with a letdown or not keeping that from happening?

MIKE WOODSON: Again, they haven't had very many big wins here. Their wins have been kind of on a roller coaster. I think when you experience some success, it's new to us. We're still learning as a team how to win. That's why we're in the position we're in.

We've done some good things this season, but we've still got a long way to go, and hopefully we can learn -- it's my job to make sure we learn from this situation today because I'm not taking anything away from Michigan; they played great. They were fabulous tonight, and we've just got to get ready now, and like I said, break the tape down and get ready for Penn State.

Q. With about six minutes to go, Miller Kopp and Parker Stewart had a combined five points. In your eyes is it about getting those two going or is it about looking for other options that you can plug in there?

MIKE WOODSON: Well, again, the way teams are playing us, they know that they can make shots if they're open. I thought our early shots that we had on the perimeter, we had so much pressure coming at us, instead of just pump faking and letting the guys go by, they made us miss. They weren't hoping we missed, they made us miss shots.

You reverse that, we were hoping that they missed shots instead of making them miss shots. That was the difference in our pressure on their three-point shooters. I mean, that's something that hadn't been consistent for us. We've been normally good on the three-point line, but we let it get away tonight. That was the difference in the game I thought.

Q. Obviously to go back to Parker, obviously you get three big threes from him, but you're not getting I don't think the defense you want. How do you try to balance that in terms of how you use him the minutes, how you get the most out of him when he can hit big shots for you but you're not necessarily --

MIKE WOODSON: Well, I thought the other night against Purdue, our starters came out and they were aggressive, but they couldn't make shots early. We dug a hole, but our defense was holding in there. Purdue wasn't running off. But tonight, our defense, it just wasn't there. We were a step behind in our rotations, and they just kind of had their way.

Again, I give them credit because we just didn't meet the challenge tonight, and that's pretty sad after having a big game against Purdue. We've got to put this one behind us and regroup. Got a few days to practice to get ready for Penn State.