INDIANA UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 2, 2022

Mike Woodson

Postgame Media Conference

Rutgers - 66, Indiana - 63

Q. Success in the first half going inside. Trayce Jackson-Davis was dominant and a few other guys as well. Then in the second half, Rutgers was able to take that away. What did they do in your eyes, and what were you all not able to do to combat that?

MIKE WOODSON: Again, he was beating the double-teams early, and then they just basically sagged and forced us to make shots. We had a lot of good looks tonight, guys. Miller had some good looks. Parker had a bunch of good looks. We just didn't knock them down.

Q. In spite of the sagging and all that, you called a timeout about ten minutes left, and then it went like you went to Race almost every single time after that. Was that your way of saying we don't care what you do?

MIKE WOODSON: A couple times, he had good looks down low. I thought he made a couple moves at the bucket that he just didn't finish as well. But I was just basically using him knowing that they were going to sag to get shots. That was a good way of getting wide open looks, and I thought we got a lot of wide open looks.

Parker missed a big three up two at the top that was huge. But then he comes back and he makes a big three to tie it. So I mean, go figure.

Q. Speaking of that, Parker Stewart and Miller Kopp combined for 3 for 16 from the field in 65 minutes. Obviously, it's a big factor. What did you see? Was it just missing shots, or was there something else there? When that's going on, do you guys have the roster where you have any counter to throw at that?

MIKE WOODSON: Again, guys, I went with my senior guys tonight in a critical game, and we fell a little short.

Q. You were worried about Ron Harper Jr. coming into the game. Obviously, he hits the big game-winning shot, a few other threes throughout the game. Anything that you felt you could have done a little better on him, or was it just a case of his talent?

MIKE WOODSON: I think our missed cues up top. We came in, I thought early on, when they ran the four-one or four-two pick-and-roll, Race did a good job in stabbing, and we were able to keep the matchup. That's what I was basically trying to do. I thought the first half we played him pretty well.

Second half he got away because we stopped stabbing, and now it's a scramble to get back to him. And he hit a couple threes -- one three, a big three that way, and then he hit the big three coming down the stretch to secure it for him.

Q. Coach, do you draw any confidence from the fact that you guys have already beaten Purdue? Is that going to be something that can spur you guys on to kind of rebound here this weekend?

MIKE WOODSON: Again, we've got to go back and clean up this game tonight and see where we can get better before we actually start thinking about Purdue, which is tomorrow sometime.

So we'll spend the early part of tomorrow cleaning up this game, and then we'll start on Purdue.

Q. Coach, what did you leave the team with tonight? The crowd was incredible. It just felt like this could have been a major inflection late in the year.

MIKE WOODSON: It hurts because you want to win for Race and then Parker. This is a special night for those guys. I remember 43 years ago, man, today playing my last game in this building and winning a Big Ten title. I wanted nothing more for them to at least experience winning on Senior Night, and we fell short.

That's the tough part about tonight. Again, you've got to give Rutgers credit. They've been playing well although they've lost three in a row. They've beaten some good teams in the Big Ten this year.

Q. You were right on the last with Rutgers coming in. Where do you think this puts you now heading into the last week of the season?

MIKE WOODSON: Don't know. Again, Purdue is next. If we go down to Purdue and win a big game there, it puts us back in the mix. Again, this is my first go around. I have no idea the selection and all that. We're going to have to win some games probably in the tournament as well, but it's not over. We've got to keep fighting.