BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 11, 2023

Mike Woodson

Trayce Jackson-Davis

United Center

Indiana Hoosiers

Postgame Press Conference

Penn State - 77, Indiana - 73

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Indiana University Head Coach Mike Woodson and Trayce Jackson-Davis.

MIKE WOODSON: First of all, I'd like to just congratulate Coach Shrewsberry and their team. They played extremely well. Well coached. I thought early on we got down and we had to fight to get back in, and at the end we made a mad rush at it but just didn't have enough to close it.

So you've got to give them credit. They played their asses off tonight, Penn State did.

Q. Trayce, I know last Sunday you mentioned you wanted one of these and one of those, so when you fall short today, how do you look at these last couple days, and what does it mean, if anything, headed into next week?

TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS: Obviously you're upset, but at the same time, we still got the NCAA Tournament. We're not sweating like we were prior years. We know that we're in. We're going to go back, fix what we did wrong in this game, and then focus on whoever we got to play after Selection Sunday.

Q. You guys obviously made a real frantic rush to close the gap. Do you guys need to bring more of that intensity earlier in the game that you played with at the end?

TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS: Yeah, absolutely. I think we played lackadaisical in stretches throughout the game. We would make pushes, but then we would kind of relax, and they would start to step on us a little bit. But we need that intensity throughout the whole game.

And we can't played scared. I thought overall we played kind of tentative. We weren't shooting the ball when we should have been. We've just got to fix those things, and basically that's it.

Q. Trayce, the toughest thing about sports is the finality of it. Your Big Ten career is over. How do you want to be remembered, and how will you be remembered? Two-prong question there.

TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS: Obviously it's bittersweet, but I know that I left everything I have out there on the court. I think Indiana fans and fans in general that enjoy college basketball will appreciate that. But at the same time, you can't dwell on it too much because we've still got some ball left to be played, and we're just going to see what happens in the future, and we've still got to take it one game at a time.

Q. Trayce, what can you guys take away today -- because the next loss will be your last loss in college. What can you take away today and learn to try to prevent that?

TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS: I think that just our intensity. We've got to be more intense on the ball. I thought that late in the second half we had that, and if we would have had that during the whole game, I think it would have been a different outcome.

Again, credit to Penn State. They played very well, and they hit some tough shots. Sometimes the ball doesn't bounce your way.

Q. Trayce, they seem to be able to play high on ball screens and kind of take Jalen's mid-range away. How were they able to do that and also take you away on rolls and other actions going to the basket?

TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS: I think they did a really good job with pressuring the ball and getting out and touching. Sometimes the shot's off. It happens in the game. You're not going to get every shot you take. But he was still getting them up, which I'm proud of. He has to be confident in himself.

At the same time, sometimes you miss some shots, and you're going to dwell on it a little bit. I know he wanted to hit that last one. But at the end of the day, we've got to wash it out and get ready for the next game.

Q. Trayce, you mentioned tentative play being an issue. How much of that was on your guys, and how much of that was Penn State's defense?

TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS: I think it was a little bit of both. I think sometimes I'll cross-court it, and then there was one more, I felt like sometimes we can shoot it and pump fake it and try to drive instead of just taking the open three. Just little things like that where they were just creeping in a little bit.

But at the same time, you can't be afraid to shoot the ball. We've got a great team. We've got great shooters, and that's what really spaces the floor for us. So when we're not doing that, they can just pack it in.

Q. What makes Penn State a unique and difficult matchup? They beat you twice, and the first time was pretty one sided.

TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS: I think just they don't play big. They can play small ball and really space the floor, and they've got shooters from one through five, and they play very physical for even when they do play small ball.

I think it really helps they're good on rotations. So that's a great team, and they executed their game plan very well.

Q. What do you feel are the most important things for this IU group to do really well to have a chance to make an NCAA Tournament run?

TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS: Just the biggest thing we've got to do is, first and foremost, listen to Coach, execute our sets, execute our game plan. And just play as hard as we can when we step on the floor. Play for each other, and I think that's the biggest thing. When we play for each other, usually good things happen.

Q. Trayce talked about, and you've talked about too, at times wanting guys to be less hesitant, to just trust the shot essentially and just put it up. As a coach, I recognize there's no magic bullet to this, but how do you get that, how do you get guys to just trust, to sort of let it fly when the window is there and not hesitate and maybe lose that shooting window?

MIKE WOODSON: I wish I had the answer for that. I think, when we're playing well and things are kind of going our way on both ends of the floor, guys kind of play freely. I thought tonight we started the game out well. We came out, and we touched them early. And when they started to make shots, we kind of backed off.

It put so much pressure on us to make shots, which we had some good looks, but our perimeter play went 14 for 39, and that's not that good. So when we're winning, our perimeter play is making shots and our bigs are making plays inside. It's kind of lopsided a little bit today.

Q. Your New York Knicks teams usually were pretty productive from three. In the two games against Penn State, you guys were outscored 78-12 from three. Why do those margins happen? More importantly, what do you want your teams to look like from three-point range moving forward?

MIKE WOODSON: Again, when you've got good looks -- last year we were in the top five in the country in getting wide open threes, and we didn't make them. We had some good looks tonight. We just didn't make them.

It's a part of the game. I don't try to put a lot or read a lot into it when we go through a stretch like this. It's a big game today. I put all the heat on me as a coach. I've got to get them over the hump. Even though I don't take a shot or miss a defensive assignment, it's my job to get them over the hump. This is two years in a row now that we are a game from playing for the Big Ten title in this tournament.

I take pride in what I do as a coach, and I've got to help them more. To see my seniors walk away, Trayce and Miller and Race, and not be able to experience a Big Ten Championship is kind of disappointing for me.

Q. Leading up to that final timeout, what did you tell Jalen on that final shot, and what did you see in your eyes in that final shot?

MIKE WOODSON: I didn't have a timeout. We didn't have any more timeouts. And I called him over, and we tried to get a high ball screen. I thought he had a good look. Hell, he hit the same shot the other night against Maryland. He had a good look at it. He just didn't make it.

Q. Trayce mentioned he thought there were some lapses of being lackadaisical and we kind of relaxed a little bit. On this stage in this place in the tournament, did that surprise you at all that you didn't get more of that for 40 minutes?

MIKE WOODSON: Again, guys, if we could get a 40-minute ballgame each and every time you step out, it makes life a lot easier for you as a coach and as players playing.

I thought we stepped on the floor with great intentions early, and then we had some miscues. I just thought when they were making threes early, we were a step behind in terms of closing guys out and making them put the ball down on the floor.

We did a better job the second half in that regard, but it was an uphill climb once we dug a hole early. I like the way we fought back, but you don't get a whole lot for second place.

Q. Trayce talked about the level of intensity that did pick up late but that he would hope to have more consistently throughout the game. You expressed the desire to want to help this team get to where they want to be. With no tomorrow after the next loss, what approach do you want to take with these guys to --

MIKE WOODSON: We'll go back and watch this tape, break it down, and try to learn from it, like Trayce said. I never let a game -- we always watch our games. We'll learn something from this, and we'll have a few days to practice to get ready for tournament play.

Somehow I've got to get them to understand that you're going to have to commit for 40 minutes because it can be one minute, two seconds, a second that can cost you a tournament victory.

The fact that they tasted a little bit last season, I think they know what's in front of us, but we still got a long way to go.

Q. Mike, you just talked about going back and preparing this team to get through the difficulties they'd had here today. What can you do during the game when you see that that intensity has fallen off, that they've stepped back? What can you do as a staff to try to make that adjustment in game?

MIKE WOODSON: Guys, you can do all kinds of things. You can be positive. You can be negative. But at the end of the day, they still have to figure it out too once they're out there on the floor.

There's no magical pill that you can give these guys when they're struggling. I wouldn't call our team really struggling. I thought we competed, but we just didn't compete for 40 minutes. We made a big rush at the end, which I'm proud because we could have just quit and threw in the towel, but we fell short.

So now we've got to go regroup and get ready for NCAA Tournament play.