Everything Mike Woodson Said As Indiana Prepares For South Carolina

Mike Woodson spoke to the media as No. 16 Indiana tries to keep its unbeaten season intact.

Indiana basketball Mike Woodson during the college basketball exhibition game against Tennessee on Sunday, October 27, 2024, in Knoxville. Tenn. / Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana men’s basketball coach Mike Woodson had a Zoom press conference with the Indiana media on Friday on the eve of the Hoosiers’ third game of the season. South Carolina visits the Hoosiers in a 3 p.m. ET tipoff on Saturday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

The Gamecocks are the only Power Five school to come to Bloomington in the nonconference portion of the schedule.

Indiana defeated Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and Eastern Illinois to build a 2-0 record. Both games featured uneven efforts from the Hoosiers, but Indiana pulled away to win both games by double-digit margins.

Here’s what Woodson had to say on the Gamecocks and his own team …

South Carolina Gamecocks forward Collin Murray-Boyles (30) shoots over Towson Tigers guard Mekhi Lowery (11) at Colonial Life Arena. / Jeff Blake-Imagn Images

On Malik Reneau’s defense and defending South Carolina’s frontcourt, including Collin Murray-Boyles …

Woodson: It’s a major test for us this early in the season. After watching (Murray-Boyles) on film he is a load. They go to him just like we utilize Malik and (Oumar) Ballo when we get opportunities. Malik has gotten better defensively in terms of playing small perimeter guys on the floor because we’ve been switching some with him.

This is a big four, a powerful four, I think he’s about 6-8, 6-9 and about 245 that demands the basketball. We have to gauge and see how Malik is playing him and let him play and see where it goes. He’s got to play Malik on the other end as well. We’ll see how they match up and go from there.

On Mackenzie Mgbako’s scoring at all three levels …

Woodson: Then you know you can count on that. You can put him in situations if you need a mid-range two, he’s been able to make shots. He’s finishing at the rim. I like everything about what he’s done from an offensive standpoint and he’s gotten a little bit better defensively.

I’m on him a lot about defense. Knowing our coverages and when we’re not having miscues. We’ve had some in the first two games. You expect it because of all of the newness that we have. He’s been with me now a year and I’m pushing him harder on the defensive end to not have very many miscues. But offensively I think he’s gotten better and he's heading in the right direction for what we want done. I’m pretty pleased in that regard.

Thoughts on Indiana’s defense generally …

Woodson: I think our defense has been pretty solid. You win lopsided games like we’ve done and you look at when we played Eastern Illinois, I thought early on our switching was terrible. We weren’t up to touch. You’ve got to give them credit, they were making shots. Those are the things from a defensive standpoint that we’re trying to eliminate.

I didn’t think we put much pressure up the floor as they were bringing the ball up the floor. We were kind of on our heels a little bit. I thought the second half was flipped that. We were up to touch and our switching was pretty damn good. Our results is what it was in the second half we played pretty good basketball. I’ve just got to consistently get us doing that from the start all the way through.

On Oumar Ballo’s effort on one play noticed on social media from the Eastern Illinois game …

Woodson: I’m not going to sit here and single out one play. Ballo has played well for us. When you see things like that on tape you note it and you make sure they know that’s not acceptable in terms of getting back. You’re singling out one play, there’s times he has gone back and done what we asked him to do. So when I see stuff like that and guys not getting back, that’s a cardinal sin with me in terms of defense.

Oumar Ballo. Definition of hustle hahaha pic.twitter.com/c9ey3muCEp

— Rob Dauster (@RobDauster) November 11, 2024

When that ball changes hands, you got to get back and build a wall and not let guys get behind you for layups. We did that a couple times in that game. It’s just unacceptable. They know it. We made that very clear in film session. You try to build on that, not let it happen again and see where it leads you.

On whether Kanaan Carlyle seeing some shots fall will help him …

Woodson: It’s huge because he makes some in practice. Trying to get players to carry over from practice to the game? It ain’t been a major challenge because we haven’t played great basketball, but we haven’t played bad basketball. We’ve played some pretty good basketball in stretches. I want things quicker than they do, but again, that’s just me as a coach. To see him knock some shots down in the game, that’s huge. I’m just hoping that it’s a carryover when we go into the South Carolina game.

On Trey Galloway’s play off the bench and the rise of Bryson Tucker …

Woodson: Guys, there’s a lot of positiveness around our team. I look at the Tennessee (exhibition) game and that was a competitive, big time game where we competed from beginning to the end. Nobody wanted to give in and that’s where I’m hoping we can be as we continue this season. They couldn’t score, we couldn’t score, but that was back and forth and we made plays we needed to make to win the game.

Indiana Hoosiers guard Trey Galloway (32) goes to the basket during the first half against the Eastern Illinois Panthers at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. / Robert Goddin-Imagn Images

Having Tucker, having Gallo able to do things … Gallo knows me. He’s converted himself based on the year that we had last season in terms of how we want to play. He knows how we want to play and so that’s a bonus. Unfortunately, I can’t play him 30 minutes because his body won’t take it right now. We have to be conscious of that and play him as he’s gone along. But the minutes he’s played they’ve been unbelievable minutes. His numbers have been fantastic in terms of being able to distribute the basketball and get it where it’s got to go. He makes our offense flow in terms of how we want to run it. I’m very pleased with Gallo in the short minutes that he’s played. Hopefully, as the season goes on we can get him stronger where we can extend the minutes even more.

Tucker has been a plus. He’s a freshman that’s still trying to figure it out. He’s given us some positive minutes and I expect him to do that the rest of the way.

On whether players are taking the lead on identifying how hard they should be playing or is it a team where he has to provide the push …

Woodson: We’ve got new guys. Everybody is still trying to learn what the hell is going on. We have made progress. I’m not going to sit here and let you guys tell us that we haven’t, because we have, but we have a long way to go. I don’t like the fact that we gave up offensive rebounds. I don’t think any coach in college basketball or at any level would like watching film when you’re not blocking out and getting after it and not rebounding the basketball.

I thought a major difference in the Eastern Illinois game was 50/50 balls and them out-working us to get second opportunities. But the second half, I thought we eliminated that. We have to get our guys to understand when they step on the floor that – which I thought in the Tennessee (exhibition game) was a big-time matchup that we came out and didn’t make shots, but our defense was solid and we rebounded with them and what we needed to do to win the game. Even though it was a practice game, it was still a competitive game that is something you can learn from moving forward. We have to clean up a lot of the little things and continue to grow in areas where we’re playing well and see where it leads us.

On what vision he has for the offense as the season goes along …

Woodson: I don’t know yet. I’m not even going to go there. I just don’t know. We’re scoring a lot of points. We’re averaging 85 points, but again, we’re not shooting the three-ball great. We shot it great in the second half at about a 36% clip. A true offensive team is going to make threes when they have them. You’re going to sacrifice the ball when guys are open. You’re going to set screens when it’s called upon you to set screens. Those are all the little things that tie into having a good offensive team. We’re not there yet.

Our transition offense is raggedy a little bit in terms of just completing the play. We can’t turn it over in turnover in transition, especially when you’ve got numbers. We’ve faced that some. There’s a lot of things we’re trying to clean up based on the talent we have because we are more talented and more faster. (Myles) Rice and guys that push the basketball they have to make good basketball decisions. We’re going to keep working until we get it right.

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