Here's What Mike Woodson Said About Indiana's Loss to Penn State
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Hoosiers collect their third loss of the season and second defeat in the Big Ten from Penn State on the road.
In a close 61-58 score, the Hoosiers now hold a 10-3 record. Junior forward Trayce Jackson-Davis led the team with 20 points. Redshirt senior forward Race Thompson contributed 10 rebounds.
Here's what Coach Mike Woodson had to say about the loss. Read the transcript below, or just watch the whole press conference in the attached video.
Q: On giving up three's...
WOODSON: I look at Trayce's 20. He only got five rebounds. That's what I look at. It wasn't the points. I mean, we held them to 61 right where we normally are holding teams, and yes we couldn't score the ball, but I'm looking at how we gave up three's tonight.
This is the first time a team has gotten away from us in shooting a three ball, and I just thought our ability to touch somebody to start the game wasn't there, and you got to give them credit.
They move the ball around. They ran a few pick and rolls up top, but our pick and roll coverage just wasn't the same impact that we've been having, and that's kind of disappointing.
Q: On pick and roll coverage...
WOODSON: Well, again, it didn't come from inside out. The ball came from pick and roll coverages, and our ability to impact the ball and the big on the ball was something that we've been pretty good at this year, and tonight we weren't.
We just weren't good in our pick and roll coverage. It was terrible.
Q: On Penn State and Indiana offense...
WOODSON: They showed the zone that was what we thought was a zone, which you can run man-to-man offense against a zone. You can run zone offense, and we've been pretty good in that area, but we froze like we were in quick sand the first two, three minutes like we had never seen an early two, three zone.
Once we started cutting and moving, we got the ball moved, but then we couldn't make shots, 4-for-17 from the three-point line. We've been a little bit better than that this year.
Q: On looking to Trayce Jackson-Davis...
WOODSON: Trayce missed two bunnies that I call, you know when he goes around this guy, and he makes a play over the top. He makes some. He misses some, but he missed at least two down the stretch that were big shots.
Then you take Xavier's free throw that could've tied the game. That was huge too, so you got to go to him (Jackson-Davis). I mean you got a guy on his back. He's capable of going around guys making plays at the rim. I felt good about going to him.
Q: On Jackson-Davis and Race Thompson sitting the bench for part of the first half...
WOODSON: They played 33 or 31 minutes tonight. You know you can't play them 40. They got to get a breather somehow, and I was just trying to buy some time to get some breathers.
The score wasn't imbalanced. It was a one-point game at half time, so nobody was running away, but I was just trying to buy some time, and he played 33 minutes. I think Race played about 30, 31 minutes. They played enough minutes, can't use that as an excuse.
Q: On getting the ball to Parker Stewart and Miller Kopp...
WOODSON: We got to get better ball movement. I thought when we did cut and move the ball, there were opportunities, but again, they're not leaving. They know those guys can make shots.
They're better in zone situations, but man-to-man, we got to set probably some more screens and get them looks that way, but that wasn't a difference tonight, guys, I don't think. I thought the difference was us impacting the ball from a pick and roll standpoint. We were terrible in that area, just awful.
Q: On Ohio State being a bigger game...
WOODSON: I think we can win every game. I didn't come in here thinking we were going to lose. I thought we could come in here and get a win, but we got to go home and beat Ohio State.
They're up next on our list, and we've been pretty good in our building, so we got two, three days to prepare and get ready for...
Q: On what led to struggles on the glass...
WOODSON: Fatigue. Tired. Again, you talk about minutes and pulling them right before the half. Again, you got to have some juice in the tank coming down the stretch, and I thought during that two, three minute span, we couldn't even rebound the ball.
That's something, when you're in a close game like that, you got to come up with it, but we still had an opportunity to tie it, and we didn't get it tied, and they were able to do what they needed to do to secure it down the stretch.
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