Highlights from Coach Mike Woodson on 'Inside Indiana Basketball'

Indiana coach Mike Woodson had his weekly radio show 'Inside Indiana Basketball' on Monday at Southern Stone restaurant in Bloomington, Ind. He reviewed Indiana's win over North Carolina and loss at Rutgers while looking ahead to Wednesday's game against Nebraska. Here are the highlights.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana basketball coach Mike Woodson appeared on the 'Inside Indiana Basketball' radio show alongside Austin Render on Monday night.

Woodson discussed Indiana's big win over North Carolina last Wednesday, as well as what went wrong in the Hoosiers' first loss of the season at Rutgers on Saturday. Next up for Indiana is a home game against Nebraska on Wednesday, and Woodson shared his thoughts on the Cornhuskers, too.

Here some notable comments from Woodson on 'Inside Indiana Basketball' on Dec. 5.

On Indiana's 77-65 win over North Carolina

• "Well [the fans] always been that way. I applaud the people who slept out the night before the game."

• Woodson was proud of Jalen Hood-Schifino's 14-point game against North Carolina, which included Indiana's first seven points. 
• "When we recruited Jalen, I saw a lot of those things ... To me, it was really a breakout game with how he started the game. I thought he put it all together, and we needed him to."
• “It’s huge to do it on a national stage … It couldn’t have happened to a better person [Jalen Hood-Schifino], the guy works his butt off in the gym."

• "Our defense was solid from beginning to end."

• “Bacot got in early fouls trouble and that helped a little bit. I thought RJ [Davis] and [Caleb] Love, we did an extremely great job … Love didn’t really start to make buckets until the end when we already had a cushion."

• “We extended out defense because those guys shoot the 3 ball so deep."

• “I thought Galloway gave us a big lift."

• “It was a shocker because [Galloway] hadn’t practiced. He could’t practice … He got a little shoot around before, but didn’t do much banging … Then came out and played a game of a lifetime, we needed every minute of his performance." 
• Galloway finished with 10 points, three rebounds, two assists and one steal.

• "Just the fact that [Galloway] plays hard eliminates a lot of the things from a mistake standpoint. He guards the best player on the other team, and he’s capable of making basketball plays … He gets the ball where it needs to go."

• "[Galloway] was struggling during this last stretch when he was out .. You can tell when a player is going through something like that and you just got to stay the course … He was patient but he was frustrated, I could see it ...
to come here and play on a bigger stage and now he’s on the sideline, mentally it's challenging for these players, so i’ve got to keep them upbeat."

On the 63-48 loss at Rutgers

• Woodson has liked the production from Indiana's bench this year, but that went missing at Rutgers when the bench combined to shoot 2-for-14. “It’s been great, but we couldn’t find it at Rutgers … Everybody’s pitched in and been part of a 7-0 run, but the Rutgers game we struggled putting the ball in the hole, and they had a lot to do about it."

• “We got to figure out when we get teams like Rutgers who presses up the floor, who plays half-court zone and switches things up that we’re able to adjust."

• “I thought missing Jalen and not having another ball handler hurt us a bit ... I’ve got to do a better job getting them over the hump."

• “You got to take advantage of Trayce, Race and Malik, and I think the thing is this year is our offense has kind of opened up because we’ve made the long ball." Indiana is shooting 34.5 percent from 3, but went 6 for 25 against Rutgers. 

• “We couldn’t muster up any offense from the 3-point line … We just didn't handle the zone and the press correctly … Not making the right reads out of the double team."

• "When you lose games, there’s a reason why you lose. I mentioned not handling the press and the half court zone, but the main thing was they out-toughed us … That’s unacceptable. That’s guts and effort ... We were a step slow rebounding and that’s embarrassing."

• Woodson shared his approach to coaching after a tough loss like this. “Normally I’m kind of gauging my team and looking at them, you can’t bring them off the road and just bury them. Today was teaching and basically going over the things where we made our mistakes .. We banged around a little bit and put a rebounding drill in ... You can beat up on each other, but you got to go do that to opponents when you’re playing."

• Miller Kopp scored 21 points at Rutgers. “He’s been solid pretty much all season ... He was the bright spot in our last game, I just hope he continues to grow because that will be huge for us … We need everybody clicking, especially when you’re on the road.

• Jalen Hood-Schifino did not play during the Rutgers game due to a back injury. “It makes a big difference because you’ve got another ball handler and a smart ball handler ... I've got faith and trust in Bates and Gallo and CJ .. It can’t be all on X because I think he over-did it."

• Xavier Johnson went 2-for-11 shooting with six turnovers at Rutgers. Woodson said he had an individual film session with Johnson on Monday. “I always though film was a big teaching tool when you’re trying to build a basketball team ... X has been very professional about his approach … He knew where his problems were in terms of decisions he made."

• “[Rutgers] put us in a hurry-up mode, and sometimes it's the simple plays that win basketball games. Its not always the home run plays … Guys were trying to do it by themselves, and we got to do it as a basketball team."

• "They do have a great fan base and [Rutgers] plays to their fans and they play hard … The main thing was rebounding the basketball and not turning it over and we failed."

On Wednesday's matchup against Nebraska 

• “They’re a different ball club this season." Nebraska won 63-53 at No. 7 Creighton on Sunday. The Cornhuskers are off to a 6-3 start with wins over Maine, Nebraska-Omaha, Arkansa-Pine Bluff, Florida State, Boston College and Creighton. They've lost to Saint John's, Oklahoma and Memphis. 

• “They got big fella Derrick Walker." Walker is a 6-foot-9 senior averaging 16.8 points and 9.5 rebounds in four games this year.

• “The guard they got who I like is Sam Griesel. He’s pretty damn good." Griesel is a 6-foot-7 senior averaging 11.3 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.9 assists.

• "[Nebraska] will press some, 2-3 zone, 1-3-1. They zone out of bounds plays. It’s nothing new that we have not seen, but we got to come out and compete for 40 minutes."

• “We can’t lose ground early, and I get it’s early, but we can’t lose ground and you got to take care of home."

• “We didn’t lose very many games at home, and that part has go to be there if you’re talking about trying to win a Big Ten title."

On his team moving forward

• “Jalen [Hood-Schifino] is day-to-day. Everybody was back today except Logan [Duncomb], who is still under the weather."

• “I got to get a little more out of Tamar Bates and really Gallo. Gallo didn’t score any the other night, and that’s kind of unusual because he finds some way to score the basketball."

• “CJ [Gunn] he might could see some minutes. He and Kaleb [Banks] now that Jalen is out… We got to get more out of [Jordan] Geronimo, too."

• “He’ll be fine. Trayce has seen all kinds of defenses, so it wasn’t unusual that [Rutgers] doubled him every time he touched the ball. Hell, I would double him."

Related stories on Indiana basketball

• RED FLAGS FOR INDIANA AT RUTGERS: Poor shooting and a lack of toughness did in Indiana at Rutgers on Saturday, and it raised some red flags as to how good this team can be. Even the Rutgers players knew they could be more physical than Indiana, and they were. For Indiana, were those lessons learned? CLICK HERE
• INDIANA IN AP POLL: Indiana had a big win against North Carolina last week, but also suffered its first loss of the year at Rutgers, and it had an effect on its standing in this week's Associated Press top-25 poll released Monday. CLICK HERE
• GAME STORY, RUTGERS TOPS INDIANA: Indiana struggled to shoot the ball and got whipped on the boards in a 63-48 loss to Rutgers on Saturday in their Big Ten opener. It was the Hoosiers' first loss of the season. CLICK HERE
• LIVE BLOG: The Big Ten season is upon us already, with Indiana opening the conference season on the road at Rutgers. Welcome to our live blog straight from press row at center court. CLICK HERE
• TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS VIDEO: The scrappy Rutgers defense had a simple plan on Saturday, and that was to take star forward Trayce Jackson-Davis away from Indiana, and force others to beat them. The plan worked to perfection in its 63-48 win over the Hoosiers. Here is Trayce's complete postgame interview, with both video and the transcript. CLICK HERE
• MILLER KOPP VIDEO: Here's what Indiana forward Miller Kopp said after Saturday's loss to Rutgers. CLICK HERE
• PHOTO GALLERY: Indiana's basketball game at Rutgers might not have been very pretty on Saturday, but the pictures sure were. Here's our photo gallery from the game, with lots of wonderful images. CLICK HERE