My Two Cents: Woodson Needs to Coach With Sense of Urgency in Big Ten Tournament

In Indiana's last loss to Penn State, point guard Ace Baldwin Jr. broke the game open with eight straight points. He did it while playing with two fouls while Indiana standout Mackenzie Mgbako sat on the bench for 15 straight minutes with two fouls. In the Big Ten Tournament, Hoosiers coach Mike Woodson can't coach so conservatively, or the season will be over.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — There may not be any tomorrows for Mike Woodson's Indiana basketball team, but there is today. That's how it goes now that we've entered the win-or-go-home portion of the season, however long — or short — that may be. 

There is a major sense of urgency now for the Hoosiers, who enter the postseason with an 18-13 record and in desperate need of at least three victories here in the Big Ten Tournament just to have an outside chance of making the NCAA Tournament.

It's now or never.

Playing in the Big Ten is so different from the NBA, where a regular season game is just one of 82 over six months. These 20 Big Ten games, and now a one-and-done postseason event? There's more of a feel of desperation. Losing a game can hurt much, much more. Woodson, who spent more than three decades in the NBA, doesn't always feel that.

How Woodson chooses to manage a game often seems like he's feeling his way through an NBA game. When the Hoosiers are down late, he's slow to press, slow to foul to extend the game and often content to just let the clock run out and get 'em again tomorrow.

Even worse, though, is how handles early fouls with his Hoosiers, especially his big guys. Far too often, guys like Malik Reneau or Mackenzie Mgbako get two early fouls and Woodson refuses to put them back in games. It's happened at least a dozen times this season, with starters logging six minutes or less in the first half.

It's often backfired, too, because Indiana's up-front bench players — Payton Sparks, Kaleb Banks and Anthony Walker — have been a major disappointment collectively. There have been many games where Indiana has struck first, but their leads — large and small — have often disappeared quickly.

Now that a season can end with one more loss, Woodson can't risk sitting guys for so long. It just can't happen, or he and his players will all be going home for the summer.

A perfect example of how bad this plays out too many times for Indiana was the 83-74 loss at Penn State on Feb. 24. Mgbako, the talented freshman forward who's played very well down the stretch, picked up two fouls in a minute-plus, and hit the bench at the 15:14 mark in the first half. Didn't even get five minutes in, only took one shot and failed to score.

He never returned until after halftime.

The game was still tied with 2:55 to go in the first half, but then Penn State guard Ace Baldwin, Jr. went wild, scoring eight straight points to give the Nittany Lions a 40-32 lead. They never gave up the lead.

Know the most important thing about Baldwin's run? He did it all while playing with two fouls. Mgbako, also with two, watched it all from the Indiana bench.  

"I know my teammates needed me, and my coach is always telling me to stay disciplined,'' Baldwin said after the game when I asked him about playing with fouls. ''I know as a leader I can't pick up that (third) foul, because if I have to sit out, it's going to hurt the team.''

That was, without question, the difference in the game. Mgbako wound up playing all 20 minutes in the second half, and didn't pick up his third foul until there was just 2:30 left in the game.

The time on the bench early? It was time wasted.

Time completely wasted.

Woodson has often dismissed the foul debate with ''I trust my bench'' and ''the game was still close'' comments, but more from Mgbako in the first half might have been an 8-10 point difference.

We never knew, of course.

Now that the Hoosiers simply can't afford a loss, Woodson needs to trust his guys a little bit more. That's on him.

But let's be fair. It's on the players, too. They're the ones committing the fouls, and they need to be more careful. Sure, the Big Ten is a physical league, but Mgbako and Reneau especially can't let one bad foul call turn into another.

I've asked Indiana's coaches about how they deal with these foul issues, and they say it's harped on in practice every day. On multiple occasions this year, a frustrated player has picked up a foul on back-to-back possessions. Sometimes it's because of fatigue, too.

It's all a Catch-22. But on Thursday against Penn State, Indiana needs its five best players on the floor for as many minutes as possible. Penn State has given them fits lately, beating Woodson four straight times and five of six during his tenure at Indiana.

Indiana needs to push the pace, primarily because Penn State had to play late Wednesday night — they beat Michigan in the 11-14 first-round game — and they might have some tired legs.

Still, Woodson can't let guys sit for long stretches. There's no time for that anymore.

It's now or never.

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