What Mike Woodson Said After Indiana's 85-69 Loss to Miami in NCAA Tournament

Here's what Indiana coach Mike Woodson said after the Hoosiers' season-ending loss to No. 5 seed Miami in the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 on Sunday in Albany, N.Y.

Jack Ankony | Mar 20, 2023

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Indiana got knocked out of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday night to the tune of an 85-69 loss to No. 4 seed Miami. Coach Mike Woodson's second season at Indiana ends in the Round of 32, one step further than its year-one loss to Saint Mary's in the Round of 64.

Here's what Woodson said after the game.

Woodson: You've got to give Miami a lot of credit. They played their butts off tonight. It was a well-coached game, and I thought they were the better team. They showed it first half and second half. I thought when we got back in it, we didn't do the things to put us in position once we got the lead to win this game. So you've got to give Miami a lot of credit. They played their butts off.

Q: What's the hardest part of the suddenness of this ending for you?

Woodson: This one is tough to swallow because I truly believe that this team had a legitimate shot. As a coach, I put so much pressure and heat on myself to get teams over the hump, so I've got to take some responsibility for this one tonight. Even though we didn't play nowhere near where I thought we should be playing, you've got to give Miami a lot of credit. They played extremely well tonight. When I look at the stat sheet and look at the paint points and the rebounding, that's just not Indiana basketball. That's where the game was won. Yes, we were complaining a lot. You can't do that in big-time college basketball games. They let you play. And you should want to be in that position to be let to play. We didn't compete. They were the better team tonight.

Q: Coach, it's a new age of college basketball, and obviously this loss really stings. But how long do you take before you start hitting the transfer portal, roster building, and those kinds of things?

Woodson: I'll sleep on this tonight and get up tomorrow and start a fresh day, start trying to figure out how we can get better for next season. I'm not taking anything away from our season. I told the guys in the locker room how much I love them and respect them for playing for me this year. The kind of season we had was a promising season. We had a good year. We made a step forward based on where we were a year ago, but it's not good enough as far as I'm concerned. It's not. We've got to get better from a personnel standpoint, and I've got to get better as a coach. I mean, it's just that simple.

Q: Since you've been here you've played through Trayce Jackson-Davis, and it's obvious why you did that. I'm just curious looking forward, is it your intent to be more of a perimeter-focused team? What are your thoughts about kind of your preferred style going forward?

Woodson: It depends on personnel. When I was in New York -- Trayce Jackson-Davis is the first center that I've ever coached in my career where I had to utilize my center as a post-up player. Trayce has gotten so much better being a post-up player. I mean, he's a basketball player now. I'd like to think that my staff and I have had a lot to do with that. He has gotten so much better in so many different areas. But it's the first time in my coaching career that I've had to coach a young man starting out on the block and expanding his game. I don't know where we're going to be next season in terms of how our style of play will be. But we've got to get better. I do know that.

Q: I know you've talked about what it is that freshmen have to go through during the course of a season. Even 34 games in, Jalen really struggled early coming out of the gate tonight. How much of that was nerves and him just not getting comfortable early enough?

Woodson: I don't know if I'd call it nerves. We just didn't play well. We did a lot of things tonight that from an offensive standpoint, we didn't sacrifice the next pass. It was like individually I had to beat you. I got to do it myself instead of doing it as a team. There were a number of times we could have made the next pass, and we didn't do that. And then defensively, I told them at halftime we gave up 40 points, and we hadn't done that a whole lot this season. Normally we're sitting on top. I told them, if we gave up 80 points, you would have a tough time beating this team, and we gave up 80-some points. Which wasn't good.

Q: The UM team feels that sometimes they're underrated, underappreciated. What do you think is the national perception of that team? What kind of respect do they have? Do you think they're a little bit underrated?

Woodson: Ma'am, I'll tell you this: I never go into a game looking at a team that you might think or somebody might think is underrated. I respect all coaches and all teams. You go in with that attitude, you won't be very successful in this sport. That coach has done a helluva job with that team for many, many years, and that team tonight competed and played their asses off, and that's why I'm sitting here going home and they're moving forward. So I have nothing but respect for every team that we play. That team was pretty damn good tonight.

Q: Coach, Trayce Jackson-Davis' final game tonight. What does he mean to you and this program?

Woodson: Well, he's meant a lot to this program. I don't think we're sitting here today if it wasn't for Trayce Jackson-Davis. He could have left two days after I got the job, but he decided to stay on board. He worked his butt off. I pushed him on and off the court. A lot of nights and days, it wasn't pretty for him, but he got better. He benefited from it, and our team benefited from it. I wish him nothing but the best moving forward -- him, Miller, and Race, who gave us all they could give us. It was fun times coaching those guys this season, but they're going to move on, and I've got to figure out our next move as far as our program and moving this program forward.

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