What Mike Woodson Said After Indiana's 89-73 Win Over Providence in Battle 4 Atlantis

Here's the full transcript of coach Mike Woodson's postgame press conference following Indiana's 89-73 win over Providence.

Indiana coach Mike Woodson instructs his team against Providence during the Battle 4 Atlantis. / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

PARADISE ISLAND, The Bahamas – Indiana wrapped up its three-game stretch in the Battle 4 Atlantis with an 89-73 win over Providence.

With this win, Indiana finished in seventh place out of eight teams and improved to 5-2 on the season. Mackenzie Mgbako, Trey Galloway and Malik Reneau each scored 18-plus points in the win.

Here's the full transcript of coach Mike Woodson's postgame press conference.

On Trey Galloway’s play and whether he’s contemplating moving him into the starting lineup…

Woodson: “Not going there with you with that. I’m not. He played great today. Trey’s situation has been gauged based on how he’s feeling. Yesterday he played 29 minutes, and I was holding my breath that he could get up this morning and tell me that he felt fine, because we hadn’t heard that a lot. This morning, he got up and said it was probably the best he’s felt in a long time, and that was good news to my ears, knowing that Kanaan wasn’t going to play. And it’s easy to slide him into the starting lineup, because I’ve been with him. I know him. He knows me. And he did a lot of good things to help us win tonight.”

On what went wrong with Myles Rice this week and how concerned he is…

Woodson: “I’m not concerned. Myles is a tough kid. We’ll get him back. We’ll go home and regroup, and we’ll get him back going because he’s a major, major piece to the puzzle. And everybody that wears this uniform is a major piece. I just gotta get guys on the same page in doing what’s asked of them when they’re out there on the floor playing.”

On Indiana’s better offensive flow today, with 20 assists and 10 turnovers…

Woodson: “Ball movement. I set a lot of staggered screens, looking for Luke and Mack coming off, just changed it up a little bit and they delivered, made some shots for us. Everything looks good when you’re making shots, and I thought the ball moved and didn’t get stuck. Our pick-and-roll play was pretty good as well as our post-up play. So it all went hand and hand when you’re making shots from the perimeter. It makes it a lot easier for our post-up guys and our pick-and-roll play.”

On the severity of Kanaan Carlyle’s injury…

Woodson: “Don’t know. He’s day-to-day. So we’ll just see. He couldn’t move today so we shut him down.”

On the importance of pushing the pace against Providence, which played late Thursday night…

Woodson: “That was a big emphasis coming into the game. They didn’t finish up, probably didn’t leave the building ‘til about 10:30-11 p.m. last night. We knew that and so we tried to capitalize on that a little bit in terms of pushing the pace a little bit.”

On the biggest thing he learned about his team this week…

Woodson: “That we gotta play harder, get better. We’ll continue to practice and work hard. I gotta keep pushing them. I mean, Gonzaga, there’s a reason they’re a good team. They’re well-coached, and those guys play hard. Louisville played hard. We gotta get our guys playing at that level, because if we do, then we can put ourselves in position to beat really good teams.”

On his concern about giving up 41 offensive rebounds in three games this week and what’s being missed…

Woodson: “It’s been a major concern. This dates back to last season, where we were a pretty big team last season and gave up a bunch of rebounds. We gotta get that fixed. I mean, that’s major moving forward. It’s not like we don’t talk about it. It’s not like we don’t do block-out drills and things of that nature. After a while, it comes down to heart and just guts and getting in there and making sure you secure the ball after you’ve gotten a good defensive stop. And we’re not doing that. We’re giving up too many second-chance buckets. We gotta eliminate that and get better.”

On if he has sensed any hesitancy from players shooting the ball or being aggressive offensively…

Woodson: “I don’t know, Myles might be a little gun shy right now. Again, I can fix that and get him back going. But I don’t think we’ve told anybody not to shoot the basketball. I mean, at this stage, guys know when there’s a good shot and a bad shot. I’m just trying to get players to understand team and what it’s about when you’re talking about playing good offense when you’re sharing the ball. When it comes to you to set a screen, you set a screen and you sacrifice the pass for the sake of the team. And we haven’t been doing that, and that’s my job to get us to do that.”

On if Indiana was more connected as a team today…

Woodson: “I think when you get your butt beat like we did for two games, you better be connected. You know, I thought we were connected tonight. I still think defensively, we gotta clean up some things and we gotta rebound the ball better. I mean, those two areas are huge. Make no mistake about it. I mean, we shot the ball well offensively. But defensively, I still think we’re a little behind, especially these last three games that we played.”

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