Coach Q&A: Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson discusses win over Rutgers

Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson spoke with reporters following the 84-74 win over Rutgers on Thursday night.

He spoke about the injury to Malik Reneau, IU’s shooting outburst and more.

IU moves to 11-3 (2-1) and will return to action on Sunday against Penn State.

Below is the full Q&A.

Q. Coach, obviously you had Oumar Ballo back tonight. I know he’s listed as questionable (inaudible) what are your thoughts on how he is physically and everything?

MIKE WOODSON: I thought he played great. He’s a big part of our team winning tonight. He had 17 and three rebounds, a few blocked shots, plugged the hole up for us like he’s supposed to so I thought he played well.

Q. Mike, not my usual fare I guess, but I’m just curious as somebody who spent a long time in the NBA, what are you thinking when you’re watching a guy like Ace Bailey make the shots that he made. It didn’t seem like you made out easy on him defensively, changed coverages, changed defenders and he just kept finding a way.

MIKE WOODSON: He’s special. He’s a good player and he’s young. If he continues to work, he could be pretty special. I mean, we kind of threw a few things at him, but he made some tough shots tonight and that’s what great players do.

Q. Was Ballo coming off the bench disciplinary-related or injury-related?

MIKE WOODSON: Let’s just talk about his 17 and 12. That’s what I like to focus in on. He came off the bench and he got 17 and 12 for us and two blocks, which is fantastic.

Q. Mike, after Malik went down early, how do you feel like the team adapted to playing without him and do you have an update on husband status?

MIKE WOODSON: Well, right now, we just got to evaluate him tomorrow. He couldn’t come back in the game and you know he’s a big piece to the puzzle. Going into this game, he was our leading scorer, so we’ll evaluate him tomorrow through our medical staff and see where he is and if he can’t play, it’s next man up. We just got to continue to go whoever is in uniform.

Q. Mike, I know you said after the game against Winthrop shooting’s a funny thing and you kind of just had to hope the shots would start falling from the outside. To make 12 tonight after the way he played on Sunday, what led to that turn around?

MIKE WOODSON: Guys stepped up, they made ’em, which was kind of nice to see. That’s probably the most threes we’ve made this season so far and I just hope it continues to be a carryover because I thought in the Winthrop game we got some good looks, we just didn’t make them. Tonight, guys stepped up and they knocked them down which we’re going to need moving forward.

Q. Mike, you had 36 points from behind the three-point line 34 points on second-chance opportunities off of 18 offensive rebounds. What led to that outburst tonight?

MIKE WOODSON: Well, I think the fact that they played a lot of zones. It’s kind of hard to block out in zone situations. We were able to sneak guys in and get put-backs or kick it back out for threes. That’s just how it goes when you play zone. You gamble because you do have to rebound out of the zone in order to get down the floor and play offense and we were able to capitalize on it a little bit.

Q. Coach, after making just one three in the last game, did you, like, handle that any way special with them or is that just —

MIKE WOODSON: No, like I told you guys, I mean, as a coach, every time they shoot it, I think it’s going in, especially if you got the right guy shooting it and we did in our last game. You had Gallo shooting some and Goode and Mac. They just didn’t knock them down and tonight they had some of those same looks and they put it in the hole which is kind of nice to see.

Q. Mike, what went into the decision to have Anthony Leal guard Ace Bailey a decent amount? Was that something you expected to happen in your preparation for this game?

MIKE WOODSON: No, Anthony is one of our best defenders and when I got to go to someone off the bench to guard a key guy, because I thought in that one stretch right before the half, I think he only scored one point against Anthony. He had done all his damage early and… but again, he’s a hell of a player. He did a lot of good things for his ball club tonight.

Q. Mike, you built this team to have depth. You lose Malik early, but your other players came through. Is this maybe the best game of the season in terms of showing what this team can be top to bottom?

MIKE WOODSON: I think so but we got a long way to go. I got to help our bench more somehow. I just got to get them comfortable having fun and flying around and doing things on both ends of the floor that we’re supposed to do and we’re not there yet.

SEE ALSO: Key takeaways from the Indiana basketball 84-74 win over Rutgers

Make sure to follow Hoosier Illustrated, part of the Full Ride Network, on Twitter @Indiana_FRN, Facebook and YouTube to stay up to date on all of the news, updates and coverage of Indiana University athletics. You can also listen to the Talking’ Bout the Hoosiers podcast on Spotify.

Looking for a place to get more Indiana content? Hoosier Illustrated has partnered with Tom Brady’s company ‘Autograph’ to streamline our coverage, so you can continue to do what you do best – follow IU sports. Use the CODE: Indianafr to get started today. For more info, you can start here.