Coach Q&A: Mike Woodson reacts to Indiana basketball’s 76-72 loss against Northwestern

Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson spoke to reporters following Indiana basketball’s 76-72 loss against Northwestern on Sunday afternoon at Assembly Hall.

Woodson discussed what he thought the biggest play of the game was, Malik Reneau’s foul trouble and much more.

Below is the full video Q&A.

Q. Mike, you had that surge out of halftime, cut to it one, and then just couldn’t quite find that final push. Maybe what wasn’t there in terms of riding that momentum but not being able to get control of the game back fully?

MIKE WOODSON: Well, I thought the biggest play is when we were down two during that surge. Malik had it on the right block — left block, and Mackenzie just hit a three from a play we had designed. He was sitting right there. I don’t know if you saw him or not, but he went into a bad shot.

They came back and hit a three and we never recovered from that point on. I thought if that pass had it been made and Mack gets another look, there is a chance we go up one.

But I thought of the biggest play along with not making free throws. A close game when you are scraping and scraping you got to make three throws, man, and we were 9 for 22 I think. What was it? 12 for 21. So that’s just not good in close games.

Q. Malik, fouls out; two in nine seconds, his second straight game. Have you talked to him? Those problems seemed to be past him, and now kind of rearing their head again. Have you seen anything in the last two games you’re frustrated with in terms of frequency of fouls?

MIKE WOODSON: Well, I wasn’t happy with him after the game. I mean, after he had the two I thought the third foul was — it came so fast. I mean, he reached over the guy and he didn’t, at the time, didn’t think he fouled, but I thought it was a foul.

The fifth foul came so fast I couldn’t get him out, from the bump up top in the pick and roll. We just got to keep working with him because we need him on the basketball floor. The guy has played well this season for our ball club, and being our second leading scorer and second leading rebounder, we need him on the floor, especially coming down the stretch.

Q. You guys give up 14 offensive rebounds again. I know that has been a problem all year long. Not necessarily a big team outside of the big guy. How frustrating was that for you? Also only forced three turnovers the whole game.

MIKE WOODSON: Again, I thought the 50/50 balls they beat us to tonight and we played smaller. When Malik got in fall trouble early we went small. Coming down the stretch I had Mackenzie at the 4.

So I mean, we have to utilize our strengths when we’re on the floor being big, but didn’t help us tonight.

Q. Mike, you mentioned a little bit of this with regards to Malik. Seemed like the ball was sticking a little bit when the ball went into him in the paint. Maybe a few others as well. How do you try to work the team out of that to get the team to see the open players that —

MIKE WOODSON: I thought early on when the game started we got good looks based on how they double teamed the ball. Just didn’t make shots early.

I mean, we had some really good looks. Gallo had — I can look back — had three wide open ones that he just made one of the three. Mackenzie didn’t make any early on.

These are shots that when our guys aren’t being double teamed — Gabe made one — they got to step up and knock them down. Then it takes a little pressure off the guys being double teamed if we can start making shots when they were double teamed.

But I thought coming down the stretch running the pick and roll game we were able to open it up a bit when we went small to get Mackenzie and CJ who didn’t make one but good looks. Gallo had some good looks coming down the stretch as well as Gabe.

We just got to keep working, man. It’s frustrating because I thought we played well enough once we got back into it. The free throws bit us in the butt.

Q. You mentioned a couple times Mackenzie at the 4 playing small. Is that something you think he could do more down the road here? I know it’s tough because you got Kel’el and Malik, your top two scorers. Makes it hard to play him there. What’s that look like?

MIKE WOODSON: Yeah, we can experiment with that a little bit. It looked pretty good tonight, but they were small, too. You know, it didn’t hurt us. When teams are playing bigger 4s that can be tougher for Mackenzie as well.

Can be tough for the guys that are possibly guarding him too as well. Something to think about.

Q. 0.8 points per possession first half; only 12 points. What do you feel is wrong with the offense right now and what needs to change?

MIKE WOODSON: Simple. You watched the same game I did. You got to make shots. We had some good looks and we just didn’t knock them down. Nothing scientific about it. We moved the ball well enough to get open shots. You got to step up and make them. It’s that simple.

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