Mike Woodson joined legendary voice of the Hoosiers Don Fischer for the first edition of Inside Indiana Basketball on Monday after the team’s first exhibition against Indianapolis.
A slow start had Indiana trailing at the half against the Division II school but they found their rhythm in the second half pulling away for the 74-52 victory.
Below are some key quotes and notes from Woodson’s appearance on Inside Indiana Basketball.
Woodson’s thoughts on the Indianapolis exhibition
“I was very excited to see where we were as a ball club,” Woodson said.
He felt missed layups, missed free throws and sloppiness contributed to the slow start.
“Coaches gotta do what they gotta do sometimes, and you hope like hell they respond,” Woodson said about his halftime speech. “And I thought they came out and played well,the second half, especially our second unit.”
In addition to what was likely a fiery half time speech, Woodson felt his guys adjusted properly in the second half.
“I thought we made the adjustments the second half, and our guys responded and came out and played Indiana basketball.”
Sunday’s start was not what Woodson wanted and emphasized that they “have a long way to go.”
Mike Woodson used this offseason to ‘recruit the bench’
Woodson emphasized the importance of having two capable units with the ‘grueling’ schedule that Indiana basketball plays this season. He really focused on recruiting the bench heading into the season.
He emphasized the additions of Anthony Walker and Payton Sparks as two guys to step up off the bench.
“Anthony Walker was a nice pickup, and big Payton [Sparks] was a nice pickup,” Woodson said.
It didn’t seem like he was surprised by the performance of the second unit as he mentioned they have been pushing the first unit hard in practice. Gabe Cupps was another guy who stood out off the bench.
“I wasn’t shocked the fact that he came out and had poise and looked like he belonged because he’s just that type of competitor,” Woodson said about the freshman guard.
Woodson has mentioned he wants to play a deep rotation and expects his bench to play a big role this season.
Woodson wants to run more guard heavy lineups
Woodson spoke about Gabe Cupps performance Sunday and said he wants to play him alongside Xavier Johnson. He said he will likely play them together more against Marian to see how it works.
Woodson likes multiple ball handlers on the floor at once and he plans to experiment with his senior and freshman as a result. He emphasized how he did it when coaching in the NBA and he wants to do it at Indiana.
He mentioned Galloway as another ball handler who could play along side Cupps as well, and he will experiment more lineups in the team’s final exhibition.
The trio of guards had 9 of the team’s 21 assists while adding a combined 16 points on 6/15 shooting in the team’s exhibition.
With freshman guard Jakai Newton’s injury, it takes one ball handler away from Indiana’s rotation. The expectation is that we will see a combo of either Johnson, Galloway or Cupps on the floor together very often for Mike Woodson’s ball club.
How Woodson got started as a coach
Mike Woodson shared how Cotton Fitzsimmons gave him his start in coaching after he retired from playing by throwing him into the fire after he retired from playing. Woodson went to a practice led by Fitzsimmons expecting to help out.
“The only reason I went out, because he told me, oh, we can play golf every day,” Woodson said. “So we get 30 minutes in to practice. And he says, well, Woody, I got a tee time at 12 o’clock. And I said, okay, well let’s go. He says, well, somebody’s gotta stay here and coach the team.”
Woodson said he coached in the summer league for the next three years before Chris Ford gave him a job coaching. Woodson met with the Bucks’ owner who asked if he knew Coach Bob Knight.
After having Coach Knight call on his behalf, Woodson had his first job coaching basketball. The “next morning I have the job as assistant coach in Milwaukee,” Woodson said.
Woodson said he continued to learn on the job and gaining the confidence to ‘manage the players’ helped make coaching a lot easier for him.
He expects a paint driven offense
While many fans were looking to see more threes in the team’s first exhibition, that was not the case. Indiana tried to get out and run in transition, and in the half court they looked to the post.
“I think you have to mix it up with transition, threes and high percentage twos,” Woodson said about the team’s offense.
Woodson mentioned that the 28 fast break points may be the most scored during his tenure and he wants his team to attack in transition. He has said he wants a balanced attack in the past and emphasized they won’t force threes since they probably won’t be the best shooting team.
“I’m not sitting here saying we’re going to be the greatest 3-point shooting team,” Woodson said. “… The game ain’t just living on 3-pointers.”
Indiana only made three three-pointers Sunday and it does not seem like they are going to be a team that relies on the three-ball this season.
He wants to play a big school in an exhibition
Woodson was asked if he hopes to get a big school to Assembly Hall for an exhibition and he seemed very interested.
“It would be unbelievable,” Woodson said about having a top school come for an exhibition. “We’d have a packed house. I know that.”
Woodson seemed very hopeful it would happen soon and there was one school that Woodson hoped to get to come for an exhibition.
“Yeah, it would be nice to get somebody like Duke in here,” Woodson said.
Woodson said he watched Kansas and Illinois play in an exhibition last night and he would love to do something similar at Indiana.
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