Mike Woodson: ‘I’ve done a terrible job in really putting them in the best position possible to win’

Indiana basketball suffered their 5th straight loss today in this recent stretch of the season with this one coming at the hands of the Michigan Wolverines 70-67. The Hoosiers have now lost 7 of their last 8 games on the year.

While the loss is certainly another talking point, the bigger story of this game was the fact that this game was the first one since the announcement of Mike Woodson stepping down as Indiana head coach at the end of the season.

The vibe in Assembly Hall on Saturday afternoon was certainly, a weird one. Yes, it was a lot of the same that we have seen recently with bad stretches of basketball followed by fight that would bring the Assembly Hall crowd to their feet, however, during the game vs Michigan, you could actually feel that sad, black cloud in the air with everyone knowing what the end result at the conclusion of the season is going to be.

While the announcement of Mike Woodson stepping down by Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson was not fully addressed, Woodson was still pretty open as to why this has not gone the way he wanted it to go with this program.

“I’ve done a terrible job in really putting them in the best position possible to win, I think,” said Mike Woodson.

This week has been a weird one for the Indiana basketball program as you can imagine. Especially when you think about the players of this team and how all this impacts them, it is a tough thing to manage while also going through a rough patch of loss after loss.

“We haven’t been the same team for a while. And for whatever reason we’ve dug a hole,” Woodson added. “I’ve done a terrible job in really putting them in the best position possible to win, I think.”

“But emotionally, these kids have taken a beatin’ a little bit. And it’s my job to try to lift their spirits and keep ’em heading in the right direction because there’s still a lot of basketball left.”

Read: Key takeaways from the Indiana basketball 70-67 loss to Michigan

The end result will be that Mike Woodson will not be coming back next season. Regardless of that, there is still a good chunk of the season remaining. Woodson, and the players, still have a job to complete before the new era begins.

“But we’ve still got seven more games to play,” said Woodson. “And it’s my job as their coach to try to push them to realize that they can still win basketball games.”

“Seven games is a lot of games, and we’re still trying to play to stay in the Big Ten Tournament and then see where that takes us. But we’ve got to start winning some games here soon to do that.”

SEE ALSO: Indiana basketball is poised for a rebirth with the Mike Woodson era coming to an end

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