THE MODERATOR: Mike, you have been obviously very busy, you and your staff in the offseason with the transfer portal. It’s always important to get time to recharge the batteries. You know about keeping the pace being in this business for as long as you have. I understand you were able to recharge those batteries not far away in California as well a little bit this summer.
MIKE WOODSON: Out in Desert Island dealing with the heat. It was all fine. I’m talking about averaging around 110 a day. But my wife likes it out there a lot, so we spent about three weeks out there this summer.
THE MODERATOR: You obviously did spend some time in the portal. Talk about some of the amazing transfers you have coming in Oumar Ballo, Carlyle is on that list. Myles Rice, so many on other guys. How were you able to do that? What’s that process like now when it is so important to get into the portal and get players that can fit immediately into your program?
MIKE WOODSON: Well, we had no choice. I mean, I lost three players to the portal. I lost two seniors in Kel’el Ware, who was drafted to the Heat as a 15th pick in the draft.
I had to go out along with my staff and start, you know, really working to try to build our team back. We were able to come West and get Big Ballo, as you mentioned, and Myles Rice and Kanaan Carlyle.
Then we were fortunate enough to get Goode to come back home, which he is a Bloomington kid. Then we got a freshman in Bryson Tucker, who kind of fell in our laps late.
I had looked at him a couple of years ago when he was at IMG. We were able to get him on board.
I mean, we’ve built basically through the portal with one freshman, but it’s been a work in progress. Our summer program I thought went extremely well, and then we gave them a month off. Now we’re back at official practicing.
It’s been a good run so far. We just got to put it all together and see where it leads us.
THE MODERATOR: Mike, you’ve been there. I know you would like to get a little deeper into March this coming season. When you return to your alma mater, I’m sure you had an idea of where you wanted the program to be at this point. How does that compare to where you feel like the program actually is?
MIKE WOODSON: I think we took a step backwards last year by not making the tournament. That was kind of disappointing. But again, we got to move forward. The first two years a lot of those guys hadn’t been in the tournament for five years. Then they tasted it a little bit.
At the end of the day along with these guys, this is about winning Big Ten titles and winning national titles. That’s why I came back.
I remember the good days back when I played and some of the great years that Bob Knight had at Indiana that it’s been missing. To be back and I’m able to put my stamp on it, you know, it’s going to be great for me.
I’m happy to be back, but we still got a long way to go as a ball club.
THE MODERATOR: Mike, it certainly helps when you have guys that have been through that grind before, like Trey, like Malik, Mackenzie experienced it, and now expects some growth this year. What do you need from those guys specifically and those veterans that have been on this team to try too meld in all the newcomers?
MIKE WOODSON: We need them to lead and make another jump. I thought Malik made a hell of a jump from his freshman year, and Mackenzie, tremendous jump. Trey Galloway is who he is. He’s been a leader since I’ve had him. Unfortunately, he had the knee surgery this past season, and he’s worked his butt off this summer to get back.
He’s not fully recovered, but he is getting there, so I’m going to need all three of those guys to lead. We got some seniors, but we also have a bunch of young guys as well too that hadn’t really experienced the Big Ten like Myles Rice and Kanaan Carlyle and Tucker.
So we’re going to need those veteran guys to step up and lead our ball club.
THE MODERATOR: Obviously there’s a lot of momentum with your football programs as well. Indiana is surprising everybody. Have you felt that vibe of your players and maybe have had a chance to watch the Hoosier football team this year?
MIKE WOODSON: I’m loving it. I think Coach Cignetti has done a hell of a job. He’s put a great group of guys together. He’s got running backs. He’s got receivers. He has a hell of a quarterback.
I couldn’t be more happier for him because it’s been a while to see our programs even in the top 25. So you have to give him a lot of credit for that. I’m waiting for Northwestern this week. We have them here at Northwestern. It should be a good ball game.
FOOTBALL4 days ago
FOOTBALL4 days ago
FOOTBALL2 days ago
FOOTBALL4 days ago
BASKETBALL23 hours ago
FOOTBALL5 days ago
FOOTBALL5 days ago
FOOTBALL3 days ago