News and notes from Mike Woodson’s radio show

  • 02/26/2024 8:40 pm in

“Inside Indiana Basketball with Mike Woodson” was back Monday night for the final episode of February.

This week, Don Fischer and Indiana head coach Mike Woodson discussed what went wrong for Indiana against Nebraska and Penn State and what the Hoosiers have to do better moving forward.

Woodson also previewed Indiana’s upcoming game against Wisconsin.

Here’s a recap of what Woodson had to say on this week’s episode:

• Woodson said this season reminds him a lot of his first year as Indiana’s head coach. This season, the team has struggled to put together a complete 40-minute ball game, which was something the Hoosiers struggled to do for a certain period back in 21-22, but “figured it out when they had to.”

• Woodson said that even with the team’s struggles this season, the team has to “keep on working.” To overcome those struggles, according to Woodson, “you can’t give up.”

• Woodson mentioned that this year’s team is still young and did not have much college basketball experience before the start of the season. He said that players like Gabe Cupps, Mackenzie Mgbako, Malik Reneau, and Kel’el Ware were all players who were either new to the college game or had little experience entering the season. Woodson said that Trey Galloway and Xavier Johnson were the main players on this year’s roster with significant college minutes.

• When talking about the roots of this team’s issues, Woodson said that not having Johnson this season was a big blow to the team. He said that Johnson’s injury for part of this season has hurt the team’s performance on the floor. “We maybe wouldn’t be having this conversation if X was healthy.” Johnson has missed the last six games with an arm injury.

• Woodson says he senses no frustration with his team at this point in the season. “I am the coach, frustration is not gonna get it done. You just have to keep coaching …cut out all the noise and keep working.”

• With all the outside noise, Woodson said that he recommends that his players stay off social media. Woodson also said he isn’t on social media and he deals with the media “because I have to.” He said his job and responsibility is to his players and the fans of Indiana.

• Woodson said he thought Trey Galloway took a few hits that were “unnecessary” in the Penn State game.

• Woodson said that his team did a lot of good things against Nebraska and Penn State, but the difference in those games was free throw and 3-point shooting. IU finished 4-for-21 on 3s and 14-for-24 from the line against the Cornhuskers and 2-15 on 3s  and 14-for-25 from the line against the Nittany Lions.

• Woodson said IU went through a stretch “prior to the last five games” where the team was shooting the ball pretty good. He said he tells his players, “when you’re open, you gotta take ’em.”

• Woodson said the game has changed a lot since his playing days in the NBA because of the 3-point shot. He said that back in the day, “you only took the 3-ball when you needed one.” “The 3-ball has changed the game because everyone has started shooting it.”

• When looking ahead to Wisconsin, Woodson said that this game is a winnable game for his squad. “This is a game we can win, but we gotta come out and play 40 minutes.” Last time IU faced off against the Badgers was on Jan. 19, when the Hoosiers lost 91-79.

• Fischer mentioned that Wisconsin is 4-5 since they last played Indiana.

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