Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson and guards Myles Rice and Anthony Leal spoke with the media following Indiana's Sunday afternoon loss to Maryland.
Below are their full Q&As, as well as a transcript for each of their conversations—once they become available.
Q. Mike, just as much as you can, what were you looking for on that last pair of inbounds and what broke down? I know the first one Malik gets the ball poked away.
MIKE WOODSON: They went to zone, and when we went underneath out of bounds, we had a play for Myles to come off because we knew they would switch to big, and he didn't. He never came off.
That being said, we had our opportunities. We had a foul to give, which we talked about in the timeout, and didn't give it. So that was huge.
You've got to make plays down the stretch, and I got to get them to understand that. We missed a big front end of a one-and-one that could have put us back up three or four. It was just the little things that we didn't execute coming down the homestretch.
Q. Coach, giving up 78 at home, just your level of concern or your thoughts on just giving up that many points in a home game?
MIKE WOODSON: Well, it was that type of game. They're a good offensive team, and I thought we did everything we were supposed to do to get back in the game, and we just didn't finish.
With the foul to give and not give it, it's unacceptable, but you can't go back and get it now.
Q. Just big picture with this, you obviously have to swallow this tough loss. A game that ends like that, is that harder to swallow than others?
MIKE WOODSON: No, any time you lose, it's tough to swallow. I don't like to lose at all. It's just my makeup.
I know those guys in the locker room, I love them to death, and they don't like losing. Again, I've just got to help them more. That's what I've got to do.
Q. When you start naming just the long list of things that went wrong late. I think you had three seniors out there. I'm sure you guys practiced that a lot. How surprised are you the execution kind of stumbled?
MIKE WOODSON: I'm not going to say -- we executed to get back into the game. We're on the free-throw line with the one-and-one, up two with, I think, 20-something seconds on the clock.
Then we just didn't get a key stop with a foul to give. The ball scrambled out. The initial thrust of their offense, I thought we played it well. Then when the ball kind of spurted around, we just didn't get up and take the foul like we should have.
Q. You've mentioned kind of multiple times, even the last couple weeks, about trying to get this team to play more consistently. Is there anything that you've done to try to change it up to try to reach them or try to change your approach when things are a struggle?
MIKE WOODSON: Today getting Malik back was a plus. He missed six games, guys, and I'm not using that as an excuse. We went 4-2 in that stretch with three games on the road going 2-1. He's lost a lot of his conditioning.
Make no mistake about it, when you play on teams like Maryland and Purdue teams that got bigs, you've got to play big.
I thought with Goode coming in off the bench tonight, he played his butt off and made plays, but Derik Queen matching up with Goode is not a good match.
I thought Malik came on at the end and showed some fight, considering he hadn't played a whole lot here as of late. So we've got to get him back in better condition. He played 20-something minutes tonight. See if he can help us finish this ten-game run.
Q. On the last inbounds, you swapped out Mackenzie and Goode for Leal and Ballo. Was there something you saw in what Maryland's set was to do that? Also, was there off the timeout something you didn't see that caused you to not put them in at that point?
MIKE WOODSON: Well, they went zone on our initial last timeout. Malik tried to make the play on the baseline, anything to get a foul. Derek made a good play on the ball to knock it out of bounds.
But the play that we had coming underneath, we just didn't execute. Myles didn't come off, and he stayed there in the corner, and we didn't get much out of it.
Q. Now the second straight game that your opponent has gone hot from three-point range in the second half. What do you think that is a by-product of?
MIKE WOODSON: Again, if guys are shooting -- a couple times we lost guys, but there were a few times that we were right there. Obviously you're not close enough if guys can just turn and shoot in your face and make them.
We've just got to get better in that area and guarding the 3 ball. Early on, we were pretty good in that area, and we had some slippage there as well.
Q. You guys were up five with three minutes to go. It seemed like the next few possessions got really late into the shot clock and didn't end up in good looks. Did you get what you wanted out of those? Were you trying to work clock?
MIKE WOODSON: No, I wasn't really trying to work clock. I thought Malik rushed a little push shot that he had right there in the lane, kind of a little chippy the few that he had just made. I thought we executed okay and got some good shots, but you've still got to defend on the other end.
I thought we gave up an easy layup to Reese, and I know Malik didn't want to foul out and I get that. But we can't give up layups, especially in short clock situation. I mean, they got that early in the clock, so they didn't have to milk any of the time off the clock.
Hey, it's a tough game. We've just got to bounce back.
Q. Myles, this is the fourth time in the last five games you guys have given up double digit 3s. What are you seeing going wrong on that end of the floor?
MYLES RICE: I think during the little run they got two or three 3s in transition. I think it's just important for us to get back and get matched up no matter what the matchup is. Just find a man and be able to take that away.
They hit some tough shots tonight. Some of them were wide open looks as well. That's just how the game goes sometimes.
Q. Can you explain the last possession there? What the goal was in the huddle and how it played out?
MYLES RICE: I think we were trying to run a play, but then the substitutions kind of got everybody confused a little bit, trying to put everybody in their right spots. Then we didn't have a timeout, so we were trying to fix everything on the fly a little bit in such a heated moment.
We've got to be better as players. No matter who's in the group and who's on the court, that we can get the play off no matter what. We've just got to be better.
Q. Anthony, you guys are 2-6 now in quad 1 games, a lot of ground to make up. Can you sort of give the fans an idea of what you guys are thinking, mentality in the locker room, and how you go about trying to fight up this hill?
ANTHONY LEAL: Sure. We're sitting at 5-5 in the Big Ten. We've got ten games left. Our next four are against really, really good teams that, if we're able to string some wins together, it changes the whole trajectory of our season.
We get Purdue, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, those are golden opportunities for us to get over the hump a little bit, figure it out, and just continue learning how to win.
If we're able to string some of those wins together, it changes everything. We still have ten games to go, and we want to try to win all ten of them.
Q. For both of you guys, you were down 63-53, and it was like flip the switch. Suddenly you went on a big run, 20-7, and then you had them down by five. What kind of reaction did you have emotionally during that run, and what was the response -- how did you process the response of the crowd?
ANTHONY LEAL: It's always exciting. It's what makes this place so special is just being able to go on runs like that. This place and these fans reward tough plays and hard plays, and they notice when we're out there playing as hard as we can. They reward us with energy, and it becomes contagious. That's what makes this game so special.
But it's a game of runs, and we were able to go on a run there. We've just got to find a way to finish.
Q. You guys responded after the Illinois loss. I guess before the next game what kind of goes into you guys' preparation in terms of getting another response?
MYLES RICE: We just take it day by day. I think each and every day that we come into work, I think we have a positive mindset, we want to get better. Paying attention to the scouts and everything.
I think we did all that today. We just didn't get the win we wanted. It doesn't change what we have to do. We still show up each and every day working and trying to get better.
Q. What do you think has prevented you guys from finding that level of consistency that's been lacking over the last couple weeks? Have you tried anything different as leaders on the team to shake things up? How do you guys kind of approach that?
ANTHONY LEAL: Can I ask you to specify consistency in what?
Q. (No microphone). You go back and forth where you look so good and then fall behind.
ANTHONY LEAL: Like I said, it is a game of runs. We know that we're going to go on runs and they're going to go on runs. It's about who can handle those punches and keep fighting better than the other team.
Unfortunately today, they responded in a way that they made a big shot at the end and whatnot. For us, it's just staying composed and not letting the highs get too high or the lows get too low and understanding that, okay, maybe they did go on a run, but now we can go on a run. Or maybe we did just go on a run, so let's continue to try to build on it.
Again, it's not getting hung up on whether it's really good or bad at the moment, but just focus on the next play and try to win games.
Q. Myles, would you mind expanding just a little bit, what is it like in the heat of the moment there, 4 seconds left and players are coming in and you've got a play called and you're trying to get everybody in the right spot? Are there a couple wings, maybe not sure which one -- can you talk more what is that like? I've never thought about that before.
MYLES RICE: I'll just start by saying this. I know they're not going to want me to say it, buy that's on me as the point guard. No matter what lineup we're in, we have to make sure we all know what we're doing, and I'll take some of the heat on that.
It's just a heated moment. You can't really put it into words sometimes. Everything happens so fast. It's not only just the team, but especially me, to be cool, calm, and collected and be in that head space to know, like I said, make sure everybody's in their spots and make sure we know what we're doing.
We've just got to be better, and I've got to be better as well.
Q. On Maryland's last possession, you all had a chance to foul. He was kind of frustrated there was no foul. Was it clearly communicated to you all that the staff wanted you to foul?
ANTHONY LEAL: We had discussed it in the huddle, yes. It's on us as players to go out there and execute what's told us to do. We didn't do it right there, but that's not the reason we lost the game. There's plays and plays that add up and lead up to that.
Sure, yes, we were under the impression we were supposed to foul, and unfortunately we didn't. But it's a long game, and there's a lot of things that add up to it.
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