Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson, guard Anthony Leal and forward Luke Goode addressed the media following Indiana's Tuesday night loss to Illinois.
Below are their full Q&As, as well as a transcript for each of their conversations.
Q. Mike, I know you don't share specifics a lot of what you say in the locker rooms, but after a first half like that, just what do you say to a team few try and pick them back up, try and try keep guys together if nothing else?
MIKE WOODSON: Long season, man. I mean, you can't throw in the towel. You know, I mean, we didn't play well the first handful. We were awful.
I thought we came out the second half and we competed and played a lot better, but the damage was already done in the first half. Got to give Illinois a lot of credit, their coaching staff. They played great.
Q. Coach, big picture, you guys are 1-5 in quad one games. I think 15-34 in quad one games over the last three years. What do you see is the problem with you guys not competing with consistency against the better opponent?
MIKE WOODSON: We've had some good games against big time opponents over the three years. The record doesn't indicate that.
It's tough. You know, I mean, when you prepare and you work, because we work in practice, we do all the things that you are supposed to do going into the game. Guys just didn't step up tonight and didn't step up in the Iowa game.
I can't go back to past years. I got to coach what's staring me in the face right now. We just got to continue to work. I mean, still a long season. Hopefully we'll get Malik back soon. He's a big piece to what we do and we can get guys back playing the way I expect us to play.
Q. The fans were very vocal tonight about their disappointment. What will you say to reassure them about the direction of this team?
MIKE WOODSON: Again, I love our fans and I respect our fans, but it's up to me to get our players to play at a high level. That's my job and I'm going to continue to work in that area and hope that our fans will hang in there with us.
Q. Mike, in your long tenure as a coach, when you have younger guys who are trying to figure things out, especially after two bad games, what is your approach with them and what do you feel like you need to do to do some soul searching of your own?
MIKE WOODSON: You got to continue to work. I got to make some changes. We haven't been getting off to a good start in terms of who we been starting. Sure, we do miss Malik. He's a big piece to the puzzle. But I got to put guys in there that I think is going to get us off to a good start and see if we can maintain it over a 40-minute ballgame.
We can't two games, and these were embarrassing games for us, determine our season. We still got a long way to go, a lot of Big10 games left. I just got to get us better prepared and ready to play.
Q. Mike, how do you explain 60? 125 year history of Indiana basketball, that's never happened before. How do you explain that?
MIKE WOODSON: I wish I knew. You know, I mean, I thought we played better the second half. They scored what, 34 points the second half. 60 points is just way too many.
I just thought our defense and our intensity just wasn't there and they exploited it.
Q. Two questions. First one is what happened with Oumar Ballo at the end? What are you going to do about that?
MIKE WOODSON: There is not a whole lot I can do. You know being until I can back and review it. I'm sure the commissioner and everybody will take a look at what happens and make a decision on what they plan on doing.
I just hope Ballo is with us our next game as we travel over to Ohio.
Q. Mike, that raises the question of accountability. You got a player doing what he did and you're hoping he can play in the next game. What's going on here?
MIKE WOODSON: Well, they're taking up for each other. I get that. In the heat of the battle anything is liable to happen. I don't condone players pushing players or their player got into our player's face. It went back and forth, two guys pushing and shoving.
I don't condone that by any means. In the heat of the battle I'm not right there in the situation where I can stop it. Sometimes things get out of hand and they happen.
You know, Ballo and I will sit and talk, along with Myles, because he was assessed a technical, too, and see where we go from there.
Q. To you have this performance after the way the Iowa game went on Saturday, just what did you see from the team's response and what needs to change coming out of this game?
MIKE WOODSON: Again, we can't let this be a snowball effect. Like I said, we got a long way to go in this Big10.
Do I think we're good enough to win? Yeah, I do. I just got to get us to believe that and keep pushing these guys in the right direction.
Q. This is a roster in October you said was I think the most talented you've had here. Is there a reason you can look at for why it hasn't really clicked yet?
MIKE WOODSON: Again, you're missing your leading scorer the last five, six games. I mean, that doesn't help.
I mean, again, I've always said we won games without Malik. It's next man up. The last two games we haven't fared well without him. Hopefully get him back soon and I can get guys playing back at a high level so we can get back on the winning track.
Q. Either one of you guys can take this. You guys are now 1-5 in quad one games. A lot of struggles against quality opponents. What did you see is happening? What's going wrong in these games?
LUKE GOODE: We're not playing tough enough. We need to come out and be ready and stick to the game plan and the scouting report. That's been our biggest issue so far. We come out and let teams kind of punk us in a sense.
I think we need to be better and have a closer attention to detail on the scouting report (video glitch.)
Q. Breaking down at the moment, that maybe in realtime been struggling to fix whether it's penetration or it's scoring shooters in certain areas.
ANTHONY LEAL: To be honest, there is a lot of defensive schemes we can run, and it really doesn't matter what we do if we're not going to do it hard, with effort and toughness. That's what it comes down to.
Obviously they have some really talented players on their team. They're a good team. But we know we're talented and good team as well. We just aren't matching anybody's toughness or togetherness or effort right now. I think that's the problem.
Q. For either of you, the slow starts have been an issue throughout the season. What's kind of been the issue coming out of these games flat? Do you sense that in practice at all?
LUKE GOODE: Offensive starts shouldn't really determine how we play the game. I think it all comes down to defense. If we score above 55, 65 points in a game then we need to be able to win games like that.
So regardless if it's slow starts, fast starts, whatever it is, I don't even think we started out slow today; it was like 10-8 after the first four.
So, you know, at the end of the day it starts on the defensive end. Regardless of how we play offensively, how we shoot the ball, we need to have the pride and be able to sit down on defense and grind out games.
Q. Anthony, back-to-back 25-plus-point losses. Hasn't happened since 2008. What do you guys do as players in the locker room to carry on like normal with a winning mentality?
ANTHONY LEAL: I don't think we carry on like normal. Obviously things need to be addressed between players and themselves and players and each other. I think that's really the root of it. We just got to lock in, look in the mirror, and understand how embarrassing and unacceptable this is and understand that nobody gets where they want to go if the team doesn't win.
Just reassessing everything and setting our priorities straight man to man and man to himself and finding ways to win games.
Q. Luke, can you explain what happened there at the end, how frustrating all that was for playing out the way it did?
LUKE GOODE: Yeah, I think it got blown way out of proportion. I went and talked to the Illinois staff after and said I had no bad intentions. It was simply a box out. I got called for one in the first half, which was awful as well. That's what we're taught to do. Go hit your man and turn and box out. That's what I was taught to do and that's what I did.
I don't think Ballo reacted in the right way. He stood up for me and Myles did, which I really appreciate that. That's what team looks like. But it was a little too much. I think Ballo should have controlled his emotions a little bit. Makes us look bad as a program, and that's not the kids that we have in the locker room.
Anyone that knows Ballo knows he's a great kid. We were all upset that we were losing the game by a margin we didn't expect or want to lose the game by. At the end of that day Coach went and shook Coach Brad's hand, I went and shook Brad's hand, and basketball is basketball.
Ballo is a great kid who was sticking up for his teammate, and that is just not how we need to represent the Indiana program, and we'll continue to try and represent the right way in the future.
Q. Anthony, tomorrow is a new day I guess. From the standpoint of a veteran like yourself, where does it start in terms of the approach of turning this in the direction you want it to go? What's your approach to that?
ANTHONY LEAL: That's tough. Obviously things aren't going the way they're supposed to go right now. That's a problem we all have to understand amongst ourselves first, and then just coming in with the right mindset every day. Sure, we just did lose two, but we're staring nine quad one games in a row in the face.
We have two different options, and I think as long as we can all get on the same page about the fact that we can win those nine games, turn the season around, we can make everybody's dreams come true, right?
So I think it's just approaching every day with a new, fresh mentality and understanding we do have a lot of work to do.
The work needs to be done.
Q. Either one of you, Anthony, since you have been here the longest, you've already acknowledged what you guys probably need to do as a team. My question is how this late in the season does a team not come out prepared to play, not come ready to give everything, not come ready to do all the things you guys have spoken about?
ANTHONY LEAL: Sure. Winning is obviously hard. Like Luke said at the first media timeout it was 10-8, so not like we weren't coming out ready to play. I think it's just understanding how hard winning is and what it requires and you have to be able to sustain punches, remain composed, and take the runs because it's a game of runs.
We have to get better in that department and just remaining composed, staying true to our scout and our offensive concepts and the things we have had success with in the future. It can't be done in spurts. It's got to be able to be done when it gets tough.
That's really what it comes down to, and hopefully we'll be able to put that together.
Q. Luke, crowd was pretty restless before the game even started. What do you say to the fans who were lashing out the way they were and for why they should stick by you?
LUKE GOODE: I understand it. We got embarrassed. We have to wear this jersey with more pride as Indiana players. This program is too historical and too great to be represented like that.
But to all those fans that were booing and are so negative on social media, just don't switch sides. We will get this thing turned around. We all got the confidence in our teammates, got the confidence in our coaches, so stay on this side when we start being successful again.
ANTHONY LEAL: Agreed.
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