Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson, guard Anthony Leal and forward Mackenzie Mgbako spoke with the media following Indiana's Big Ten win over Rutgers on Thursday night.
Below are their full Q&As, as well as a full transcript of each of their conversations.
Q. Coach, obviously you had Oumar Ballo back tonight. I know he's listed as questionable (inaudible) what are your thoughts on how he is physically and everything?
MIKE WOODSON: I thought he played great. He's a big part of our team winning tonight. He had 17 and three rebounds, a few blocked shots, plugged the hole up for us like he's supposed to so I thought he played well.
Q. Mike, not my usual fare I guess, but I'm just curious as somebody who spent a long time in the NBA, what are you thinking when you're watching a guy like Ace Bailey make the shots that he made. It didn't seem like you made out easy on him defensively, changed coverages, changed defenders and he just kept finding a way.
MIKE WOODSON: He's special. He's a good player and he's young. If he continues to work, he could be pretty special. I mean, we kind of threw a few things at him, but he made some tough shots tonight and that's what great players do.
Q. Was Ballo coming off the bench disciplinary-related or injury-related?
MIKE WOODSON: Let's just talk about his 17 and 12. That's what I like to focus in on. He came off the bench and he got 17 and 12 for us and two blocks, which is fantastic.
Q. Mike, after Malik went down early, how do you feel like the team adapted to playing without him and do you have an update on husband status?
MIKE WOODSON: Well, right now, we just got to evaluate him tomorrow. He couldn't come back in the game and you know he's a big piece to the puzzle. Going into this game, he was our leading scorer, so we'll evaluate him tomorrow through our medical staff and see where he is and if he can't play, it's next man up. We just got to continue to go whoever is in uniform.
Q. Mike, I know you said after the game against Winthrop shooting's a funny thing and you kind of just had to hope the shots would start falling from the outside. To make 12 tonight after the way he played on Sunday, what led to that turn around?
MIKE WOODSON: Guys stepped up, they made 'em, which was kind of nice to see. That's probably the most threes we've made this season so far and I just hope it continues to be a carryover because I thought in the Winthrop game we got some good looks, we just didn't make them. Tonight, guys stepped up and they knocked them down which we're going to need moving forward.
Q. Mike, you had 36 points from behind the three-point line 34 points on second-chance opportunities off of 18 offensive rebounds. What led to that outburst tonight?
MIKE WOODSON: Well, I think the fact that they played a lot of zones. It's kind of hard to block out in zone situations. We were able to sneak guys in and get put-backs or kick it back out for threes. That's just how it goes when you play zone. You gamble because you do have to rebound out of the zone in order to get down the floor and play offense and we were able to capitalize on it a little bit.
Q. Coach, after making just one three in the last game, did you, like, handle that any way special with them or is that just --
MIKE WOODSON: No, like I told you guys, I mean, as a coach, every time they shoot it, I think it's going in, especially if you got the right guy shooting it and we did in our last game. You had Gallo shooting some and Goode and Mac. They just didn't knock them down and tonight they had some of those same looks and they put it in the hole which is kind of nice to see.
Q. Mike, what went into the decision to have Anthony Leal guard Ace Bailey a decent amount? Was that something you expected to happen in your preparation for this game?
MIKE WOODSON: No, Anthony is one of our best defenders and when I got to go to someone off the bench to guard a key guy, because I thought in that one stretch right before the half, I think he only scored one point against Anthony. He had done all his damage early and... but again, he's a hell of a player. He did a lot of good things for his ball club tonight.
Q. Mike, you built this team to have depth. You lose Malik early, but your other players came through. Is this maybe the best game of the season in terms of showing what this team can be top to bottom?
MIKE WOODSON: I think so but we got a long way to go. I got to help our bench more somehow. I just got to get them comfortable having fun and flying around and doing things on both ends of the floor that we're supposed to do and we're not there yet.
MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.
Q. Mackenzie, over here. Malik goes down almost the first play of the game but the team gathered itself and was able to overcome that adversity. What do you think the key was and the effort from everybody to be able to do that tonight?
MACKENZIE MGBAKO: Yeah, it was really scary when Malik went down. We were all worried for him. It's good that he's doing okay now, but, you know, the goal was to play together, play as a team, take the right shots, move the ball, play team defense and I feel like we accomplished that goal today, you know, just being able to be in the right spots at the right time, knock down open shots like we did and then stick to our cues and make the right plays.
Q. Talking about knocking down open shots, 12 threes is the most you've made this season but it felt like they were timely, too, that a lot of it, especially in the second half were answering Rutgers maybe threw five points at you hit a three to just kind of push them back. Just how important or how good does it feel to not just see them go down, but for them to be ones that change momentum or extend momentum that seemed to come at the right times.
MACKENZIE MGBAKO: We practice them every day so to see them going in, that's what we're supposed to do, so it's not a surprise. We're going to keep hitting shots and we're going to stay with it for the rest of the season.
Q. Yeah, Anthony, I just want to get your thoughts on Ballo's game, 17, 14, blocked shots just big plays. Your thoughts on how he played and especially the rebounding and just his big boy play inside. How impactful was that for you guys?
ANTHONY LEAL: It was great. He played dominant. We know that what he can do. That's why we brought him here to be a dominant presence down there and that's where we needed him today, just continue to build on that and stay focused on what we're doing.
Q. Anthony, for you yourself you had three offensive rebounds. The team had 18 as a total. A lot of second-chance points. Was that a key? How important was that tonight and how important will that be going forward?
ANTHONY LEAL: Yeah, early on in the game we kind of noticed that they weren't really boxing out so we saw opportunities to go get offensive rebounds and luckily I was able to get some and with our team and how deep we are, we're able to wear teams down and you could tell they got tired and we're not really focused on rebounding so we were all mindful of trying to get extra shots and extra opportunities and just seeing what could come from it.
Q. Anthony, when you see Myles hustling up and down the court laying out for loose balls, chasing down long rebounds, I guess how contagious is that effort and what maybe sticks out about his effort behind the scenes that we don't get to see?
ANTHONY LEAL: It's great. We try to make it to where everybody is doing that. So someone has to come out and set the tone every game and you hope that happens in the first few possessions where somebody makes a hard play like that and it kicks in with everyone else and it becomes contagious ands everybody is like okay, we got to really match that energy or else we're just going to be letting them down. It's becoming contagious and it's selfless team basketball and that's what we're about.
Q. Anthony, what was the approach you took when I know the you kind of got matched up on Ace Bailey and you see the kind of game he's having.
ANTHONY LEAL: Yeah, obviously super skilled, tough match-up, as you could tell, but we knew he liked to favorite his right hand, so any time I was on him I just tried to take away space, get physical on him and force him to his left hand knowing he's going to make some tough shots. He's projected to go where he's going to go, so just tried to make it tough on him and tried to make him hit contested shots, which today he did, but it's a team game so we were able to get the win.
Q. Mackenzie, when everybody had the rough shooting game a few days ago, what was the message from the staff and in the locker room to keep everything positive?
MACKENZIE MGBAKO: Just keep shooting the ball. We got to trust in ourselves, trust in our ability to make shots and know that they're going to fall down when thaw need to. Just keep shooting the ball and keep looking for the open man.
Q. Anthony, could you just kind of walk us through that play at the end of the first half. How were you able to make that shot and your emotions around it?
ANTHONY LEAL: Yeah, I got nothing for you on that (chuckling). I saw him shoot it and I tried to go get a tip in and it got blocked. I chased it down, peeked at the clock and saw there wasn't much time so I just kind of turned around and shot it. Weird things like that seem to happen for me, so I'll take it. I would rather be lucky, so.
MODERATOR: Last question.
Q. And that was pretty much what I was going to ask, but your immediate reaction, the crowd went crazy. Teammates were hugging you. What was going through your head at that point? Was it like wow, that really happened?
ANTHONY LEAL: No, honestly, it was how much hurry up, we got to go to halftime, figure some stuff out and try to get a win. I'm never really focused on my own success or stats or anything. It's cool that it went in, cool to celebrate for a second but next play, we got to make sure we get a win.
MODERATOR: Thanks, guys.
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