Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson and forward Mackenzie Mgbako spoke with the media following Indiana's Wednesday night loss at Northwestern.
Below is their full Q&A, as well as a transcript of the conversation—once it becomes available.
Q: On what’s holding the team back from playing cohesively for 40 minutes...
WOODSON: I wish I knew. I’m still trying to figure it out. I know we got Malik back, and we knew we weren’t going to play him very many minutes tonight. But we have a hell of a defensive half, and then we come out and we give up 54 points and we pile on the turnovers. I mean, it’s just a bad combination. We just didn’t play well the second half.
Q: On what got away during the 13-0 run...
WOODSON: Well again, I mean, I think at the timeout it was 54-52, and then they went on a deep run. We went to the bench and subbed a couple guys. We just didn’t answer the bell coming back out of that timeout, and they did. I mean, we just didn’t — the same things that they ran the second, we didn’t guard well the second half, and they made us pay for it, especially from the 3-point area. They made 3-point shots all over the floor, and we never responded.
Q: On 5 losses in a row to Northwestern...
WOODSON: Listen I can’t go back in the past, bottom line is we were playing well enough to win a game today and we just didn’t answer the bell the second half. We gotta figure that out now too going back home.”
Q: On not answering the bell…
WOODSON: Turnovers. Not guarding in a floppy situation, which is the easiest thing to guard. We just… same things they ran the first half I thought we defended it well, in the second half we just gave up too many opportunities and they made us pay.”
Q: On Northwestern's second-half perimeter play:
MGBAKO: I felt like the communication was a little bit lost toward the second half. We weren’t getting to our spots — they picked up the ball and spread it out, we were supposed to be with our man. I fell victim to that. So just being able to stay locked in, stay focused for a full 40 minutes and not let the game get away from us.
Q: On Reneau and if he was back to full strength...
WOODSON: No, it's going to take a little while. The guy hadn't played in a number of games. He only played about 10 minutes tonight, and it showed. He just... He's not there yet. Hadn't had a chance to really practice. So I knew I wasn't going to play him very many minutes tonight. But that was just a part of it. We got to just keep working. He's got to condition more, get a little more practice under his belt to get back. But we had our chances tonight. Like I said, we didn't defend the second half like we did the first half. And that's something I got to fix.
Q: On how the team must stay level and composed in a game of runs...
MGBAKO: Probably just staying cohesive as a team, playing through our offense and talking on defense and following the game plan. Getting to the second side, and trusting (that) what we have works, and following our practice.
Q: On Indiana's 3-point defense...
WOODSON: Our communication from a defensive standpoint was lost the second half. Our switches, we weren't together on switches where we were connected the first half. They made us pay for it. We can't go on routes like that where we don't do what got us the lead. I thought we played a beautiful first half based on how we played and holding this team to 25 points because they can score the ball and they showed that the second half.
Q: If the lack of connectedness defensively is worrying this far into the season...
WOODSON: No, I mean you can never get worried, there's too many games still left. We played a good game on the road and beat Ohio State and then come here and got an opportunity to win a game and we let it get away the second half. You have to give them credit, they played their butts of in the second half and we didn't.
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