Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson, guard Myles Rice and forward Mackenzie Mgbako spoke with the media on Saturday following Indiana's win over South Carolina.
Below are their full Q&As, as well as a full transcript for each of their conversations.
Q. Mike, Myles Rice had 23 points tonight. Great first half. Got you rolling. What did you think of his performance and what it meant for getting off to a good start?
MIKE WOODSON: Can't worry about next week, last week is behind us. I thought Myles played great. Shot the ball well. It was kind of nice to see Kanaan make some shots as well we scored 87 points, and I don't really know how we got there because I just didn't think we played good offense tonight even though he with made shots from the three-point line.
So I got to help us get better in that regard.
Q. Mike, South Carolina's big man Collin Murray-Boyles only had two points. What was the defensive attack on him and how well did your big guys execute it?
MIKE WOODSON: I thought we did a great job on him. We got him in foul trouble. I didn't think they would let Malik play one-on-one a lot so they kind of came down from what we call the soft spot on Malik.
We refused to let him play. Doubled him from the back side a little bit and showed him different looks, some from the top. He struggled a little bit tonight.
We needed that because he's been on fire coming into this ballgame.
Q. With Carlyle's defensive intensity in the second half, is that contagious? What has impressed you the most about the attitude he's brought to the defensive side? You talked about how important defense is.
MIKE WOODSON: I think with all of our perimeter players, I said this in the locker room after the game, we got to do better at defending off the bounce.
A lot of great college teams and great coaches that got players that can really make plays off the bounce. We just got to get better in that regard where we're not allowing teams to play in the paint against us.
I thought tonight we weren't really good in that area.
Q. Obviously you guys had the slow start to the game last week. How pleased are you with the response to that today and the effort to start out tonight?
MIKE WOODSON: It's nice to see. I mean, I think when you have a game like this and you go and watch film, and I think film is the best teaching tool in basketball besides practicing and getting it right on the basketball floor.
They knew coming into tonight's game that they had to be better. I thought they responded.
Q. You talked about this a little bit in earlier answers. You emphasize so much in the off-season getting good guards, improving your back court. If you combine Myles, Kanaan and Trey tonight it's something like 46, 47 points. Only missed one free three between them; five or six threes. How much can you base, not necessarily just those three guys, but the idea of having depth of quality at your guard rotation?
MIKE WOODSON: No, it's important. I've learned a valuable lesson from last season. You know, that was the whole emphasis on this summer and once we entered the portal was trying to get perimeter guys that can come in here and play and get enough guys in case someone got hurt.
We didn't even play Gabe tonight. He is still a big piece to what we're doing as well. Anthony and Jakai both sitting over there. So we have enough perimeter players this season, and I feel good about everybody in case someone goes down. I feel good that next guy can step in and make basketball plays for us.
Q. You mentioned you all had 87 and you weren't really pleased. What more were you hoping for?
MIKE WOODSON: Just better movement offensively. You know, we did it in spurts, and when we did it in spurts it looked pretty good, the ball movement from side to side and getting easy looks.
Then we got stagnant. We went up 15 points; from that point on we didn't play very well from an offensive standpoint.
Defense was still solid, but I just got to help us get better.
Q. Coach, you guys had a lot of action from a lot of different players, especially in the first half scoring-wise. Mackenzie Mgbako especially one of those. In the second half he only had a couple shots up, scored a couple points. That from having a lot of the options or from kind of losing him?
MIKE WOODSON: No, I don't think we lost him. Other guys were scoring as well. This team is not predicated on one guy now. We have enough guys that can put the ball in the hole if they play the right way and play unselfish.
We only had 12, 13 assists tonight. That's not good. We got to be better in that area. And we had been moving the ball and we got to have more assists. 12 assists is not going to get it.
Q. Coach, you kind of mentioned the shooting. Is 8 of 17 from three point range kind of where you would like it or is there room for improvement there?
MIKE WOODSON: Hey, I'll take -- if we can get much better than that I'll take it. Tonight was a step forward in making threes. You know, what did we shoot, 47% from the threes. Anybody in college basketball would take that.
So we just got to keep working at it and keep improving.
Q. Coach, you guys allowed seven made threes in the first half. A lot of guys were going under ball screens. Was that talked about in the halftime break? Second half only one made three.
MIKE WOODSON: We cleaned it up a little bit but we just -- when guys are making threes, you can sit and shake your head, and my thing is you're not close enough if you're able to just catch and shoot the basketball. We got to get better in this area where guys are just not comfortable catching the ball and lacing it up.
I thought the first half we were awful in guarding the three-point line and they made us pay for it.
Q. Myles, obviously 23 points tonight, three assists. What worked for and do you want to get the assist numbers higher while scoring that much?
MYLES RICE: I felt like in some of the passes that I made we just didn't execute on the shot. That happens. It's basketball. We had a lot of open looks. We didn't hit them down tonight, but next game we'll be able to hit them.
It's just within a flow. Whether I have two points, ten assists or 20 points, two assists I am always just going to try to make the right play.
Q. Myles, Coach talked about really trying to reinforce the guard rotation in the summer, the spring. What is the chemistry like between you, Kanaan, and Trey? I know Gabe and Anthony didn't play this afternoon. But just as a group being able to kind of interchange for one another, create for one another, maybe bring the ball up the floor, do things differently but have that versatility?
MYLES RICE: That's the beauty about our team. You kind of have three different guards that can do everything. Trey is the Swiss Army knife. Kanaan is more of a combo guard. I can be a combo as well.
I thin we all feed off each other really well. That's a credit to not only us, but our teammates we have. They understand how to play wit us and we understand how to play with them. Our coaching staff knows to you to coach us as well. Game by game we're getting better at it. Just as the season goes on we'll just be better at it.
Q. Guys, you guys had a great game today, and I was just wondering, how will this impact your game play for the rest of the season?
MACKENZIE MGBAKO: I mean, we just roll with it and just keep the momentum going. You know, take every game one game at a time and just roll with whatever they give us.
Q. Coach came in and said he thought the offense could have been better. If you look at the stats you shot 51%, 47% from three, and made 82% of your free throws. How much better can you get?
MYLES RICE: It's about execution. Whether the ball is going into the hoop or not, we got to be better at executing. I think that's the point he's trying to make. Even though we did score X amount the points but the crispiness of our plays can be a whole lot better, and that starts with us as the guard and making sure everybody is on the same page.
He can put it on me and I'll be better at it.
Q. On Kanaan, I want to say he was averaging three through the first like three contests you had here. I think he had 12 out there. How important is it for you offensively when he plays at that level I guess?
MYLES RICE: It's amazing. Just like any other guy that plays at a great offensive rate. I just feel like today was one of them days. Based on their coverages and how they wanted to guard us, just everything that he's been doing prepping up to the game. He's an extremely hard worker and takes no days off.
It was only just a matter of time before he got his shot going and everything just kind of came within a rhythm.
Q. Mackenzie, I know you were pretty confident coming into the season because you finished last season real well. Through these first three games, how is your production level reinforced your confidence and who do you feel most confident in about your own game?
MACKENZIE MGBAKO: I most definitely feel most confident in my defense and my shots, my shot capability. I feel like if I play within the offense and play with what the team gives me, I can make the right shots and right reads. Taking every game in stride and learning from every game so I can move forward and keep elevating my game.
Q. Mackenzie, how much of a difference is the new back court with Myles and Kanaan for you out there? What's it like playing out there with those guys?
MACKENZIE MGBAKO: It's amazing. So much easier just being able to run with Myles and K, getting on the break and easy buckets and us feeding off each other and the energy.
Q. Myles, we talked about Kanaan changing the dynamic on the offense. In defense what do you see from his intensity?
MYLES RICE: He makes me want to be a better defensive player. I think I'm a pretty solid, pretty good defensive player. Just to see it translates from practice to game, so when game time comes he's just causing havoc and everything. Makes it easier to play with and for a guy like that.
He's always bringing that energy. Like you said, it sparks all of us. You saw when he got that defensive stop. They posted it on Instagram and everything. Like that's who he is. He plays defense and he can do that. It just sparks the energy for all of us and I am just happy to have him on our team.
Q. Myles, ever so lightly off topic, I was looking up your career high; I saw you scored 35 points in a game last year at Stanford. Kanaan Carlyle scored 31 points in the same game. A, please tell me you two weren't guarding each other. And B, just talk about how your explosiveness can be in a game like that where you can score that kind of points?
MYLES RICE: Well, at Washington State we played a little bit of a matchup zone, so I wasn't really guarding him and he wasn't guarding me. He did his thing; I did my thing. Happy we're on the same team now.
Like I said, varies from game to game. If it's my night it's my might. If it's somebody else's night, it's somebody else's night. Thank God it was my night tonight. Went out and executed and capitalized on the opportunities that I had.
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