BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson and players Mackenzie Mgbako and Kel'el Ware met the media after Friday night's win over Minnesota.
Above are their full Q&As.
Woodson transcript
Q. Coach, Mackenzie Mgbako had a really good game tonight, career high, made threes. You've mentioned before he continues to improve. What did you see tonight from him that you liked the most?
MIKE WOODSON: I thought he was aggressive right from the start. I thought our whole team was aggressive on both ends of the floor.
He got some good looks early that he made. I ran a couple plays for him that he was able to knock shots down, and the way they double-team, it opened him up on the backside, as well, to get shots.
Q. Following up on just the wider start, did you see maybe it was shots going down? Was it guys making plays on defense? It just felt like everybody was kind of beating their man to the spot.
MIKE WOODSON: Well, again, I thought the scouting report was perfectly fit going into the game, and they followed it right from the start. We really defended the ball. We didn't let their guards really get away from us in terms of getting downhill, so we really focused in on not giving straight-line drives where we had to help as much.
I thought our bigs did a pretty good job of battling inside with their bigs. It was a total team effort tonight.
Q. Speaking to that team effort, Malik doesn't play the last nine minutes of the first half with foul trouble, and sometimes those have been trouble spots for you guys when he's been on the bench. Happy with how they handled that tonight, to survive without him for that extended stretch?
MIKE WOODSON: Well, I thought Walker came in and gave us some great minutes off the bench. They were shuffling guys in and out, so we were able to match with them, but Walker was huge off the bench for us when Malik had to go to the bench.
Then everybody else just kept pitching in, doing their job, and we were able to come in up 10 after the half.
Q. Gabe Cupps was guarding Elijah Hawkins early in the game. Elijah Hawkins has kind of been the head of the snake for Minnesota. Talk about the trust you have in Gabe to put out that level of defensive effort to take them out of their game?
MIKE WOODSON: Well, he's done it before. He's been doing it pretty much all season when we stick him out on real quick guards. The Michigan guard was kind of an example, I guess, of him going out, and all we're asking him to do is just put heat on the ball and maintaining it and not letting him get downhill, and for the most part he did a hell of a job doing that.
Q. Can you put your finger on it at all as to how you guys can be so bad one night and then so good the next?
MIKE WOODSON: Well, it's the road. It's tough on everybody in the Big Ten on the road. It's just not our team.
Everybody is kind of having a tough time winning on the road.
We've got to figure it out. Our safe haven is here at home. I get that. We've got to continue to win our games here at home.
But somehow I've got to help us get over the hump and get us feeling good about playing on the road.
I really thought that wouldn't be a big problem for us after winning the Michigan game right off the bat, but it has been, and we've got to fix it as we move forward.
Q. You've talked several times about wanting your team to play a full 40-minute ballgame. I'm not sure if tonight would rise to that level for you, but it felt like one of the more complete performances, at least close to that, that you've had in a while. What after the Rutgers game allowed this to happen?
MIKE WOODSON: Well, I thought we were solid in the Ohio State game. I really did. That was a battle game, back and forth. Rutgers game, we just -- when you miss free throws, you turn it over, you don't rebound it, you set yourself up to lose.
Tonight we didn't make our free throws again, but we rebounded pretty well, and we didn't turn it over. We kept our turnovers down. It was a solid game.
But we've got to somehow convert how we play here at home on the road. That's going to be the difference moving forward.
Q. When you were talking about Mackenzie you said that he was going to be fine, he just needed some time to develop. Tonight you mentioned him being really aggressive. What does that add to his offensive game, him being able to put it on the floor and go to the basket?
MIKE WOODSON: Well, it's just not Mackenzie. You've got to understand that these young guys, they take a while to develop. They come out of high school, out of the AAU programs that they play in, and it's not just that easy to walk into college basketball and be great. If it was that easy, everybody would be doing it.
But he's put the work in. He's continuing to work, along with the rest of our young players. All we can do as coaches is continue to teach and push and try to get as much out of them as we can as we continue this journey.
Q. Can you just talk a little bit about the decision to put Gabe Cupps in the starting lineup over Xavier Johnson?
MIKE WOODSON: I mean, in-house stuff. I decided to go with Gabe, and Gabe came in and played extremely well. I thought the minutes X played were positive minutes to help us win.
Mgbako, Ware transcript
Q. Mackenzie, for you specifically and for the team more broadly, that start, did the aggression at both ends of the floor, obviously getting shots to fall but also creating turnovers, closing out possessions, where maybe did those first five or six minutes really start for you and individually and for the team?
MACKENZIE MGBAKO: It started from the tip-off. I felt like once we started the game aggressive, it could carry over on to our defense, and then defense creates offense. Just being aggressive on both sides of the floor is what created the win tonight.
Q. Mackenzie, tell me about your defense and that quick start and how you felt maybe you had a role in that, and how do you feel like you're progressing defensively?
MACKENZIE MGBAKO: I feel like I started off a little bit slow because the offense we're running is a little bit different than what I learned in high school, so just being able to just grow under Coach Woodson is really good.
Q. Kel'el, looking at how Mackenzie has developed his offensive game this season as the year wears on here, him being able to put the ball on the ground and get to the basket using his aggression and dribble penetration, how have you seen that evolve throughout practice and in game situations?
KEL'EL WARE: Even in practice I always encourage Mac just to go to the rim, get fouled, try to create anything that can get us a bucket, even in game. So he works on it in practice and it translates to the game and just being more aggressive.
Q. Mackenzie, what have been some of the main points of emphasis from Coach Woodson to you throughout your freshman season that you feel like have translated in the last handful of games you've played well?
MACKENZIE MGBAKO: Most definitely just locking up on defense. I feel like defense is the No. 1 thing he's been trying to harp on because I feel like defense creates offense, and that's really it.
Q. Kel'el, you're living through this good game, bad game type thing as a team the last couple of weeks. Is there anything you can put your finger on as to what was more dramatically different tonight compared to Tuesday?
KEL'EL WARE: I mean, well, you seen the intensity in the game -- from this game and the Rutgers game. I feel like if we bring out the intense at the we had at the start of this game and even throughout the game to every game, I feel like we'll be good.
Q. Kind of going off that, with the way the Rutgers game played out, how personally did you take that performance and just kind of what happened after that, and what were the last few days of practice like leading into this game that allowed you guys to turn it around tonight?
KEL'EL WARE: The last few days of practice, it's been hard going at each other because we've just got to get better on defense and offense. Y'all seen a glimpse of that tonight, and we've just got to keep bringing it every game.
Q. Mackenzie, wanted to get your thoughts, you've had I think it's a string of double-figure games, I think like seven, eight of the last 10 or so. What are three or four things that have gotten better for you at the high major level that are allowing you to have this kind of scoring impact?
MACKENZIE MGBAKO: My defense, keeping my head on a swivel, talking on defense, and just being confident. I feel like those are the things that are helping me out.
Q. Mackenzie, now that we're this far into the season, are you just feeling more comfortable offensively, and you had a great start, and how important is having that start that you had tonight, a three-pointer, a free throw and a lay-up within the first three minutes of the game?
MACKENZIE MGBAKO: It was really important because it just helps the team start off with intensity, and that's what Kel'el was saying, going back to intensity and just starting the game off the right way.
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