Coach Mike Woodson Recaps Indiana's Win Over Louisville
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00:00 I just want to send a shout out to Jim Dolan,
00:03 who came by, owner of the New York Knicks,
00:06 came by to see me, which means a great deal to me.
00:11 Because he was gracious enough to let me out of my contract
00:14 and come home and coach this team.
00:17 And I have nothing but love and respect for the man,
00:20 because he's special, special to me.
00:24 All right, I'll open it up for questions.
00:28 >> Yeah, Coach, the zone you went to obviously kind of decided the game.
00:32 What led to it and why did you think it was so impactful?
00:34 >> We couldn't stop their step up, pick and roll.
00:38 And had we continued down that path,
00:41 we're in and Malik probably would have fouled out in the ball game.
00:46 So it was the right thing to do and it probably maybe caught them
00:51 a little off guard cuz I didn't know him to play zone.
00:55 And we hadn't really worked on him a whole lot.
00:59 But we were aggressive enough and we rebounded out of the zone and
01:04 that helped, you know what I mean?
01:07 Cuz you know good at play zone and they still get offensive putbacks.
01:11 >> Mike, you mentioned Jim Dolan saying hello.
01:16 Did he offer any comments on your team?
01:18 Kenny just said he offered encouraging words on Norman Dolan.
01:21 >> Well, he just wished me well.
01:24 You know what I mean?
01:26 I wouldn't expect anything less.
01:28 I mean, he was great for me.
01:30 He really was.
01:32 >> Mike.
01:33 >> Mike, I guess about the zone number one, kind of how long have you at least maybe
01:37 had the bones of that in with your guys?
01:39 How long have you been working on it?
01:40 >> No, we've had, we put it in early where we go 2-2-1 by 2-2-3 zone.
01:48 So it's always been in our back pocket, but
01:50 I just never felt the urge to pull it out because I'm still
01:56 trying to get our man to man defense where I need it to be.
02:00 But it helped us tonight.
02:02 And some of the zone guys in there, they are really happy tonight.
02:09 >> I guess just rebounding out of it.
02:10 When you're able to put those big bodies around the rim,
02:13 does that mitigate maybe some of the normal concerns you'd have rebounding
02:16 against the zone?
02:17 >> Sure, because a lot of the fours and
02:20 maybe some fives are playing out on the floor in college basketball.
02:24 And so when the shot goes up, a lot of times you're not in position to rebound.
02:30 I'm not using it as an excuse.
02:33 I just think our guard have got to pick up more rebounds.
02:36 Caleb Banks, our bench was phenomenal tonight.
02:39 Caleb Banks, I thought, played extremely well.
02:41 He had eight rebounds.
02:43 I think three four assists, a couple of steals.
02:48 We're gonna need that.
02:50 >> Woody, just over the next month before you get into the guts of Big Ten play,
02:54 what do you need to see in terms of McKenzie's evolution so
02:57 that he is a regular contributor for you guys during that?
03:00 >> Again, he's a young player, man.
03:02 I mean, all of you guys expect him to be this great player right now
03:06 because he's got this five star tag on him.
03:10 And I think that's bullshit.
03:12 Bottom line is, he's still young.
03:14 He's trying to learn the college game.
03:17 And I thought he played well, but he's got two early fouls.
03:22 And so I took him out, brought someone else in, Caleb and CJ,
03:28 and they came in as a team sport, man.
03:30 I mean, he'll be fine.
03:32 [BLANK_AUDIO]
03:35 >> Yeah, Mike, an up and down weekend for you, what's your biggest takeaway?
03:40 I know yesterday was toughness, but as you kind of look at this whole body of work,
03:44 what's your takeaway going back to Wimbledon?
03:46 >> Well, I told our guys before the game, UConn,
03:50 you should really look and pay attention to UConn and how they played last night.
03:58 There's a reason why they were national champions.
04:01 And so I tip my hat off to them.
04:05 But I also tip my hat off to our team because we bounced back.
04:10 I mean, we got beat by 20 last night.
04:13 And you could easily go the other way.
04:16 And we led in this game, and they came back and
04:20 Kenny did a hell of a job of getting them back in it.
04:23 And then the zone saved us, basically.
04:25 We made the plays coming down the stretch.
04:28 >> All right, we've got one, two, three.
04:31 >> Mulligan adversity yesterday was pretty emotional on the press conference.
04:34 About letting his team down.
04:36 They had four fouls today and made some huge plays.
04:39 How important was it for him to get through that adversity?
04:42 >> Well, again, I mean, he was in foul trouble tonight, again.
04:45 You know what I mean?
04:46 Their guards, they put so much pressure on you at the rim and getting downhill, man.
04:51 It's tough to keep them in front.
04:54 And I tried trapping a couple of times and then Big Fella Ware picked up his fourth
05:00 foul.
05:01 So we had no choice but to go to a zone to try to keep
05:05 Big Fella Ware and Malik in the ballgame.
05:09 >> There were a lot of runs tonight from both sides.
05:13 Where did that momentum come from,
05:14 especially offensively, to make that final push at the end?
05:17 >> Well, the zone helped us.
05:18 I mean, we were able to give them one shot, rebound the ball.
05:22 We came down and Malik made a bucket and the rest were fouls.
05:28 I mean, we were trying to get the ball in because we were in the middle.
05:31 >> Coach, you kind of alluded to it a little bit earlier when talking about
05:36 Caleb Banks and really your whole bench's impact.
05:38 But in the foul troubles played into that a little bit too.
05:40 But getting those contributions from Banks, from Anthony Walker,
05:43 what does that do for your team going forward?
05:45 >> Well, again, I'd like to think that we'll learn from this game,
05:49 continue to grow.
05:50 Big Peyton was great for us.
05:54 CJ was great.
05:55 I mean, the whole game, everybody that played tonight contributed.
06:00 And that's how we gotta play the rest of the way.
06:03 >> I got here and then I got here.
06:05 >> I guess to follow up on Caleb specifically,
06:08 is what does it mean when he can impact the team without scoring in the way he did
06:12 much tonight?
06:13 >> Well, again, everybody can't score the ball.
06:15 I mean, if it was that easy to score, man, we'd be running away with games possibly.
06:21 But it's not that easy.
06:23 He's still learning.
06:25 But the fact that he rebounded, he defended,
06:27 and he got a couple steals, have three or four assists.
06:33 That's making an impact when you come into the ball game.
06:36 So I tip my hat off to him because he's patiently been waiting to play
06:41 probably more minutes and probably play more minutes tonight than he's played
06:46 since he's been here.
06:48 >> Woody, I think the big question a lot of people have out there is,
06:52 yesterday three for 13 from threes, today just one of 11.
06:56 What do you have to do to get that better?
07:00 >> Keep working.
07:00 That's all you can do, keep working.
07:04 And hopefully something triggers that they make threes.
07:07 The bottom line is what I look at is we won.
07:11 So that's what I look at.
07:12 >> Okay, thanks Coach.
07:15 >> Okay.