Postgame Quotes: vs. Minnesota

Postgame Quotes
Indiana vs. Minnesota
Jan. 9, 2022

MIKE WOODSON | INDIANA HEAD COACH
Q. TBA
WOODSON: I mean, Rob has been through the grind of the Big Ten, and he knows the ins and outs of it. He's a senior, so I expect him to lead. I don't have too many players like Rob that's been on this team that knows the team, and he can't live in the past. I'm just trying to break that past and say, 'hey, man, here's the ball. It's okay to go lead. It's okay to be good, it really is.'

Q. On Xavier Johnson and Rob Phinisee capitalizing on open shots…
WOODSON: Well, I think it's great. I'm not telling them not to shoot. Minnesota forced our hands in terms of shooting threes tonight, the way they sagged in, and they were just basically saying Trayce and Race are not going to beat us. When teams do that, our perimeter guys have got to be ready to step up and make shots.
I thought tonight they did a great job in that area.

Q. On how he approaches dribble-drive offenses with his defensive rotations…
WOODSON: Well, again, I mean, there's not a lot of teams that -- when you start playing two small guards, I've got to utilize my two small guards who both can defend off the dribble.

Trey, he defends off the dribble. He got beat a few times tonight, but a lot of us got beat tonight off the bounce. I thought that was a big part of their offense, and we didn't control it that well. Then when we did, we were really good defensively.

Q. On how he felt about the late surge to put away the game…
WOODSON: Well, the mismatch, they went small, so I mean, if they're going to play us small, we've got to spoon-feed the ball inside. That's what we did, and Race had a guard basically guarding him, and he also had battles guarding him, too. So, I was like, 'hey, let's just get it inside and make them stop us.'

Q. On if he decided to get Race Thompson the ball more with Trayce Jackson-Davis seeing a double-team…
WOODSON: Yes. If you're not going to double him, I'd take my chances with Race. He can make plays. He's been working on his low-post game. I'm good with that if teams are going to play us that way.

Q. On how he assessed the defensive effort over the last three minutes…
WOODSON: I call it winning basketball. When there's not cutting time, you've got to step up and make plays. They came back from being down as much as 10 and took the lead. Our defense really picked up after that.

We had the lapse and then we started to really pick it back up and play, and then coming down the home stretch those last three, four minutes, we were solid like we were at the end of the first half.

Q. On how he has instilled confidence in Xavier Johnson…
WOODSON: I'm trying to give all these guys confidence, but I'm also still trying to coach them, too. That's a part of coaching. There's some tough love there. I'm tough on point guards. I've always been that way. But he's still learning. He's trying to figure me out. Rob is trying to figure me out.

Tonight, I thought both of them played extremely well, considering all the hollering and screaming I was doing over there.

Q. On the way the defense has been playing over the last couple weeks…
WOODSON: Well, you never know. I mean, at the beginning when we started this journey, I told them after I've done my homework from last year in the Big Ten and just in college basketball in general, if you hold teams 60 and under, you're going to give yourself a chance to win a lot of games. They believed that. It's shown in our play since we've started the journey, and we've just got to continue to grow and get better in that area.

Q. On staying undefeated at home and trying to find that on the road…
WOODSON: Yes, we've got to break the ice on the road. I think once we break through, it'll open up a lot of these guys' hearts to know that we're here to play and compete in the Big Ten. But you've got to win on the road, too. You can't lose at home, but you've got to figure out how to win on the road.

Q. On Trayce Jackson-Davis showing patience tonight…
WOODSON: Again, it's called trust, and it's not going to be him every night when teams double-team him. Sometimes he's beating double teams, and tonight they set -- they just packed it in. Hey, he made the correct passes coming out of the double teams, and guys benefitted from it by making shots. That's how we've got to play.

It's not no surprise; if I'm playing us, I'm going to double him, too, and get it out of his hands, so that's what teams are doing. Hey, he was patient. When he had it, he made the play, and when he didn't have it, he sacrificed the ball, which we need.

Q. On Rob and Xavier buying into their roles…
WOODSON: Again, I look at Rob, he never once complained that X was starting and going to be the starter. I brought him here from Pitt to start. That was never an issue with him.

For me, being his coach, that means a lot, because again, it means you're buying into winning. You're all about team. Everybody can't start. I've always said, it isn't who starts, it's who finishes the game.
Hell, he was on the floor at the end of the game making a big contribution to us winning the game tonight, and hey, you can't ask for more. He's about team.

XAVIER JOHNSON | INDIANA GUARD
Q. On building confidence as the season goes on…
JOHNSON: It's something that I've got to push through. I'm working every day and I work on my craft every day, and my team believes in me, and I'm going to continue to work for them.

Q. On Coach Woodson having his back through a tough stretch…
JOHNSON: It means a lot. I mean, when I first came in he told me he had my back, and that was just the case scenario today, that he really had to have my back. That's the only person that I need to believe in me because he's my coach, and he's the only person that matters.

Q. On defending with Rob Phinisee on the floor…
JOHNSON: It's effective a lot. I feel like we get a lot of stops with me and him on the floor because it's hard to beat us all off the dribble. We both pick up 94 feet, and we just let it play defense because we know it gets the team going.

ROB PHINISEE | INDIANA GUARD
Q. On Minnesota sagging off the shooters and what Woodson told the team about that…
PHINISEE: Yeah, obviously he tells us to shoot the ball if you're wide open. I knocked down those shots in the first half, and I feel like they weren't sagging off as much in the second half. I didn't really get as many looks as I did, but yeah, Coach really just builds our confidence, tells us to shoot it whenever we're open, so I made shots this game.

Q. On the mentality as a shooter when a defender leaves that much space…
PHINISEE: Really I felt like just coming off the bench, I saw how they were guarding Xavier, so I mean, usually that's how teams will guard us the same a little bit. When I came in, I really just was shot ready, and I knocked down the shots.

Q. On defending with Xavier Johnson on the floor…
PHINISEE: Yeah, that's what Coach really preaches to us in practice is defense. I know we're, I think, first in the Big Ten in defensive field goal percentage. Yeah, we just try to keep teams under 60 points and just try to shut off their best players. I know they got some buckets, [Payton] Willis and [Jamison] Battle, but I feel like we did a pretty decent job with them as a team defensively.

PARKER STEWART | INDIANA GUARD
Q. On adjusting to what Minnesota was showing defensively…
STEWART: I got a couple [shots] tonight off of out of bounds plays, focusing on setting a good screen for someone else helps get me open. Also trying to be more aggressive inside the arc, which opens up the three ball for me more, as well, I think.

Q. On why turnovers have been cut down recently…
STEWART: In my opinion the turnovers have cut down because we are getting more comfortable playing together. Guys are learning each other's games and being more poised with the ball I feel like.

Q. On scoring off the dribble…
STEWART: It's something I'm used to, at my old school I played point guard. Obviously, my role here is different, so I'm still working on getting adjusted. I feel like I'm getting more comfortable every game.

Q. On Trayce Jackson-Davis and his ability to pass…
STEWART: Trayce is an unselfish player and always seems to find me when I'm open on the wing. I think we complement each other well on the floor.

BEN JOHNSON | MINNESOTA HEAD COACH
Q. On how they planned to defend Trayce and the Indiana offense…
JOHNSON: That was our game plan. I knew Trayce is coming off a monster game versus Ohio State. Today he took eighty more shots than the next guy and just the way they played. They feed him and feed him and feed him. We wanted to make a concerted effort to make sure we doubled or heavy crowded. We knew we were going to have to live with all the shots. Johnson and Phinisee did a good job of staying with it. I thought in the second half it got a little tight and we were able to make our run and it worked. But that's the gamble you have to play. It's like pick your poison with a guy that's as dominant as Trayce is inside.

Q. On the aggressiveness of Payton Willis in the second half…
JOHNSON: I just think he got into more of a little bit more of a rhythm. And for him, once he makes a couple, that rim looks really big. To his credit, he kept attacking. I thought all our guys did. I thought we did a pretty good job, because we were aggressive defensively with how we played, I thought that translated to being aggressive offensively. I think we tied them with thirty points in the paint, I thought we got downhill, we got them in foul trouble, we lived at the line. I just think his mindset was aggressive and I think it showed on both ends of the floor.

Q. On the adjustment to guarding the three-point line in the second half…
JOHNSON: I think the biggest thing was we didn't really adjust that much, we just tried to stay with the numbers and the percentages, and I think it helped us maybe worse little bit in the first half because they made a couple, but I thought in the second it helped us. And I thought that's where they were able to make that run. I don't think they got comfortable, and I don't think Trayce got going like he has. For us, we have got to be a team, we've got to pick our poison. It's hard for us to go mono e mono. I thought our guys did a really good job sticking with the game plan in the second half. To take the lead back, especially after giving up the first bucket and going down twelve, it's easy for momentum to shift and all of a sudden, we look up and it's twenty-five. But I thought we kept chipping away and we kept battling and we showed a lot of battle and resiliency and mental and physical toughness.

Fast Scripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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Players Mentioned

Trayce Jackson-Davis

Xavier Johnson

Rob Phinisee

Race Thompson

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