Indiana University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Indiana vs. #16/15 Illinois
3/11/2022 3:30:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Postgame Quotes
Indiana vs. #16/15 Illinois (Big Ten Tournament)
March 11, 2022
MIKE WOODSON: Today was another great effort on our ball club. For 40 minutes, I mean, we competed. And Illinois and their coach, great staff, they competed. Nobody really wanted to give, but I thought we made some damn good plays down the stretch to secure the win.
With that being said, I'm very pleased with our performance tonight, but we've got to get ready for our next opponent. That's what it's all about.
Q. On potentially locking up an NCAA Tournament bid…
TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS: It's big for us, honestly. But what X told you guys yesterday, we didn't pack for two days, we didn't pack for three days, we packed to win the Big Ten, and that's what Coach Woodson's put a big emphasis on this year. I'm glad we got this W today to solidify our spot, but at the same time, we want to play two more games.
Q. On finding another level of play…
JACKSON-DAVIS: Most definitely. There's been a lot of talk, especially the last two years of me not showing up at the end of the season, so I'm trying to change that narrative. I think that team is honestly the team that got me in the slump that I've been in the last month. And when we played them on February 5th, it took a lot of my confidence away.
So, Illinois was a bully today and I think we took care of that problem. So, I'm just going to keep playing the way that I am and then we'll go from there.
Q. On Kofi Cockburn…
JACKSON-DAVIS: Well, Kofi's going to get hit his. He's a great player, he's an All-American. But at the same time, we knew that we were going to try to slow him down. But in the second half late, he started getting a lot of buckets, but we really shut their guard play down. So basically, we were just trying to let me play one-on-one with him and then have our guards be taking away, and that's what we did. So, our guards did a great job stepping up and not letting him pitch 3s.
Q. On making the semifinals…
JACKSON-DAVIS: I think our team right now is playing with a lot of confidence. And Coach Woodson said it all year, he said this isn't last year's team. And I think yesterday, finally getting over that hump, proves that we're a new team with a lot of new pieces, like X over here. But we're just going to keep playing our solid basketball and hopefully that keeps transitioning to wins.
Q. On changing the scheme based on the defensive looks…
XAVIER JOHNSON: I was just constantly trying to get downhill. I mean, they iced the ball screen pretty well. They play really good defense. I was just trying to get downhill and make other players better, because that's one of my jobs, that's one of my favorite jobs to do on this team.
Q. On playing with composure in close games…
JOHNSON: Coach Woodson got us to believe. Everybody believes that we can win. We were playing both sides on the ball well. Our defense really picked it up for the last couple games, because that's really what's winning us games right now.
Q. On keeping the morale high prior to the tournament…
JACKSON-DAVIS: I just think the biggest thing for us, this was finally our chance to prove something, really. I think after we let the Purdue game slip away from us, even though we lost, we lost by 2 and it was in Mackey Arena, which is one of the toughest environments. And it just proves that we can compete with anyone. So, coming into this tournament, we kind of had a chip on our shoulder to prove ourselves, and I think we've done that so far.
Q. On the meaning of this win…
JACKSON-DAVIS: It's really big for me, honestly, and our program, because a lot of us, I know I haven't, beat Illinois throughout my whole career. So finally getting that one like Michigan, I think it's just getting another thing off my chest. And then getting ready for whoever we play tomorrow, it's going to be a great game.
Q. On going at Kofi…
JACKSON-DAVIS: Coach Woodson gave me confidence, my teammates gave me confidence. And I think after I got in that rhythm, I got two buckets early in the first half. The rest goes from there. I felt like I could score, so I was just doing my job.
Q. On the doubters…
JOHNSON: I don't have anything to say to them, honestly. It's just us, honestly. We've been about us all year, and we're going to be about us when we're successful.
Q. On the clutch free throws…
JACKSON-DAVIS: It was just belief. I've been working on my free-throw routine, and it was something that I shoot a hundred free throws with some of our coaches every day, so I was just thinking of practice and trying to get that scenario in my head, that I'm just in practice knocking them down, so that's what I did.
Q. On the belief of this team…
JOHNSON: I mean, when they turned it over there was 10 seconds left and Miller Kopp came in. Miller's a great free throw shooter. He missed, but we just came back in, played defense and we got the stop we needed, and we came down and got the rebound and Trayce made his free throws.
JACKSON-DAVIS: Piggy backing off of what X said, I think that's big for us because it's always been one stop, one key stop, one key rebound that it's been the last seven or eight games where we haven't gotten those. So finally getting some of those breaks I think has been good for us.
Q. On hitting more shots…
JOHNSON: Coach is always believing in me, keep shooting. He's not going to tell me to stop shooting. I just get in the gym and he see me always just working on my game. I'm always working on my craft every day and now it's just starting to come.
Q. On potentially getting Indiana to the NCAA Tournament…
WOODSON: Are you sure we're in the tournament?
Well, that's a great, great feeling, I think it's great for our program really. And these players, it's been about these guys ever since we started the journey. It's been -- for me it's been fun because it's kind of been a rollercoaster ride watching these guys develop over this season so far, but the thing that I like about our team, man, we are competitive. Even though we've lost a lot of close games, we are very, very competitive. From a coaching standpoint that's all you can ask for, but I think it's great for our program, it's fantastic that we're back in the big dance.
Q. On soul-searching…
WOODSON: No, not at all. I mean, you look at seven of the nine games we lost, we either held leads, we just couldn't close. And, you know, I kept saying early on that we're still trying to figure each other out. And you say, well, hell, we're at the end of the season now, you should already have figured it out. Well, I take responsibility for a lot of the games that we've lost. I mean, I just couldn't get them over the hump. And now they're really starting to believe. You know what I mean?
You lose enough of them, hell, you start to get breaks your way. And I thought today we got a great break in the turnover that they had down the stretch and we were able to still secure the win.
Q. On Jackson-Davis's performance…
WOODSON: I know that affected him. I went back and watched some old films of him going against Big Fella, Kofi, and he didn't fare well and he got in foul trouble at our place early and he was just never a factor. I think yesterday's play, you know, after the halftime meeting that we had, he bounced back and showed his teammates and the coaching staff and this program that he's a damn good player in the Big Ten and he's been that way for some years.
So today, I mean, I challenged him again. I was like, man, you've got to go out and play this guy and make him respect you, and I thought he did a hell of a job in that regard.
Q. On Jordan Geronimo…
WOODSON: Well, I really don't know yet, he's being evaluated. I mean, it's his knee, so I don't know how bad it is. I think we're going to have to get an MRI done on it, but we've just got to wait and get that information when it comes.
But our bench was great. I've always coached and I've always said that your bench has got to be as important as the guys who start the game, doesn't matter who starts, it's who finishes the game and we finished the game pretty much tonight with two guys coming off the bench.
Q. On the feeling of moving on…
WOODSON: It's not a relief. I mean, it's a journey that we started way back in the Bahamas. I've had an opportunity, like you said, to build young teams like in Atlanta and I know what the grind is like. It's just getting guys to believe in what you do on and off the court, both ends of the floor. Our guys have bought into my stuff, I guess you can say, and my stuff ain't always the greatest, but it's working for us now. That's what's more important for me and makes me feel good, too.
It's more about our university and the program, guys. I mean, we've been kind of on a rollercoaster ride with Indiana University basketball and it's nice to see guys now playing at a much higher level and now get an opportunity to play in the big dance.
Q. On Trey Galloway…
WOODSON: I thought he was great again. You know, I'm sure he's probably a little sore because he hadn't been able to practice and he's basically just bringing it in the ballgame. We've just got to keep nursing him and get him ready for tomorrow. Hell, he's what, 19, 20 years old? Man, he'll be all right. That's kind of how I look at it.
Q. On the defensive effort…
WOODSON: Our defense has been pretty damn good this year, guys, and we knew coming into this game we had to guard the 3-pointer line. That's where they got us in Bloomington and I thought we did a really good job. Hawkins was the only one that got away on us and he really didn't play much in Bloomington. So, you've got to tip your hat to him because he stepped up and made big plays for his ball club as well. But our defense, it was solid all the way through. Neither team -- and their defense was great, neither team wanted to give. It was just a grind to win this game.
Q. On Jackson-Davis' made jumper…
WOODSON: I said, "Hallelujah!"
No, listen, I tell Trayce to try to get two or three jump shots. He just, he won't shoot them, and then today he stepped out there and he shot -- I mean, he doesn't have a bad looking shot and he shoots them in practice, but he made one that really counted. That was a big shot that he made.
Q. On seeing the defensive intensity at this point in the season…
WOODSON: Listen, I played for a great coach in Bob Knight and the one thing he taught me was defense wins games. The offense is not going to be there every night, but if you can put a good defensive system in place, you put yourself in a great position to win every game, you going to be in every ballgame, and that's how we've been all season. It's not just been Knight. Larry Brown, the great Larry Brown that I worked with, I look at the Detroit team that we championed back in 2004 in the NBA there and that team was as good a defensive team. That's basically how we want it. So, I know defense will win games if guys are committed to defending, rebounding the ball and that's what we've been doing here as of late.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
Indiana vs. #16/15 Illinois (Big Ten Tournament)
March 11, 2022
MIKE WOODSON: Today was another great effort on our ball club. For 40 minutes, I mean, we competed. And Illinois and their coach, great staff, they competed. Nobody really wanted to give, but I thought we made some damn good plays down the stretch to secure the win.
With that being said, I'm very pleased with our performance tonight, but we've got to get ready for our next opponent. That's what it's all about.
Q. On potentially locking up an NCAA Tournament bid…
TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS: It's big for us, honestly. But what X told you guys yesterday, we didn't pack for two days, we didn't pack for three days, we packed to win the Big Ten, and that's what Coach Woodson's put a big emphasis on this year. I'm glad we got this W today to solidify our spot, but at the same time, we want to play two more games.
Q. On finding another level of play…
JACKSON-DAVIS: Most definitely. There's been a lot of talk, especially the last two years of me not showing up at the end of the season, so I'm trying to change that narrative. I think that team is honestly the team that got me in the slump that I've been in the last month. And when we played them on February 5th, it took a lot of my confidence away.
So, Illinois was a bully today and I think we took care of that problem. So, I'm just going to keep playing the way that I am and then we'll go from there.
Q. On Kofi Cockburn…
JACKSON-DAVIS: Well, Kofi's going to get hit his. He's a great player, he's an All-American. But at the same time, we knew that we were going to try to slow him down. But in the second half late, he started getting a lot of buckets, but we really shut their guard play down. So basically, we were just trying to let me play one-on-one with him and then have our guards be taking away, and that's what we did. So, our guards did a great job stepping up and not letting him pitch 3s.
Q. On making the semifinals…
JACKSON-DAVIS: I think our team right now is playing with a lot of confidence. And Coach Woodson said it all year, he said this isn't last year's team. And I think yesterday, finally getting over that hump, proves that we're a new team with a lot of new pieces, like X over here. But we're just going to keep playing our solid basketball and hopefully that keeps transitioning to wins.
Q. On changing the scheme based on the defensive looks…
XAVIER JOHNSON: I was just constantly trying to get downhill. I mean, they iced the ball screen pretty well. They play really good defense. I was just trying to get downhill and make other players better, because that's one of my jobs, that's one of my favorite jobs to do on this team.
Q. On playing with composure in close games…
JOHNSON: Coach Woodson got us to believe. Everybody believes that we can win. We were playing both sides on the ball well. Our defense really picked it up for the last couple games, because that's really what's winning us games right now.
Q. On keeping the morale high prior to the tournament…
JACKSON-DAVIS: I just think the biggest thing for us, this was finally our chance to prove something, really. I think after we let the Purdue game slip away from us, even though we lost, we lost by 2 and it was in Mackey Arena, which is one of the toughest environments. And it just proves that we can compete with anyone. So, coming into this tournament, we kind of had a chip on our shoulder to prove ourselves, and I think we've done that so far.
Q. On the meaning of this win…
JACKSON-DAVIS: It's really big for me, honestly, and our program, because a lot of us, I know I haven't, beat Illinois throughout my whole career. So finally getting that one like Michigan, I think it's just getting another thing off my chest. And then getting ready for whoever we play tomorrow, it's going to be a great game.
Q. On going at Kofi…
JACKSON-DAVIS: Coach Woodson gave me confidence, my teammates gave me confidence. And I think after I got in that rhythm, I got two buckets early in the first half. The rest goes from there. I felt like I could score, so I was just doing my job.
Q. On the doubters…
JOHNSON: I don't have anything to say to them, honestly. It's just us, honestly. We've been about us all year, and we're going to be about us when we're successful.
Q. On the clutch free throws…
JACKSON-DAVIS: It was just belief. I've been working on my free-throw routine, and it was something that I shoot a hundred free throws with some of our coaches every day, so I was just thinking of practice and trying to get that scenario in my head, that I'm just in practice knocking them down, so that's what I did.
Q. On the belief of this team…
JOHNSON: I mean, when they turned it over there was 10 seconds left and Miller Kopp came in. Miller's a great free throw shooter. He missed, but we just came back in, played defense and we got the stop we needed, and we came down and got the rebound and Trayce made his free throws.
JACKSON-DAVIS: Piggy backing off of what X said, I think that's big for us because it's always been one stop, one key stop, one key rebound that it's been the last seven or eight games where we haven't gotten those. So finally getting some of those breaks I think has been good for us.
Q. On hitting more shots…
JOHNSON: Coach is always believing in me, keep shooting. He's not going to tell me to stop shooting. I just get in the gym and he see me always just working on my game. I'm always working on my craft every day and now it's just starting to come.
Q. On potentially getting Indiana to the NCAA Tournament…
WOODSON: Are you sure we're in the tournament?
Well, that's a great, great feeling, I think it's great for our program really. And these players, it's been about these guys ever since we started the journey. It's been -- for me it's been fun because it's kind of been a rollercoaster ride watching these guys develop over this season so far, but the thing that I like about our team, man, we are competitive. Even though we've lost a lot of close games, we are very, very competitive. From a coaching standpoint that's all you can ask for, but I think it's great for our program, it's fantastic that we're back in the big dance.
Q. On soul-searching…
WOODSON: No, not at all. I mean, you look at seven of the nine games we lost, we either held leads, we just couldn't close. And, you know, I kept saying early on that we're still trying to figure each other out. And you say, well, hell, we're at the end of the season now, you should already have figured it out. Well, I take responsibility for a lot of the games that we've lost. I mean, I just couldn't get them over the hump. And now they're really starting to believe. You know what I mean?
You lose enough of them, hell, you start to get breaks your way. And I thought today we got a great break in the turnover that they had down the stretch and we were able to still secure the win.
Q. On Jackson-Davis's performance…
WOODSON: I know that affected him. I went back and watched some old films of him going against Big Fella, Kofi, and he didn't fare well and he got in foul trouble at our place early and he was just never a factor. I think yesterday's play, you know, after the halftime meeting that we had, he bounced back and showed his teammates and the coaching staff and this program that he's a damn good player in the Big Ten and he's been that way for some years.
So today, I mean, I challenged him again. I was like, man, you've got to go out and play this guy and make him respect you, and I thought he did a hell of a job in that regard.
Q. On Jordan Geronimo…
WOODSON: Well, I really don't know yet, he's being evaluated. I mean, it's his knee, so I don't know how bad it is. I think we're going to have to get an MRI done on it, but we've just got to wait and get that information when it comes.
But our bench was great. I've always coached and I've always said that your bench has got to be as important as the guys who start the game, doesn't matter who starts, it's who finishes the game and we finished the game pretty much tonight with two guys coming off the bench.
Q. On the feeling of moving on…
WOODSON: It's not a relief. I mean, it's a journey that we started way back in the Bahamas. I've had an opportunity, like you said, to build young teams like in Atlanta and I know what the grind is like. It's just getting guys to believe in what you do on and off the court, both ends of the floor. Our guys have bought into my stuff, I guess you can say, and my stuff ain't always the greatest, but it's working for us now. That's what's more important for me and makes me feel good, too.
It's more about our university and the program, guys. I mean, we've been kind of on a rollercoaster ride with Indiana University basketball and it's nice to see guys now playing at a much higher level and now get an opportunity to play in the big dance.
Q. On Trey Galloway…
WOODSON: I thought he was great again. You know, I'm sure he's probably a little sore because he hadn't been able to practice and he's basically just bringing it in the ballgame. We've just got to keep nursing him and get him ready for tomorrow. Hell, he's what, 19, 20 years old? Man, he'll be all right. That's kind of how I look at it.
Q. On the defensive effort…
WOODSON: Our defense has been pretty damn good this year, guys, and we knew coming into this game we had to guard the 3-pointer line. That's where they got us in Bloomington and I thought we did a really good job. Hawkins was the only one that got away on us and he really didn't play much in Bloomington. So, you've got to tip your hat to him because he stepped up and made big plays for his ball club as well. But our defense, it was solid all the way through. Neither team -- and their defense was great, neither team wanted to give. It was just a grind to win this game.
Q. On Jackson-Davis' made jumper…
WOODSON: I said, "Hallelujah!"
No, listen, I tell Trayce to try to get two or three jump shots. He just, he won't shoot them, and then today he stepped out there and he shot -- I mean, he doesn't have a bad looking shot and he shoots them in practice, but he made one that really counted. That was a big shot that he made.
Q. On seeing the defensive intensity at this point in the season…
WOODSON: Listen, I played for a great coach in Bob Knight and the one thing he taught me was defense wins games. The offense is not going to be there every night, but if you can put a good defensive system in place, you put yourself in a great position to win every game, you going to be in every ballgame, and that's how we've been all season. It's not just been Knight. Larry Brown, the great Larry Brown that I worked with, I look at the Detroit team that we championed back in 2004 in the NBA there and that team was as good a defensive team. That's basically how we want it. So, I know defense will win games if guys are committed to defending, rebounding the ball and that's what we've been doing here as of late.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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