Postgame Quotes: Indiana vs. Saint Mary’s

Postgame Quotes
Indiana vs. Saint Mary's (NCAA Tournament –– Second Round)
March 17, 2022

MIKE WOODSON | HEAD COACH
OPENING STATEMENT: You've got to give Saint Mary's credit. I have nothing but love and respect for Coach Bennett. I thought his team competed at a much higher level than we did tonight. It just means we've got to go back and get busy this summer and get better.

But it was a great run for our ball club this season getting back into the Big Dance, and now we've got to build on it for future. That's what it's all about at this point.

Q. On the fatigue level…
TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS: I feel like we started off pretty good, pretty solid, then towards the middle of the game we started hitting shots. We weren't up on ball screens. I don't think it had anything to do with legs. Obviously, when you start playing a lot of minutes, you get tired regardless.

I just think that overall they were a sharper team than us today. They hit their shots and ran their offense, and they were an overall better team.

Q. On the upcoming offseason…
JACKSON-DAVIS: I'm not really worried about that right now. Right now I'm just kind of worried about just being with my teammates, just being in the moment. I'll talk to Coach Woodson, like I did last off-season, and we'll go from there. So preparation in everything I do. I'll have a plan in sight, but there's no timetable right now.

Q. On the defensive struggles…
JACKSON-DAVIS: Overall, it was our defense. We've been really, really good on the defensive end of the floor, and tonight we just didn't have it. We didn't have the spark. We were letting guys dribble drive past us, screen and rolls, open layups, and just not being tough at the rim. Stuff of that nature where we make it hard for teams.

Tonight, they really dictated to us, and we didn't punch back.

Q. On learning experiences from the last four games…
JORDAN GERONIMO: I just gained, I guess, a lot of confidence in myself, knowing that I'm able to provide to help my team win. And just being able to work with my team is always a good experience. It was a good experience.

Q. On Saint Mary's play…
JACKSON-DAVIS: I bet you they started scouting us right when they saw who they were playing. We had a game to worry about it with Wyoming. I think that they had a really, really good game plan going in. They doubled. They came from the back side of the post. They watched my spinoffs, and then we couldn't hit anything, and they were making their shots.

They had an excellent game plan, and they executed it very well. So it's props to them because they deserved to win that game.

Q. On the travel situation…
WOODSON: Again, I've never been a coach -- you guys don't know me that well. I've never been a coach that makes excuses. I had to do better tonight to get these guys -- and I give Saint Mary's all the credit, man, but I thought tonight we just didn't have it. And I know we're a much better team than we showed tonight, and that's on me.

But traveling had nothing to do with it. I mean, it's what it is, man. We're happy to be in the Big Dance and getting this opportunity. So I can't point the finger at that. I just thought that they were the better team tonight, man, because we were a step slow on everything we wanted to do from a defensive standpoint.

Q. On season reflections…
WOODSON: It was great to come back, man. My AD, Scott Dolson, giving me an opportunity to take this job on meant a great deal to me and my family and all the people that have supported me all these years at Indiana and just around the country, man. It was great.

But it was all about these players. They made a commitment to let me coach them, and that meant more to me than anything because going in blindly like I did, that wasn't the case. It was a lot of damage control that had to be done to get these guys on board, to give me an opportunity. So I have nothing but love for the 17 players that I coached this season because they put this program back in the fold in terms of being in the Big Dance.

That's what it's about. You've got to give yourself an opportunity. You've got to get there and give yourself a chance, and I thought they did that for us this season.

Q. On the best moments of the season…
JACKSON-DAVIS: I just think overall just being with my guys and backs against the wall, going into the Big Ten tournament. Even being seeded lower than what we thought we were, and then beating Michigan and going and beating Illinois. I think, if we wouldn't have gotten the Illinois game, we probably wouldn't have been here at all.

Seeing the Hoosier hysteria around the state, it was a blessing to be a part of it. Just seeing the guys rally when adversity struck and being able to compete and clawing our way back in and making the Big Dance.

I know it's not how we wanted to go out, but it's an honor and blessing to be here. I'm proud of my guys for always fighting, and that's probably my favorite part.

Q. On getting the younger guys playing time in the tournament…
WOODSON: Well, it's huge. Moving forward it's big time because it gives them an opportunity to taste it and feel what it's really like. I mean, if you never get an opportunity to taste March Madness, man, it's not a good feeling, I'll tell you that.

I went a few years where I didn't make the Big Dance, and it's a long summer. It's like relating to the NBA playoff basketball. If you never give your team an opportunity to get in the playoffs, they'll never know what it feels like.

Now these guys, they have a feel. They got this summer to go and work on things that can make them better as ballplayer and make us better as a team when they come back.

So it's a lot of positives making the Big Dance this year for our program.

Q. On building blocks…
WOODSON: Again, a lot of it is they're going to have to take the off-season -- and I'm going to make every player watch every game that was played this year by the Hoosiers. That's one way you go back and you reflect and you learn. I'll sit down, and I'll have a program in place, along with my trainer, Cliff, our strength coach, in terms of things I think that they need to work on to get better.

I mean, that's how it's normally done. That's how I've always done it in the past with teams that I've coached in the past.

So these guys are young, man, and they've got a lot to learn in terms of basketball and how I want to play and the style of play that I want. So it's going to be a work in progress, but that's what we all signed up for. We just got to get through that process and get better for next season.

Q. On the offseason improvements…
WOODSON: Well, shooting is a big part of it. I thought our defense carried us guys, and we didn't shoot the ball extremely well this season. You guys know that. You watched us play. And we got to get better in that area. I'd be foolish to say we don't because we do.

We got to be better on the wings from a defensive standpoint. But, again, these are things that I've got to go evaluate once I get back and sit with my coaching staff and just see where we are as a ball club and just start trying to piece it all back together for next season.

Q. On the positives from the last week of the season…
WOODSON: It's just the level of play. I mean, I thought, excludeing tonight's game, the Michigan game, the Iowa game, the Illinois game, they really forced us to really, really play at a high level, and that's how it should be.

I flip that, teams shouldn't have to force you because you should develop a team that way that want to play at a high level. I thought we were kind of in desperate mode coming into the tournament because we knew, if we didn't win a game and it took us two games to get in, I think, if we had just won the Michigan game, I don't think we would have got in. I truly believe that.

So, I mean, the pressure was really on this young team, and these guys stepped up, and they did what they had to do to get us to this day. So it's something to build on, man. It's all positive, I think, moving forward for our program, but we do have to get better.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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