Indiana University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: vs. Wright State
11/16/2023 10:19:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Postgame Quotes
Indiana vs. Wright State
Nov. 16, 2023
MIKE WOODSON | INDIANA HEAD COACH
Q. On defending the three-point line…
WOODSON: Just us switching correctly and getting next to a guy before he shoots the basketball. That would help. I really don't want to talk about it. I'd like to talk about my grandbaby. I should send out a shout-out to Mariah Adams and her husband for having our first grandbaby tonight. Way to go, Mariah, if you're listening.
Q. On the options that Kel'el Ware presents with his offensive ability…
WOODSON: He's doing everything we've asked him to do since he's been here, and he's rebounded the ball. He's blocked shots. He's made shots on the perimeter. He's made shots down low. I just want to keep him in that space.
Q. On Ware's confidence…
WOODSON: He's a young player. All these guys are young players. Sometimes on certain nights you get good things from some of these young players. Sometimes you don't. That's just how it works. He's been playing extremely well. He started out a little slow when we first got together, and he's picked it up, and he's doing all the things that we've asked him to do, and we've just got to take it a game at a time and keep him in a good place where he's doing the things that he's been doing for us.
Q. On current concerns…
WOODSON: Well, it would be a major concern had we lost those three games. We won them. Be curious to see what you guys would really be saying had we lost the games.
We haven't put a perfect game together. The game before this game we made our free throws. We didn't make them tonight. The three ball has been a major concern. We haven't shot the three ball very well. So, I figure if you put all those together, boy, life might be pretty good. I wouldn't probably be having this conversation with you. But that ain't the case. So, we've just got to keep working, take it a practice at a time, a game at a time and see where it leads us.
Q. On getting the offense to click…
WOODSON: I thought we got out to a great start the first time this unit in a real game, established themselves on both ends of the floor from a defensive standpoint and putting the ball in the hole. Then we gave up three straight threes. They were sitting at 30 with about I think four on the clock, four or five on the clock. You can't go in giving up 19 points basically is what we gave up going in at halftime. That's something we hadn't done since this unit has been together, a 19-point stretch in four or five minutes. That's just too many points. They made a game out of it going in at halftime.
Those are things that we've got to clean up, but I was pleased with the way in terms of how they started the game on both ends of the floor because we hadn't seen that in the first two games.
Q. On the emphasis to push the pace on offense…
WOODSON: Well, I thought we got away from it, but we had been working on that in practice and trying to push the pace, get more ball movement, body movement, and I thought we established that early. It didn't hurt us that we were getting stops and getting out.
All those things play a major role in terms of how you play offense. It's kind of nice to see because that first unit had been struggling in the first two games coming out of the box.
We've just got to figure out how to put a complete 40-minute game together the way I'd like to see.
Q. On Ware and Malik Reneau's chemistry…
WOODSON: They're playing well together. When you talk about going against teams that got big bodies, they've got to play that way. We call it buddy ball. They're really connecting in terms of making plays for one another, high-low plays. They both are extremely good passers with the basketball. They give passes. If you're open they'll give you the ball. You've just got to do something with it when you get it.
Q. On the opponents' ability to secure offensive rebounds…
WOODSON: No, I think it is a concern. A lot of it is because the three teams are really taking a lot of three-point shots against us, and long shots, long rebounds. Our guards, I can't have my starting guards play 26, 28 minutes and get one rebound apiece. That just can't happen. Hell, I can get a rebound at 65 years of age probably, stumble into one. They've got to help rebound the ball.
I think Ware and Malik are doing a great job as far as rebounding it, but the surrounding pieces, we've got to pick up the scraps that are out there. Our opponents are beating us to those balls, and we've got to figure that out.
Q. Quickly on X, I recognize it sort of just happened right there at the end. What happened, and where is he at?
WOODSON: I have no idea where he is right now. I'll know more tomorrow when I come in.
MALIK RENEAU | INDIANA FORWARD | KEL'EL WARE | INDIANA CENTER
Q. On the chemistry between Reneau and Ware…
RENEAU: It's just realizing what the defense is giving us. Kel'el pointed out to me that when the double-team comes, just they got us coming down to drop down. He's not really helping down too much so you can just throw it over the top, and I finally got a glimpse of it and was able to make that pass over the top. Then the lob pass, just looking back I seen Kel'el running, so I knew my first instinct in my head was I'm not laying this ball up, this is going up top and making a highlight play. I wanted to throw it up and get the crowd hyped and stuff like that, so I made that work.
The term buddy ball is definitely what me and Kel'el been looking at, especially on the perimeter I'm looking to get top down, not post. I'm looking for him, get some early seals, early post-ups. Get their big men in foul trouble so we can have an easier game plan there, secondary unit and stuff like that. But yeah, buddy ball is huge for us.
Q. On how Malik and Kel'el's game differ from the way Trayce Jackson-Davis and Race Thompson played together…
RENEAU: Kel'el is a big frame, very agile, can move, and just knowing that any step he gets on his defender, he's got a chance to raise up and get dang near to the top of the backboard. You can throw it anywhere to him. Just knowing that he's able and got great hands when he's going up to go get the basketball, catch the ball well and stuff. Just looking back at Race and Trayce, I've been seeing it the whole last year, the buddy ball system, and just when I'm in the game, looking for Trayce, too. I had a bunch of passes where I caught it high, threw the lob pass over the top to Trayce last year, too. Just keep working on that and keep trying to find my buddy.
Q. On how the fans are responding to Ware's play…
WARE: Yeah, all the time. I love when the fans get involved in the game because it just makes us -- not even just me but the whole team, even the bench, just the chemistry grows, the energy grows, and if we can just keep that going on and the fans just keep on cheering, I feel like we'll be great.
Q. On Ware's confidence…
WARE: I would say I'm more in a groove now with Coach Woodson giving me that role where he trusts me enough to just go make the play and attack the basket, score, even throw it out to my teammates and just play smart on the court. As long as I'm playing hard and just giving them that, then we should be good.
Q. On improving the rebounding…
RENEAU: Yeah, just prioritizing boxing out and our guards come in and help us because for me I'm switching 1 through 4 so half the time I'll probably be on a one man and I'm trying to contest a 40-footer and trying to get in to rebound. Just trying to contest the rebound and making sure I get back to rebound and help Kel'el out and not just expecting Kel'el to get every rebound. I think that's a big thing for us, and then just game rebounding, too, bringing the guards in to help. I think we're going to prioritize that and we know we've been getting out-rebounded. We've just got to prioritize that and make that a big issue for us.
Q. On picking up practice intensity…
RENEAU: Yeah, Coach has got strict on us. Practice has been hard. We really got to step our focus up and practice and step our whole attitude or our approach towards practice, and then once we do that, we should be fine and ready to go.
Q. On playing UConn and Ware facing them a year ago…
WARE: I'm looking forward to playing the team. They're a tough team and we're just going to have to go and compete. I'm with a new team now, they have a new team, so we just have to compete.
Q. On pushing the offense's pace in the first half…
RENEAU: That was huge. We're very static especially when we're trying to get in the offense so we already have set plays called. I was telling X, if I get the inbounds we've got to push the pace. Passes up the court, even the swing pass to me and then starting the offense or initiating some type of movement so we can get the basketball moved side to side and then get into our initial thrust, we did that very well in the first half I believe just getting those advance passes up and even me when I get it on the break to swing up to Gallo the one time, the advance pass up the sideline. It's a big priority that we set in practice, just trying to get flow and different movement and create different matchups and switches and angles that we can exploit when we come down the court.
Q. On guarding the perimeter…
RENEAU: It's definitely challenging, but Coach wouldn't give us no challenge that we can't handle. Guarding little six-footers or 6'1" people, they're quick so you've got to give a little step, but be able to contest the shot when they're ready to pull up because hard because you're trying to get space so you won't get blown past, and you're trite to get a shot up so you've got to do two at once. You've got focused locked in, ready to go when they come your way and try to attack you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
SCOTT NAGY | WRIGHT STATE HEAD COACH
Q. On the amount of three-point shots made in the game…
NAGY: It was less about that (Indiana's defense) for us and more about trying to get our defense tighter so we wouldn't give up so many layups and we just didn't do that until the second half. Teams are going to shoot more threes against them (Indiana) because it's hard to get in around the basket because of (Kel'el) Ware, he just makes it very difficult. We very rarely shoot that many threes, but in a game like that we just have to because we can't score around the basket as easily with him (Kel'el Ware) in there. There wasn't any strategy to get open threes. We just run motion and guys make good plays and get good shots. It was nice to see Andrew (Welage) play well and shoot the ball like he did. I think a lot of teams are going to shoot more threes against them (Indiana) than they will most people just because it is hard to score around the basket.
Q. On the performances of Tanner Holden and Andrew Welage with the absence of Trey Calvin…
NAGY: I mean big, big. It's a big loss for us not to have Trey (Calvin). I'm not interested in moral victories, I'm just not. My expectation was that we would win. We had a couple of guys play well and some other guys that didn't and they need to be able to get over that. But the one thing about losing someone is that it almost relaxes you. I think it will benefit us in the future to have Andrew to get that kind of experience and have Tanner be able to cut loose and get a few more shots because Trey (Calvin) is not in there, I think it will help us in the future.
Q. On how they prepared for Indiana's front court…
NAGY: Your defense has to be tight. I thought the middle ten minutes from fifteen (minutes) to about five (minutes) in the second half we finally got our defense in and forced them to shoot the ball from the perimeter a little bit more and that helped us. We've been historically a much worse defensive team in the second half because our defense is not far in our bench, but tonight we were way better in the second half which I like. But you give up fifty-four points in the second half, that's incredible. They shot sixty six percent and the only thing I told our players is they're shooting sixty six percent and we're down five they can't be happy about that. You can't give up fifty-four points in a half and expect to win games.
Indiana vs. Wright State
Nov. 16, 2023
MIKE WOODSON | INDIANA HEAD COACH
Q. On defending the three-point line…
WOODSON: Just us switching correctly and getting next to a guy before he shoots the basketball. That would help. I really don't want to talk about it. I'd like to talk about my grandbaby. I should send out a shout-out to Mariah Adams and her husband for having our first grandbaby tonight. Way to go, Mariah, if you're listening.
Q. On the options that Kel'el Ware presents with his offensive ability…
WOODSON: He's doing everything we've asked him to do since he's been here, and he's rebounded the ball. He's blocked shots. He's made shots on the perimeter. He's made shots down low. I just want to keep him in that space.
Q. On Ware's confidence…
WOODSON: He's a young player. All these guys are young players. Sometimes on certain nights you get good things from some of these young players. Sometimes you don't. That's just how it works. He's been playing extremely well. He started out a little slow when we first got together, and he's picked it up, and he's doing all the things that we've asked him to do, and we've just got to take it a game at a time and keep him in a good place where he's doing the things that he's been doing for us.
Q. On current concerns…
WOODSON: Well, it would be a major concern had we lost those three games. We won them. Be curious to see what you guys would really be saying had we lost the games.
We haven't put a perfect game together. The game before this game we made our free throws. We didn't make them tonight. The three ball has been a major concern. We haven't shot the three ball very well. So, I figure if you put all those together, boy, life might be pretty good. I wouldn't probably be having this conversation with you. But that ain't the case. So, we've just got to keep working, take it a practice at a time, a game at a time and see where it leads us.
Q. On getting the offense to click…
WOODSON: I thought we got out to a great start the first time this unit in a real game, established themselves on both ends of the floor from a defensive standpoint and putting the ball in the hole. Then we gave up three straight threes. They were sitting at 30 with about I think four on the clock, four or five on the clock. You can't go in giving up 19 points basically is what we gave up going in at halftime. That's something we hadn't done since this unit has been together, a 19-point stretch in four or five minutes. That's just too many points. They made a game out of it going in at halftime.
Those are things that we've got to clean up, but I was pleased with the way in terms of how they started the game on both ends of the floor because we hadn't seen that in the first two games.
Q. On the emphasis to push the pace on offense…
WOODSON: Well, I thought we got away from it, but we had been working on that in practice and trying to push the pace, get more ball movement, body movement, and I thought we established that early. It didn't hurt us that we were getting stops and getting out.
All those things play a major role in terms of how you play offense. It's kind of nice to see because that first unit had been struggling in the first two games coming out of the box.
We've just got to figure out how to put a complete 40-minute game together the way I'd like to see.
Q. On Ware and Malik Reneau's chemistry…
WOODSON: They're playing well together. When you talk about going against teams that got big bodies, they've got to play that way. We call it buddy ball. They're really connecting in terms of making plays for one another, high-low plays. They both are extremely good passers with the basketball. They give passes. If you're open they'll give you the ball. You've just got to do something with it when you get it.
Q. On the opponents' ability to secure offensive rebounds…
WOODSON: No, I think it is a concern. A lot of it is because the three teams are really taking a lot of three-point shots against us, and long shots, long rebounds. Our guards, I can't have my starting guards play 26, 28 minutes and get one rebound apiece. That just can't happen. Hell, I can get a rebound at 65 years of age probably, stumble into one. They've got to help rebound the ball.
I think Ware and Malik are doing a great job as far as rebounding it, but the surrounding pieces, we've got to pick up the scraps that are out there. Our opponents are beating us to those balls, and we've got to figure that out.
Q. Quickly on X, I recognize it sort of just happened right there at the end. What happened, and where is he at?
WOODSON: I have no idea where he is right now. I'll know more tomorrow when I come in.
MALIK RENEAU | INDIANA FORWARD | KEL'EL WARE | INDIANA CENTER
Q. On the chemistry between Reneau and Ware…
RENEAU: It's just realizing what the defense is giving us. Kel'el pointed out to me that when the double-team comes, just they got us coming down to drop down. He's not really helping down too much so you can just throw it over the top, and I finally got a glimpse of it and was able to make that pass over the top. Then the lob pass, just looking back I seen Kel'el running, so I knew my first instinct in my head was I'm not laying this ball up, this is going up top and making a highlight play. I wanted to throw it up and get the crowd hyped and stuff like that, so I made that work.
The term buddy ball is definitely what me and Kel'el been looking at, especially on the perimeter I'm looking to get top down, not post. I'm looking for him, get some early seals, early post-ups. Get their big men in foul trouble so we can have an easier game plan there, secondary unit and stuff like that. But yeah, buddy ball is huge for us.
Q. On how Malik and Kel'el's game differ from the way Trayce Jackson-Davis and Race Thompson played together…
RENEAU: Kel'el is a big frame, very agile, can move, and just knowing that any step he gets on his defender, he's got a chance to raise up and get dang near to the top of the backboard. You can throw it anywhere to him. Just knowing that he's able and got great hands when he's going up to go get the basketball, catch the ball well and stuff. Just looking back at Race and Trayce, I've been seeing it the whole last year, the buddy ball system, and just when I'm in the game, looking for Trayce, too. I had a bunch of passes where I caught it high, threw the lob pass over the top to Trayce last year, too. Just keep working on that and keep trying to find my buddy.
Q. On how the fans are responding to Ware's play…
WARE: Yeah, all the time. I love when the fans get involved in the game because it just makes us -- not even just me but the whole team, even the bench, just the chemistry grows, the energy grows, and if we can just keep that going on and the fans just keep on cheering, I feel like we'll be great.
Q. On Ware's confidence…
WARE: I would say I'm more in a groove now with Coach Woodson giving me that role where he trusts me enough to just go make the play and attack the basket, score, even throw it out to my teammates and just play smart on the court. As long as I'm playing hard and just giving them that, then we should be good.
Q. On improving the rebounding…
RENEAU: Yeah, just prioritizing boxing out and our guards come in and help us because for me I'm switching 1 through 4 so half the time I'll probably be on a one man and I'm trying to contest a 40-footer and trying to get in to rebound. Just trying to contest the rebound and making sure I get back to rebound and help Kel'el out and not just expecting Kel'el to get every rebound. I think that's a big thing for us, and then just game rebounding, too, bringing the guards in to help. I think we're going to prioritize that and we know we've been getting out-rebounded. We've just got to prioritize that and make that a big issue for us.
Q. On picking up practice intensity…
RENEAU: Yeah, Coach has got strict on us. Practice has been hard. We really got to step our focus up and practice and step our whole attitude or our approach towards practice, and then once we do that, we should be fine and ready to go.
Q. On playing UConn and Ware facing them a year ago…
WARE: I'm looking forward to playing the team. They're a tough team and we're just going to have to go and compete. I'm with a new team now, they have a new team, so we just have to compete.
Q. On pushing the offense's pace in the first half…
RENEAU: That was huge. We're very static especially when we're trying to get in the offense so we already have set plays called. I was telling X, if I get the inbounds we've got to push the pace. Passes up the court, even the swing pass to me and then starting the offense or initiating some type of movement so we can get the basketball moved side to side and then get into our initial thrust, we did that very well in the first half I believe just getting those advance passes up and even me when I get it on the break to swing up to Gallo the one time, the advance pass up the sideline. It's a big priority that we set in practice, just trying to get flow and different movement and create different matchups and switches and angles that we can exploit when we come down the court.
Q. On guarding the perimeter…
RENEAU: It's definitely challenging, but Coach wouldn't give us no challenge that we can't handle. Guarding little six-footers or 6'1" people, they're quick so you've got to give a little step, but be able to contest the shot when they're ready to pull up because hard because you're trying to get space so you won't get blown past, and you're trite to get a shot up so you've got to do two at once. You've got focused locked in, ready to go when they come your way and try to attack you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
SCOTT NAGY | WRIGHT STATE HEAD COACH
Q. On the amount of three-point shots made in the game…
NAGY: It was less about that (Indiana's defense) for us and more about trying to get our defense tighter so we wouldn't give up so many layups and we just didn't do that until the second half. Teams are going to shoot more threes against them (Indiana) because it's hard to get in around the basket because of (Kel'el) Ware, he just makes it very difficult. We very rarely shoot that many threes, but in a game like that we just have to because we can't score around the basket as easily with him (Kel'el Ware) in there. There wasn't any strategy to get open threes. We just run motion and guys make good plays and get good shots. It was nice to see Andrew (Welage) play well and shoot the ball like he did. I think a lot of teams are going to shoot more threes against them (Indiana) than they will most people just because it is hard to score around the basket.
Q. On the performances of Tanner Holden and Andrew Welage with the absence of Trey Calvin…
NAGY: I mean big, big. It's a big loss for us not to have Trey (Calvin). I'm not interested in moral victories, I'm just not. My expectation was that we would win. We had a couple of guys play well and some other guys that didn't and they need to be able to get over that. But the one thing about losing someone is that it almost relaxes you. I think it will benefit us in the future to have Andrew to get that kind of experience and have Tanner be able to cut loose and get a few more shots because Trey (Calvin) is not in there, I think it will help us in the future.
Q. On how they prepared for Indiana's front court…
NAGY: Your defense has to be tight. I thought the middle ten minutes from fifteen (minutes) to about five (minutes) in the second half we finally got our defense in and forced them to shoot the ball from the perimeter a little bit more and that helped us. We've been historically a much worse defensive team in the second half because our defense is not far in our bench, but tonight we were way better in the second half which I like. But you give up fifty-four points in the second half, that's incredible. They shot sixty six percent and the only thing I told our players is they're shooting sixty six percent and we're down five they can't be happy about that. You can't give up fifty-four points in a half and expect to win games.
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