Postgame Quotes: Chattanooga

Postgame Quotes
Indiana vs. Chattanooga
Dec. 21, 2024

MIKE WOODSON | INDIANA HEAD COACH
Q. On what needs to change to avoid scoring droughts…
WOODSON: Again, that's two games in a row we've had stretches like that. I don't know if guys are just looking over their shoulders based on the Nebraska game. We didn't play bad in Nebraska. Just that last six-minute mark, we couldn't make shots.

Tonight, we started down that same road again, you know, looking, and not being sharp offensively. As a coach, I got to get us over that hump, get them comfortable knowing you're going to be in close games and you got make plays coming down the home stretch.

Q. On tightening up the 3-point defense…
WOODSON: Well, I thought just their movement caused problems for us tonight. You know, the back door cuts and things of that nature. Then we got -- just got stale. We had one stretch where we went up 10 our defense was pretty solid, but then we give up a three. That 10, 11-point leads goes back to 7, 8.

Those are things you got to eliminate, especially against good teams. And this is a good team. They played St. Mary's great. After watching them on film against St. Mary's I knew they would come here ready to play. I didn't think our starting unit was right tonight. I thought our bench played well and basically secured the game for us tonight.

Q. On correcting back door cuts…
WOODSON: Well, we just got to keep working at it. Man, that is something -- we prepared all week for this team. Worked on a lot of things. I didn't see a lot of good things from my work that we put in this week. That's kind of discouraging. The bottom line is we got to keep working through it and keep pushing guys and get them better. That's my job to do that.

Q. On playing the full 40 minutes…
WOODSON: We had games we played for 40 minutes and had big leads and won big. So, I don't agree with that statement. Again, talking about playing elite teams where we haven't played great, I thought the South Carolina game was a great game for us; Providence was a good game for us. But I just got to get it fixed, keep working, and pushing they guys that's what coaches do, and basketball players got to get better and do their job as well.

Q. On the assessment of practice over the last week…
WOODSON: Practice has been tough, brutal. A lot of running and work put in. You know, I thought our bench -- I can't blame everyone. Hell, our bench was pretty good tonight for us. They came in and played solid I thought. Probably should have played them the whole game and sat the starting unit down. At the end of the day, I got to get all guys that are -- get them all clicking when they're on the floor playing. It's a work in progress still, but we still have a long way to go. I got to keep pushing.

Q. On the ball movement…
WOODSON: Not good. I mean, we had 16 assists, but at the end of the day we could have had probably 26 assists, because I thought the next pass wasn't there. Guys were still trying to do to themselves. You know, I got to get us over that.

Q. On playing games with the same intensity all the way through…
WOODSON: Well, I mean, that's been a mystery. We have had games where we have jumped on teams and we've had games where we started slow. So, I got to find an even ground somewhere where they come out and start out well and sustain it and the bench comes in and sustains it.
We've had games like that. I got to go back and find them.

Q. On the progression of the ball club…
WOODSON: Again, I mean, when you go back to our practice game against Tennessee, we were very competitive. I'm trying to get us there on a 40-minute basis every night they step out on the floor. We're not there yet with. Nowhere near it. So, I got a lot of work still ahead.

Q. On the plan between now and Christmas…
WOODSON: Well, guys have a few days off. We come back on the morning of the 26th and we'll practice that evening and get ready for our next opponent. Wishing them all a merry Christmas and I hope they have a good time. Get two days and got to come back and go to work. That's what it's all about during this time. Hey, guys, Merry Christmas to everyone.

MACKENZIE MGBAKO | SOPHOMORE FORWARD & MALIK RENEAU | JUNIOR FORWARD
Q. On adjusting to avoid scoring droughts…
RENEAU: "Yeah, definitely just slowing down. I think we're trying to do a lot of things, but we're not executing or not doing it the way Coach wants. So just slowing down and trying to execute and just getting the shot every time down. Not trying to rush anything and making sure we get a good shot every time we come down the court."

Q. On getting practice to reflect in games…
RENEAU: Yeah, today we definitely didn't show what he did for the last week of practice. I feel like we had great practices this week. Still got to put the practices into the game and execute how we execute in practice and everything will be smooth sailing.

The defensive side is where we need to focus on the most and keep working at that and getting better. But I feel like this break will help us out and clear our minds and we'll come back ready to work and get ready for Big Ten play."

Q. On the defensive energy…
RENEAU: Yes, sir. Definitely trying to play without fouling, move my feet, stuff like that. I got into some sports where it was hard to get out the way to avoid the fouling. Just trying to be a glue or a spark for our team to get them up and ready and energized.

Q. On the slow offensive stretch in the second half…
MGBAKO: Yeah, it just comes down to what Malik said, slowing the game down, get into our offense, working with what we got, looking for the open player or running our offense the way Coach wants it to be ran. I feel like if we slow down, we can make anything work for us in the half court.

Q. On the importance of defensive intensity…
RENEAU: It's definitely important, especially coming down in this Big Ten stretch we about to have. If we're not scoring the ball at a good rate, then we got to be able to stop people and get stops down the stretch when it comes down to these games. Big Ten games are usually down to the wire. It's not just a blowout. We're trying to execute down the stretch and really provide sparks throughout the games where we can constantly keep those 40 minutes playing hard.

Q. On the conversations during second half struggles…
RENEAU: Just trying to figure out what we were doing on the offensive end, which was trying to get into offensive sets. We had guys not knowing what we were doing, so we had to just tell everybody what we were doing on the offensive end and just get everybody into their spot so we could run our offense well.

Q. On how the team feels 12 games into the season…
RENEAU: I wouldn't say worried. I feel like we're in a good space. We definitely got to improve on a lot of things coming up, but this break will definitely give us a chance to clear everybody's minds. Like I said, get back to it and come back with a spark when we come back from that break.

MGBAKO: Yeah, I'm not concerned at all. We have a great week of practice. Today it didn't translate as much as we wanted it to, but if we continue to build on what we cemented already it's going to show in the end.
Just defense, get into our offense, and making stuff happen.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

DAN EARL | CHATTANOOGA HEAD COACH
Q: On Malik Reneau…
EARL: "(Malik Reneau) is really good, strong lefty. He's really good on the interior. He's a good passer as well as can score around the bucket. With him and (Oumar) Ballo playing together it's really hard because one will ball screen and the other will ducking in hard. Indiana had a size differential, so we were asking our guys to fight and make it difficult. We did some mixing up of double teaming, but Indiana did a good job of baiting us into it and playing slow in the first half and they were spraying the ball out. We took that off in the second half, and I thought our guys battled but obviously they made us pay. Reneau late in the game had that ball up four and made a tremendous play from the foul line. Really good players, and Indiana is a good team. I liked our fight. It's a shame because the game was right there, but I'm proud of our guys."

Q: On what can complement the three-point shooting…
JOHNSON: "We shoot a lot of threes. We like to think we have some skilled guys and try to get some back cuts to play a Princeton-ish offense. At times we have to make sure we're getting two-point field goal attempts in the paint via the drive. We did a pretty good job of cutting tonight and getting some layups. We have to be able to throw the ball in the post, especially if teams are going to play us one-on-one, and get something out of that. Obviously, that's two-point field goals, but also getting fouled. It just gets the other team to suck in. If you can throw it out, you get a better look at a three-pointer rather than people pressing out on us. We're still in that "Growth" phase. Everybody is going through the transfer portal and new teams. It takes a while. League play is coming up and we hope to continue to get better."

Players Mentioned

Malik Reneau

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