Indiana University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Michigan
2/8/2025 4:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Postgame Quotes
Indiana vs. Michigan
Feb. 8, 2025
MIKE WOODSON | INDIANA HEAD COACH
Q. On guiding the team through tough times…
WOODSON: Well, it's been emotional. We're dealing with young men, young kids that's trying to figure it out.
But we've still got seven more games to play. And it's my job as their coach to try to push them to realize that they can still win basketball games.
Q. On the week weighing on the team…
WOODSON: We haven't been the same team for a while. And for whatever reason we've dug a hole. I've done a terrible job in really putting them in the best position possible to win, I think.
But emotionally, these kids have taken a beatin' a little bit. And it's my job to try to lift their spirits and keep 'em heading in the right direction because there's still a lot of basketball left.
Seven games is a lot of games, and we're still trying to play to stay in the Big Ten Tournament and then see where that takes us. But we've got to start winning some games here soon to do that.
Q. On the effort…
WOODSON: Well, you've got to tip your hat and give them a lot of credit -- I do -- because they could have folded it up and called it a night. But they fought the second half. Michigan scores a lot of points. We held them to 70 points, and the second half they only scored 27 points.
So I thought defensively we made a nice adjustment the second half. And guys fought, but Michigan was the better team tonight. So you've got to give them credit. They played their asses off.
Q. On not being the same team…
WOODSON: I mean, you can look at it in all kind of ways. I'm not even going to go there. I thought at that time we were playing pretty good basketball. I think we were 13-4 and 4-2 in the Big Ten without our leading scorer. And then all hell broke loose, and we just haven't been the same.
Q. On getting the team in position to win…
WOODSON: I mean, maybe that's the false statement. I think we've had some games where we've had an opportunity. The Purdue game was an opportunity to win. The Maryland game. So we fought and we were very competitive. The Wisconsin game, the first half, was just nonexistent.
And tonight, we just couldn't make shots the first half. And I thought they had their way from an offensive standpoint because our defense wasn't there.
But the second half we were a lot better. We rebounded with them the second half, and we did some things I know we've been capable of doing all year. So hopefully that will be a good sign as we head to Michigan State.
Q. On the lack of success…
WOODSON: I wish I knew. As the coach, your roster is changing every year, and that's no excuse. And you think you're putting the right pieces in play.
And I think our guys got wonderful intentions, man, and they do want to win. But it hasn't worked the last three, four weeks for our ball club.
So my job, again, as the coach is to continue to push them and keep them in a good frame of mind and hopefully something good will click. And we need to get a game under their belt so they can start feeling good about themselves.
Q. On the inconsistency of the lineup…
WOODSON: Well, again, that part of it has been tough because we've been up and down individually and as a team. But tonight I went with guys, basically senior guys, to try to win this game the second half. And I thought they played like seniors. We just fell a little short.
Q. On riding the seniors…
WOODSON: We've been riding with them. It's not like they've been sitting there next to me; they've been playing. We just gotta get other pieces in play to join in and help them.
I mean, tonight we were competitive coming down the stretch and getting back into the ball game. If we can bottle that up, along with how we played at Purdue and the Maryland game here at home, hopefully something will click for our team and we can get off this slide.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
DUSTY MAY | MICHIGAN HEAD COACH
Q. Opening Statement…
MAY: I want to begin by complementing on the second half. They played really good basketball. They played determined. This was a great game for our sport, for our league (B1G). Fortunately, we found a way to make the plays when we needed to. I though the difference in the game was holding (Indiana) who get 33%+ of their shots back from offensive rebounds to 22%. We are not winning this game if we can't control the glass like we were able to tonight. It really started at the last possessions against Oregon. We have been very lax on our block-outs and our physicality when shots went up. In the last possession, our guys showed that we can be the hammer when we chose to, and I thought for the most part tonight, even the ones (Indiana) got it was because the ball bounced a certain way or because they had a numbers advantage. I thought our guys played with great physicality and determination to rebound the ball and go 0-9 from three in the second half and still find a way (to win) is a testament of a team that just has belief that they are going to figure it out.
Q. On the big three of Vladislav Goldin, Danny Wolf, and Tre Donaldson…
MAY: They made the plays. I'm sitting here today feeling really, really great about our performance because those guys made big plays down the stretch (of the game). I thought Rubin Jones made a lot of invisible plays. There are five or ten that jump out that aren't going to be on the stat sheet that contribute to winning. When you take a back seat and start looking for guys as they emerge as your go-to guys, it shows great humility and self-awareness. I think our guys are doing that. But the flip side of it is when those three cause an overreaction, we have to trust that they are going to play off of that, and I thought they did a nice job of that as well. I'm very proud of how our guys are growing together.
Q. On being comfortable in close game situations…
MAY: We're very comfortable. I'm not counting this as a three-point win with a half-court shot at the buzzer (by Anthony Leal). Hopefully this doesn't cause Twitter to go crazy because of the other side of college athletics, sometimes winning is not enough. I haven't watched the film yet, but there have been times this year when I felt that we had real lapses in concentration, and we were starting to splinter apart. I thought we stayed connected. I thought our guys for 40 minutes were trying to figure out a way to win.
Indiana vs. Michigan
Feb. 8, 2025
MIKE WOODSON | INDIANA HEAD COACH
Q. On guiding the team through tough times…
WOODSON: Well, it's been emotional. We're dealing with young men, young kids that's trying to figure it out.
But we've still got seven more games to play. And it's my job as their coach to try to push them to realize that they can still win basketball games.
Q. On the week weighing on the team…
WOODSON: We haven't been the same team for a while. And for whatever reason we've dug a hole. I've done a terrible job in really putting them in the best position possible to win, I think.
But emotionally, these kids have taken a beatin' a little bit. And it's my job to try to lift their spirits and keep 'em heading in the right direction because there's still a lot of basketball left.
Seven games is a lot of games, and we're still trying to play to stay in the Big Ten Tournament and then see where that takes us. But we've got to start winning some games here soon to do that.
Q. On the effort…
WOODSON: Well, you've got to tip your hat and give them a lot of credit -- I do -- because they could have folded it up and called it a night. But they fought the second half. Michigan scores a lot of points. We held them to 70 points, and the second half they only scored 27 points.
So I thought defensively we made a nice adjustment the second half. And guys fought, but Michigan was the better team tonight. So you've got to give them credit. They played their asses off.
Q. On not being the same team…
WOODSON: I mean, you can look at it in all kind of ways. I'm not even going to go there. I thought at that time we were playing pretty good basketball. I think we were 13-4 and 4-2 in the Big Ten without our leading scorer. And then all hell broke loose, and we just haven't been the same.
Q. On getting the team in position to win…
WOODSON: I mean, maybe that's the false statement. I think we've had some games where we've had an opportunity. The Purdue game was an opportunity to win. The Maryland game. So we fought and we were very competitive. The Wisconsin game, the first half, was just nonexistent.
And tonight, we just couldn't make shots the first half. And I thought they had their way from an offensive standpoint because our defense wasn't there.
But the second half we were a lot better. We rebounded with them the second half, and we did some things I know we've been capable of doing all year. So hopefully that will be a good sign as we head to Michigan State.
Q. On the lack of success…
WOODSON: I wish I knew. As the coach, your roster is changing every year, and that's no excuse. And you think you're putting the right pieces in play.
And I think our guys got wonderful intentions, man, and they do want to win. But it hasn't worked the last three, four weeks for our ball club.
So my job, again, as the coach is to continue to push them and keep them in a good frame of mind and hopefully something good will click. And we need to get a game under their belt so they can start feeling good about themselves.
Q. On the inconsistency of the lineup…
WOODSON: Well, again, that part of it has been tough because we've been up and down individually and as a team. But tonight I went with guys, basically senior guys, to try to win this game the second half. And I thought they played like seniors. We just fell a little short.
Q. On riding the seniors…
WOODSON: We've been riding with them. It's not like they've been sitting there next to me; they've been playing. We just gotta get other pieces in play to join in and help them.
I mean, tonight we were competitive coming down the stretch and getting back into the ball game. If we can bottle that up, along with how we played at Purdue and the Maryland game here at home, hopefully something will click for our team and we can get off this slide.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
DUSTY MAY | MICHIGAN HEAD COACH
Q. Opening Statement…
MAY: I want to begin by complementing on the second half. They played really good basketball. They played determined. This was a great game for our sport, for our league (B1G). Fortunately, we found a way to make the plays when we needed to. I though the difference in the game was holding (Indiana) who get 33%+ of their shots back from offensive rebounds to 22%. We are not winning this game if we can't control the glass like we were able to tonight. It really started at the last possessions against Oregon. We have been very lax on our block-outs and our physicality when shots went up. In the last possession, our guys showed that we can be the hammer when we chose to, and I thought for the most part tonight, even the ones (Indiana) got it was because the ball bounced a certain way or because they had a numbers advantage. I thought our guys played with great physicality and determination to rebound the ball and go 0-9 from three in the second half and still find a way (to win) is a testament of a team that just has belief that they are going to figure it out.
Q. On the big three of Vladislav Goldin, Danny Wolf, and Tre Donaldson…
MAY: They made the plays. I'm sitting here today feeling really, really great about our performance because those guys made big plays down the stretch (of the game). I thought Rubin Jones made a lot of invisible plays. There are five or ten that jump out that aren't going to be on the stat sheet that contribute to winning. When you take a back seat and start looking for guys as they emerge as your go-to guys, it shows great humility and self-awareness. I think our guys are doing that. But the flip side of it is when those three cause an overreaction, we have to trust that they are going to play off of that, and I thought they did a nice job of that as well. I'm very proud of how our guys are growing together.
Q. On being comfortable in close game situations…
MAY: We're very comfortable. I'm not counting this as a three-point win with a half-court shot at the buzzer (by Anthony Leal). Hopefully this doesn't cause Twitter to go crazy because of the other side of college athletics, sometimes winning is not enough. I haven't watched the film yet, but there have been times this year when I felt that we had real lapses in concentration, and we were starting to splinter apart. I thought we stayed connected. I thought our guys for 40 minutes were trying to figure out a way to win.
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