IU Basketball's Mike Woodson, Jordan Hulls Discuss Early Wins, Preview Xavier
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana basketball is off to a 2-0 start to the season with dominant wins over Morehead State and Bethune-Cookman.
Coach Mike Woodson and the Hoosiers have their first major test of the season on Friday in a road trip to Xavier, who was picked to finished second in the Big East preseason coaches poll.
Woodson spoke with play-by-play announcer Don Fischer on "Inside Indiana Basketball" to break down the start of the season and look ahead to Friday's game. Former Indiana point guard Jordan Hulls, who is now the team and recruiting coordinator, also joined Fischer to talk about his new role.
On Indiana's wins over Morehead State and Bethune-Cookman:
Woodson: I couldn’t get to games fast enough just to see where we were as a team … The two games that we opened up with were competitive early, and the bench kind of changed the dynamic of our team in the first two games and built a nice cushion for us.
On the freshman class:
Woodson: They are still behind a little bit, but the fact that they’re so competitive, it makes up a lot of the deficiencies they have in terms of learning what I want on the defensive end and the offensive end, so it’s been a nice rollover so far with our ball club.
On his relationship with Bethune-Cookman coach Reggie Theus:
Woodson: We had a pretty good run the four years we played [for the Kansas City and Sacramento Kings] and we maintained a pretty good relationship ... He cheats a lot in golf. I think sometimes he’s got holes in his pockets and he can’t find his ball and it appears where he thinks it is, s we have to really keep an eye on him on the golf course.
On the win over Bethune-Cookman:
Woodson: About four of those players said ‘Hey coach thanks for the experience,’ because Indiana is big time basketball and when you bring a team that’s not used to playing at that level, or even in arenas like that, it can be intimidating. I think for the most part, they competed early, but it was our athleticism, our size, our experience with Trayce and Race and Xavier and Miller, it was just a little much for them.
When I took the job, I told my AD and coaching staff that we’ve got to help those schools. Number one, they need the money, and it helps their program grow a little bit in terms of experience. When they see how hard we play it can help them see, ‘Hey maybe we need to play a little bit harder,' once they get to their conference.
On Indiana's dominant play in the paint:
Woodson: Last season our strengths were Race and Trayce down low, and we call it buddy ball … Now you add Malik [Reneau[ to the mix, who’s a really good low post scorer, and that’s where our strengths have to lie the rest of the season.
We’ve had 28 or 27 assists, the one game we had 18 assists and we didn’t have that many assists, so that just lets me know the ball is being moved around and guys are sacrificing their game a little bit for the sake of the team and that becomes contagious.
On the depth of this year's team:
Woodson: Those guys are hungry, they want to play … Practice has been so competitive and they want to play … If you’re playing well I’m going to ride you a little bit, and if you’re not playing well you can sit next to me and it’s next man up and see how he fairs.
Every game is not going to be a 30-40 point blowout, that’s just not going to happen, so based on how the game is going will determine how I rotate players in.
On an area of concern with this team:
Woodson: This team is built this season with rangy type players that can switch, and you don’t really feel the effects of the switching. In switching, sometimes our big can be out front when that shot goes up when he really needs to be down low based on the fact that he switched. That’s where we’re kind of losing our strength a little bit and not rebounding the ball solid like we should. That’s something we really need to work on.
On Miller Kopp:
Woodson: He’s made a lot of shots, especially in transition when you can’t get matched and he’s sitting in the corner and the ball finds him and he’s able to knock shots down.
On Trey Galloway:
Woodson: He’s worked. He got hurt early and came back and he’s had a tough go at it. This summer he had the surgery on his groin area and he’s recovered nicely. He really hadn’t had the chance to play a lot because of the injury we had to bring him along very slowly, but he’s back at full go and we’re feeling the effects of it. He plays so hard in terms of the things we want done on the defensive end and he’s very aggressive offensively, so it’s not hurting us that he’s making the 3 ball because that’s an area he’s struggled and now when he laces it up I feel pretty good about it going in.
On the freshman class, defensively:
Woodson: They’re so competitive man and when you play hard and you compete, you can make up for the difference of things you don’t know from the defensive standpoint. In high school, make no mistake about it, they don’t play a lot of defense. [Malik] is so much better [defensively].
Jalen always had a defensive minded approach and you’ve got to attribute that to the coach at Montverde because I’ve always thought, I made the trip down there a couple times, and he does a hell of a job coaching.
On CJ Gunn not being afraid to shoot the ball:
Woodson: No and that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with that. I was kind of that way as a freshman … He’s trying to defend and he’s making plays with the basketball and all those things come to play when you talk about winning games.
On Kaleb Banks:
Woodson: I thought when we first got him, just watching summer play, you were like, 'Wow, this young man’s going to be okay,' and then he kind of hit a wall and I had a lot to do with that, throwing so many things at these young guys. It couldn’t register fast enough for him and now he’s starting to come around. He got hurt about three weeks ago, and we kind of walked him through that. His last two games and the minutes he’s got has been really productive I think.
On pushing the pace this season:
Woodson: A lot of that is because we’ve got guys that can handle the basketball, and we were kind of shorthanded in that area last year — meaning the Tamar Bates, the Galloways, the Geronimos, even Miller [Kopp], they’ve gotten so much better at handling the basketball because we had put them in that situation over the last five months where they had to handle the basketball. Their comfort level is a lot better now than it was when I first walked in here.
Then you’ve got Jalen [Hood-Schifino], who’s always handled it. Malik [Reneau] is like shocked that I let him do the things he does with the ball out on the floor, so we’ve got a lot of guys now that can handle the basketball and you feel comfortable in them handling it and that’s how it should be. I don’t want robots, man. I want guys that when they get stuck with the ball, they can go try to make a basketball play.
That’s kind of how I set it up in Atlanta when I was the head coach there and that’s how I set it up in New York, and just to see the improvement from the time we started to where we are today has been a big improvement in terms of each individual being able to do something different to help us.
On 2023 recruiting class:
Woodson: Gabe Cupps, when I first got the job and I started off on the recruiting trail was a young kid out of Ohio that I just trailed. He plays for his dad and he’s just a solid point guard that knows how to run a team and he wins … A big time competitor.
The kid out of Georgia, Jakai Newton, is about a 6’4 guard that is just tough and can score the basketball.
On if he is still recruiting players for next year:
Woodson: Yes, I mean we’re going to lose Race, Trayce, Miller and X, so I gotta get some more bigs and we’re looking at a couple of bigs at Montverde. I’m getting on a plane in the morning and I’m heading to Orlando to watch a game tomorrow night. There’s really three kids on that team that I’m looking at. We had a big 7-footer in this past weekend – I think I can talk about that – on a visit from Atlanta and another player from New Jersey in this weekend, so we’re making our rounds and hopefully we can fill two spot with positive players who can help us win.
On non-conference schedule:
Woodson: This schedule I had a little bit to do with it – the trip to Vegas, Kansas. North Carolina is what is is, we had no choice in that matter … When you look at Kansas, Carolina, Xavier and Arizona out in Vegas, that gives us four really solid games before we go into the Big Ten and the Big Ten will be brutal this year.
On Indiana's game at Xavier on Friday:
Woodson: Watching them on film, boy, they really play extremely well together. They’ve got some veteran guys that have been around. They’re big. They start the big 7-footer in Jack [Nunge], then they’ve got Zach [Freemantle] the big power forward that’s about 6’8, 6’9 and then they’re guard play, they’ve got a kid from Utah, a little point guard that came over from Utah that’s really, really good. Their wings are big, so it should be a heck of a match. They’re comfortable, they’re playing at home, they’re playing again tomorrow night, but their first two games they’ve won with a big margin just like we have so it should be a competitive game.
I tell our players the road is different from playing at home. You’ve got to have a mentality when you go on the road that you can’t turn the ball over, you got to get shots and good shots, and you’ve really got to defend and rebound the ball and if you do that, you’ll put yourself in position to win the game and that’s anywhere you play.
On Monday's practice:
Woodson: It was fairly good, we didn’t do a whole lot. We had some officials in and we scrimmaged some, but tomorrow they’ll have off and I’m going to go recruit and we’ll get after it again on Wednesday and Thursday and then we’ll make the trip up to Cincinnati.
On Jordan Hulls:
Woodson: This is new for him and I get it, and just like we’re throwing a lot of things at our players, I threw a lot of things at our coaches, as well, so I mean if this is something you want to do, you signed up for it, then there’s a lot of work that’s got to be done and you got to be a big part of that. He’s done his fair share and he’s still learning and a lot of us are. I think he’s happy to be here and I’m going to keep teaching.
Former Indiana point guard Jordan Hulls, who is not the team and recruiting coordinator, also appeared on 'Inside Indiana Basketball' on Monday.
On his job responsibilities:
Hulls: That entails everything from under class recruiting, putting the itineraries together for official visits, unofficial visits, making and building those relationships with younger recruits that we’re allowed to contact and those kinds of things so it’s been fun. I’m all about relationships and I think basketball is a great way to do that and for me to come back home and be a part of a staff that allows me to do that and for a university that I have so much passion for, it’s really special for me to get out and share that information with people that actually want to hear it, as opposed to my former teammates in europe that don’t really care about it. It’s been a great transition.
On his life after IU:
Hulls: Once I graduated from IU, I wasn’t quite sure what was going to happen. I got an agent and from then on I played nine years overseas in Europe. I started in Poland, then I went to Kosovo, my third year I went to Belgium and then the last six years I’ve been in Germany. It was an amazing experience, very difficult the first two years. It’s a culture shock for sure and you’re far from home and that’s like 10-11 months out of the year and as a kid that never left home, I stayed home for school I didn’t do that whole thing and then you get thrown into a whole new culture, new language, new everything, it was a really good way for me to grow up. I learned a lot about myself, I learned a lot about the game and just life in general.
I was engaged at the time so we spent two years apart and those kinds of things, so I felt like those kinds of experiences with me and my family life, I have three little kids, a five year old, a three-year old and a two year old so we had our own little life over there, and especially over in Germany the last six years where we picked up the language, we really immersed ourselves in the culture and I was still playing basketball at a high level and for me to make money playing the game that I love for as long as I did was a dream come true and for me to have those life experiences was really cool.
On his decision to join IU:
Hulls: I would not have come home for anything other than this job and I was really thankful for the opportunity. I would have played another two or three years. Like I said I’m 32, if I would have played til I'm 35 or whatever I was, until my knees gave out or whatever, but when I got the call and the opportunity to come back home it was just something I couldn’t pass up and I’m just super thankful for coach Woodson and the staff for trusting in me and giving me the chance to come back home. My kids aren’t getting any younger, my parents aren’t getting any younger so it was really cool for me to come back. I haven’t seen so many people in so long and my kids get to be around their grandparents and things like that so there are way more pros than cons, that’s for sure.
On relationships he built overseas:
Hulls: Every country I went to, it just shows the power of Hoosier Nation, there was always somebody with an IU sweatshirt on at least one time a year and that was really cool, whether I was in Kosovo or Poland, especially in Germany with the army bases, there’s lots of Hoosiers out there that you get them tickets to the game, they’re wearing their candy stripes and it gives you a little home away from home so it was really special for me to see that throughout my nine year career.
Luke Fischer, you guys might remember, we were teammates in Wurzburg, Germany and then one year I actually got Will Sheehey to come and be my teammate, but he unfortunately got injured in preseason and wasn’t able to stay on the team. Maurice Creek was over there as well. [Darwin] Davis who was my former high school teammate, I actually played against him in Germany. A lot of Indiana guys were over there. Braydon Hobbs played at Bellarmine that I grew up playing AAU with. We have a lot of great talent in the state, and it’s not only all over the country but all over the world so a lot of really cool connections.
On the factors that led to him coming back home:
Hulls: Looking at it long term if this is something I want to get in to as a opposed to just playing two more years that didn’t really make sense to me and for me to come back home, like I said, I wasn’t searching for other jobs in other states or anything like that, but everything kind of just fell into its place and God had a plan for that and I think it was the right time for me to hang up my shoes and get in the coaching world and see what it’s all about. Like I said, for coach Woodson and the rest of the staff to give me that opportunity, it felt right and we prayed a lot about it and it wasn’t easy to stop playing. I think whether I was 32 or 40 it was going to be difficult for me to stop playing so I’m going to have to find some rec league games out here or something eventually, but those are probably the main factors for me. Learning from a great coach, a great staff where I love learning the game not only through playing but through other people who have been there and done that and I thought this was a great opportunity to do that and what better place than to be back at IU.
On what he thinks of the team this year:
Hulls: Obviously we have a lot of key players coming back and a lot of good young talent, and I think it’s a great mesh of when coach Woodson is putting the plays together like that, he does such an amazing job of getting guys in their spots where they’re most comfortable and I’m really excited to see where this team can go. When we’re knocking down shots whether that’s Trey Galloway, whose shot looks really good right now or Miller Kopp shooting with confidence, [Tamar Bates], so many different guys who can contribute. It’s just like every season it’s going to take everybody, it’s not just a one man show or a two man show, it takes the whole team and I think we have a great group of guys that whoever steps on the floor whether it’s one minute or 10 minutes or 30 will make an impact and I think that’s what makes us special.
On staying in touch with former IU teammates:
Hulls: I think that’s what made us so close and so successful on the court we were such a tight knit group. Now I’m not saying we talk every day, but some of us do you know I talk to Cody probably every two, three, four times a week I would say and other guys not so much, but we always pick up where we left off and everybody is all over the world, everybody’s lives have changed, kids, getting married, life happens and we’re not always able to see each other, but when we do I’m glad Bloomington’s kind of that place everyone can come in so I don’t have to fly five kids to go somewhere else.
Related stories on Indiana football:
- NBA TEAMMATES THEUS, WOODSON MEET AGAIN: Mike Woodson and Reggie Theus were NBA teammates in Kansas City and Sacramento back in the 1980s. They've remained good friends, and on Thursday night, they'll coach against each other when Indiana takes on Bethune-Cookman. CLICK HERE
- SON OF IU LEGEND RETURNS TO INDIANA: Billy Garrett, the son of Bill Garrett, who became the became the first African American to play on the Indiana varsity basketball team, returned to Assembly Hall on Thursday night as an assistant on the Bethune-Cookman coaching staff. CLICK HERE
- GAME STORY: Trayce Jackson-Davis scored 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting, and No. 13 Indiana made 10 three-pointers and 21-of-22 free throws in a convincing 101-49 rout of Bethune-Cookman. on Thursday night. Here is Tom Brew's game story. CLICK HERE
