What Mike Woodson Said After Indiana's 79-70 Loss At Northwestern

Here's the full transcript of coach Mike Woodson's postgame press conference following Indiana's 79-70 loss Wednesday against Northwestern at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Indiana coach Mike Woodson yells to Trey Galloway (32) against Northwestern at Welsh-Ryan Arena. / David Banks-Imagn Images

EVANSTON, Ill. – Indiana lost its third game in four tries Wednesday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena, falling 79-70 to Northwestern.

The Hoosiers led by six points at halftime, but allowed 54 second-half points and a season-high 13 3-pointers. Ty Berry led Northwestern with 23 points on 7-for-10 3-point shooting, and Mackenzie Mgbako led the Hoosiers with 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting.

With this loss, Indiana falls to 14-6 overall and 5-4 in Big Ten play ahead of Sunday's noon ET game against Maryland at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

Here's everything Indiana coach Mike Woodson said after losing to Northwestern.

On what is holding Indiana back from playing a full 40-minute game...

Woodson: “I wish I knew. I’m still trying to figure it out. I know we got Malik back, and we knew we weren’t going to play him very many minutes tonight. But we had a hell of a defensive half, and then we come out and give up 54 points and we pile on the turnovers. I mean, it was just a bad combination. We just didn’t play well in the second half.”

On Northwestern's 13-0 run in the second half when the game got away from Indiana...

Woodson: “Well again, I think at the timeout it was 54-52, and then they went on a deep run. We went to the bench and subbed a couple guys, and we just didn’t answer the bell coming back out of that timeout and they did. We just – the same things they ran in the second half, we didn’t guard it well in the second half, and they made us pay for it, especially from the 3-point line. They made 3-point shots all over the floor, and we never responded.”

On what has led to five straight losses to Northwestern...

Woodson: "I can’t go back in the past. The bottom line is we were playing well enough to win the game today, and we just didn’t answer the bell in the second half. We gotta figure that out going back home.”

On what he was referring to when saying Indiana didn't answer the bell...

Woodson: "Turnovers. Not guarding the floppy situation, which is the easiest thing to guard. We just – the same things they ran in the first half, I thought we defended it well. In the second half, we just gave up too many opportunities and they made us pay."

On Malik Reneau's return from injury...

Woodson: “It’s gonna take a little while, man. The guy hadn’t played in a number of games, and he only played about 10 minutes tonight and it showed. He’s not there yet. He hadn’t had a chance to really practice, so I knew I wasn’t going to play him very many minutes tonight. But that was just a part of it, we just gotta keep working. He’s gotta condition more, get a little more practice time under his belt to get back, but we had our chances tonight. Like I said, we didn’t defend in the second half like we did the first half. That’s something I gotta fix.”

On what went wrong with Indiana's 3-point defense...

Woodson: "Our communication from a defensive standpoint was lost the second half. Our switches, we weren’t together on switches, where we were connected the first half and they made us pay for it. We can’t go on routes like that where we don’t do what got us the lead. I mean, I thought we played a beautiful first half based on how we played in holding this team to 25 points because they can score the ball, and they showed that the second half.”

On if he's worried at this stage of the season about Indiana's lack of connectivity on defense...

Woodson: “No. I mean, you can never get worried. There’s too many games still left. We play a good game on the road and beat Ohio State, and then come here and got an opportunity to win a game and we let it get away the second half. You gotta give them credit. They played their butts off in the second half, and we didn’t.”

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