My Two Cents: Indiana's Sudden Surge Really is About Mike Woodson
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Right from the beginning, from the day he was hired, really, Indiana basketball coach Mike Woodson has been saying over and over that ''It's not about me.''
He came home to Indiana to coach the Hoosiers, and we know all those storylines as to why he was hired. We needed an apple from the Bob Knight tree and Woodson has the coaching resume and Indiana playing career that checked all the boxes.
He had a vision for what he wanted to do, and he talked some players into staying, most notably Tracye Jackson-Davis and Race Thompson, and he brought in several others out of the transfer portal, most notably Miller Kopp and Xavier Johnson.
There have been growing pains, of course. We've heard the comments over and over about still getting to know each other and still learning about what makes his players tick. And, of course, ''getting over the hump'' with his ''ballclub.''
Indiana is better under Mike Woodson, of course, so much better. No one on this team likes to talk about the Archie Miller era, not the players and not even Woodson, who has no interest in throwing Miller under the bus.
But what we've learned these past two days is that everything Woodson has been trying to do since April is finally starting to sink in. Indiana has been non-competitive against Michigan for six years now — but the Hoosiers beat them Thursday after nine straight losses. They've been pushed around by Illinois for several years now — but upset them on Friday after four straight defeats.
We've seen Trayce Jackson-Davis play the best ball of the season these past two days. We've seen point guard Xavier Johnson finally turn into, dare we say, a star in the past three weeks. We've seen Race Thompson, a back-to-the-basket big man, drained three-pointers at critical moments in huge games.
They are all so much better. And, sorry coach, but Mike Woodson deserves a lot of credit for that.
We've covered a lot of what Jackson-Davis has done so far this week, from his rare yet brilliant second half against Michigan ADD URL to his jump shot and key free throws on Friday.
But what Thompson and Johnson have done too says a lot about what Woodson is all about. Johnson, under his watch, has become an above average point guard. And Thompson, once a fragile player with little confidence, now feels good about hit big-time perimeter jumpers.
Let's start with Thompson, who's having a career year. He had 10 points on Friday, including two three-pointers that were huge. One came early in the second half when Illinois had grabbed a four-point lead and seemed on the verge of pulling away. Thompson's shot reeled them right back in.
The second three came at the 10:43 mark and it gave Indiana a six-point lead, it's largest of the game. It's a huge new piece to his game. He had six career three-pointers in three years, and he now has 15 this season.
Woodson taught him that, and pushes and prods him to keep shooting.
“Just the freedom to play your game, and just go have fun and play together,'' Thompson said when asked about what he enjoys most playing for Woodson. "It’s just that relationship we all have with him. He wants to win so bad, but he wants it for us to win.
“I was open early and I didn’t shoot one, and he got on me for not shooting it. I believe in it, and everyone else believes in me when I’m shooting it, and it means a lot that everyone has confidence in me.’'
The Woodson-Johnson relationship has been much more front and center this year, because he was brought in to be an upgrade at the position but got off to a rocky start. He played out of control far too often the first half of the season, and it was bad enough that he got booed in Indianapolis during Indiana's game with Notre Dame in the Crossroads Classic.
But they just kept working, both of them. And now it's playing off. In the past seven games, Johnson is averaging 17.9 points and 6.4 assists. He's become a dangerous weapon, especially in screen-roll actions with Jackson-Davis.
"I like to think he's grown as a player,'' Woodson said. "From the time we started to where he is today, he's put a lot of work, on the court and off the court in terms of watching film and just learning.
"I'm not the easiest to deal with and him being the point guard is probably the toughest position for me as a coach. So I think he's grown. I think the game is starting to slow down for him and he's seeing things. He's always been pretty good defensively, he gives you a lot of effort there, but point guards, there's a lot that comes in being a point guard, and it's just not me on him. It's his teammates on him, too. That's just the nature of being a point guard, but I think he's grown so much since we've started this journey.''
Jackson-Davis passed the 1,500-point mark in his career on Friday, and he is now just the second person in program history to score at least 1,500 points, have 750 rebounds and 150 blocks. Alan Henderson was the first.
Jackson-Davis takes Indiana's team failures personally on his watch, because he's been the team's best player for three years running. He's been slumping for a month, and was determined to snap out of it.
To finally make noise in the Big Ten Tournament means something to him. So does making the NCAAs for the first time. He gives Woodson a lot of credit for helping to turn this thing around.
"There's been a lot of talk, especially the last two years, of me not showing up at the end of the season, so I'm trying to change that narrative,'' he said. "I think that team (Illinois) is honestly the team that got me in the slump that I've been in the last month. When we played them on February 5th, it took a lot of my confidence away. So Illinois was a bully today and I think we took care of that problem. So I'm just going to keep playing the way that I am and then we'll go from there.''
This once-fragile team is now feeling pretty good about themselves. They have ended long losing streaks — and a lot of pain and suffering — at the hands of Purdue, Michigan and Illinois lately.
That's monstrous.
"I think our team right now is playing with a lot of confidence,'' said Jackson-Davis, who had 21 points on Friday. "And Coach Woodson said it all year, he said this isn't last year's team. And I think (Thursday), finally getting over that hump (against Michigan), proves that we're a new team with a lot of new pieces, like X over here. But we're just going to keep playing our solid basketball and hopefully that keeps transitioning to wins.''
Getting that NCAA Tournament bid is a big deal, too. Indiana hasn't danced since 2016. Exorcising demons is a good thing.
"It's really big for me, honestly, and our program, because I know I haven't beaten Illinois throughout my whole career,'' Jackson-Davis said. "So finally getting that one like Michigan, I think it's just getting another thing off my chest.
"Coach Woodson gave me confidence, my teammates gave me confidence. And I think after I got in that rhythm, I got two buckets early in the first half. The rest goes from there. I felt like I could score, so I was just doing my job.
What really makes this team different is that they really guard people. They've been really good here, but they've been good most of the year, to be honest. Woodson preached defense from Day 1.
He had a good teacher.
"Listen, I played for a great coach in Bob Knight and the one thing he taught me was that defense wins games,'' Woodson said Friday after the Illinois. The offense is not going to be there every night, but if you can put a good defensive system in place, you put yourself in a great position to win every game, you going to be in every ballgame, and that's how we've been all season.
It's not just been Knight. Larry Brown, the great Larry Brown that I worked with, I look at the Detroit team that we championed back in 2004 in the NBA there and that team was as good a defensive team. That's basically how we want it. So I know defense will win games if guys are committed to defending, rebounding the ball and that's what we've been doing here as of late.''
And for that, as much as he doesn't want to hear it, Mike Woodson deserves praise.
After the game, I ran into Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson in a Gainbridge Fieldhouse hallway.
"That's why you hired him, right?'' I asked.
"That EXACTLY why we hired him,'' he said with a smile.
Related stories on Indiana basketball
- GAME STORY: For the second straight day, Indiana pulled off a dramatic upset at the Big Ten Tournament, this time knocking off No. 1 seed Illinois 65-63 behind Trayce Jackson-Davis' jump shots and made free throws. Indiana will play Iowa in the semifinals on Saturday. CLICK HERE
- WHAT JACKSON-DAVIS AND JOHNSON SAID: Hoosier forward Trayce Jackson-Davis and guard Xavier Johnson led the Hoosiers to defeat No. 1-seed Illinois 65-63 in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals. Read their full transcripts, or just watch the attached video of the entire press conference. CLICK HERE.
- LIVE BLOG: Relive all the play-by-play from Indiana's dramatic 65-63 win over top-seeded Illinois on Friday. CLICK HERE
- INDIANA VS. ILLINOIS PHOTO GALLERY: Look inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse at 30 photos from Indiana's 65-63 win over the No. 1-seed Fighting Illini. CLICK HERE
- TOURNAMENT RESULTS, SCHEDULE: Here are all the results from the Big Ten Tournament thus far, and the remaining schedule. CLICK HERE
