What Mike Woodson Said After Indiana's 86-70 Loss at Nebraska
LINCOLN, Neb. – Indiana lost its first Big Ten game of the year Wednesday night at Nebraska, 86-70.
The Hoosiers turned the ball over 19 times and allowed 12 Nebraska 3-pointers. The loss dropped Indiana to 10-4 overall, with a home game against Ohio State up next.
On what Indiana needs to do to fix offense and defense...
Woodson: "Not turn the ball over. That would help. We had 19 turnovers for 27 points. I thought that was the difference in the game. We go out on the road, you've got to play differently than you do at home. You've got to defend, you've got to rebound, and you can't turn it over. I thought tonight, that was the biggest problem. When I look at the stat sheet and look at the perimeter play, they outplayed our starting two guards were awful tonight. Their two guard were really good – one, two and three."
On if he sensed turnover problems in practice and how to fix that...
Woodson: "Well, again, I mean practice has been pretty good. We preach a lot about not turning the ball over because that's huge when you're winning and losing basketball games. Over the last two years, we've been pretty good in that area. The last two games, we've exploded the other way in terms of turning the ball over. That's something we've just got to – somehow we've got to fix that because you just can't win, you can't beat anybody, especially on the road, you're not going to beat anybody turning it over 19 times."
On Nebraska's defense making it hard on Indiana's guards...
Woodson: "Well, I think a lot of times we were trying to create things that weren't there. They put two on the ball and that's been pretty good for us when teams put two on the ball, we're able to pull it and get rid of the ball and that pass leads to something good. Tonight we tried to fight the two on the ball, where we were throwing it away. We just had some unforced turnovers that were just unacceptable, but hey, we've got to go back and fix that because you're not going to beat anybody in the Big Ten doing that."
On decision to play Xavier Johnson after injury...
Woodson: "Well, he's our senior. He's our starting point guard. He only played 14 minutes tonight, so I mean he's had a few practices under his belt and we thought he was ready to go and we played him some tonight, we started him tonight."
On taking longer to create defensive cohesion and understanding with new roster...
Woodson: "You could say that. We've had our moments when we've been down in some games, we've made some big-time runs because of our defense. This team is not as good as we were defensively the last two years, and a lot of it is because we do have new faces, but we've got to overcome that. I've got to get them over the hump when it comes to defending and rebounding and not turning the ball over. It's my job to do that and we failed in that area tonight."
On concern of not knowing how well his team will play on a nightly basis...
Woodson: "Well again, we've been competitive off and on. I just got to get us competitive for 40 minutes. I thought the Michigan game on the road we were solid from beginning until the end and were able to come out of that building with a win. That's how you're going to have to play on the road in the Big Ten. You've got to defend at home when you've got games at home. I mean, when we've got our fanbase we seem to play a bit better, but it's different on the road. You've got to do all the right things on the road to win basketball games. We didn't do that tonight."
Related stories on Indiana basketball
- GAME STORY: Indiana turned the ball over 19 times and allowed 12 Nebraska 3-pointers Wednesday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena, handing the Hoosiers their first Big Ten loss of the season. CLICK HERE
