What Mike Woodson Said After Indiana's 76-64 Loss At No. 21 Wisconsin

MADISON, Wis. - Indiana coach Mike Woodson spoke to the media after the Hoosiers lost 76-64 at Wisconsin on Tuesday at Kohl Center.

No Indiana players were made available to the media, so Woodson's words were the only comments from the Indiana camp after the game.

On why the season has slipped to where it is right now ...

Mike Woodson: Right now, we're just not a tough team right now. We're not. Mentally, we're not tough. You figure we had a game like we did at Purdue where we really competed for 40 minutes and then we come in here and we lay an egg based on how we started the ballgame. You spot teams on the road 20 and it's going to be tough to get back in them. And, again, that's on me, man. We're pushing and pulling and scraping trying to get what we can get and guys just didn't step up again tonight. We've got to get it fixed because we only have eight left and five of them are at home. We have to figure out all our games at home and the three that's on the road - we have to figure those out as well.

On why Wisconsin was able to get such open looks from 3-point range early in the game when the Badgers shoot a lot of threes ...

Woodson: Their bigs got away. That was the difference. I though Malik (Reneau) and (Oumar) Ballo did an awful job in terms of guarding the bigs. We were terrible in transition early, they got a few there. You figure if you can take some of those away, you've got a game. You make nine at halftime and that was well over of what we wanted to do coming into the game in guarding the 3-point line. I thought we were better in the second half in that regard. But the first half put us out of the game, basically, because it was tough getting back after they got up 20.

On the energy level of the team in such an important game ...

Woodson: I don't know. It's hard for me to explain it, but we're running out of games and I've got to figure these next eight games out because it's going to be very pivotal for our basketball team in terms of making tournament play.

On what to tell the team moving forward ...

Woodson: It's not rocket science. Right now, our backs are against the wall. We're not playing great basketball. We're playing in spurts. I thought the last three games prior to tonight, we played pretty good ball and we came up short. If we won maybe one or two of those, you're feeling good about yourself. I've got to figure a game where we can get these guys feeling good about themselves and see where it goes from there.

On whether the weight of the losses is weighing on the team ...

Woodson: Sure it is. None of these guys like to lose. I don't like to lose. I don't like the way we're playing. I did prior to coming into tonight's game, I thought at Purdue we played great. Maryland game we played great. We played a great half at Northwestern. But we were awful tonight.

What binds the team together in a stretch like this ...

Woodson: You have to lean on them, but you've got to help them too. These guys, they're kids playing big-time basketball. And the Big Ten ain't no joke. We have to help each other. That's kind of how I look at it.

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