What Mike Woodson Said After Indiana Basketball Beat Washington 78-62

SEATTLE, Wash. – Indiana began its trip out west with a 78-62 win over Washington Saturday at Alaska Airlines Arena. The Hoosiers trailed for just 47 seconds and led by as many as 21 points in one of their most dominant wins of the season.

Malik Reneau led the Hoosiers with 22 points, and Luke Goode had 18 points on 5-for-9 3-point shooting. With this win, Indiana improved to 18-11 overall and 9-9 in Big Ten play ahead of Tuesday’s game at Oregon at 9 p.m. ET.

Here’s the video and full transcript of coach Mike Woodson’s postgame press conference.

On Malik Reneau’s energy after missing a game…

Woodson: “You know, it was strange, the game that he sat out because we had shoot around and he was lively and talkative, and then he just got sick. Our guys picked it up against Penn State and did what we needed to do to secure that win, but we needed him tonight and he responded.”

On the uncertainty of whether Reneau could play today or travel…

Woodson: “Yeah, but the main thing was could he fly with the team and not spread whatever he had amongst the players. That was my big concern, so we had talked about maybe flying him our separately. But our good doctor, doctor Rink suggested that it would be okay, so it all worked out.”

On holding Great Osobor to four points…

Woodson: “Well, I mean, he’s a load, man, in terms of what he does offensively, and we knew that coming in. We just tried to take some things away from him. I thought Goode did a good job, but we double-teamed him some and tried to keep it out of his hands as much as we could. I thought for the most part, we did that.”

On whether the team is playing more relaxed lately…

Woodson: “Winning does that. You look at the five – I could go back to all the games, the Northwestern game, the Maryland game, the Purdue game there, the UCLA game at home. I mean, those are four or five games, if you win those games, we’re not having this conversation because these guys are learning how to win close games. I take a lot of pride as a coach, man, in trying to get them over the hump. So I take it in terms of not getting it done in those games, but we are playing better and I’ve been saying that. We’ve been playing much, much better basketball, and these last three games, these guys have come and showed up. You can call it that [playing less stressed]. I call it when you win, it eases the mind. You do things that you think you’re accustomed to doing, and when you lose, you’re looking over your shoulders. You’re worried about what people are saying. All the shit that really don’t matter. I mean, we need right now to support these players, man, because they are playing hard. They are trying to win basketball games. So that’s how I look at it.”

On Galloway and Leal’s defensive communication setting the standard…

Woodson: “I expect that, though, because they’ve been with me the longest. I mean, shit, Gallo’s caught more hell from me than anybody that’s on this team. So he and Anthony, Anthony didn’t play in the early years that much, but he still was every day in practice putting in the time and I knew if we threw him in there, he’d be ready to play and do some positive things. All that work that he’s done is paying off. I trust those guys on the floor because they know.”

On his message to the team heading out west and needing wins…

Woodson: “Can’t win two games until you get the first one, so we were able to win tonight and the Oregon team is a tough team, man, they play extremely hard and we gotta go in with our A game and see where it leads us.”

On the plan in between games…

Woodson: “We’ll have dinner tonight as a team, and tomorrow we’ll get up, practice, and get ready for Oregon.”

On if his NBA experience helped plan the trip…

Woodson: “I mean, it doesn’t bother me because I don’t have to play. I mean, we had a day to really work when we got out here. We didn’t do much today. We left to come out. But yesterday we had a good practice and we worked. We gotta get ‘em ticking again, and I thought today was a nice carry over because these guys played well I thought.”

On if wins in four of the last five games is similar to what he envisioned this team could be at its best…

Woodson: “Well again, guys, when you lose close games, it’s not fun. We played well enough to win those games and we didn’t win. That’s why we’re in the predicament we’re in, but you go back and get those four or five games, you’re sitting at the top with everybody else trying to figure out who’s gonna win the Big Ten title.”

On if he liked the new jerseys…

Woodson: “I like winning.”