Woodson rips moving Hoosiers: ‘We’re not hard’
MADISON, Wis.– Indiana coach Mike Woodson questioned his group’s durability after the Hoosiers dropped their fourth successive game, harming their drooping postseason hopes.The Hoosiers fell behind 19-2 in the very first 4 1/2 minutes and never got the margin into single digits for the rest of a 76-64 loss at No. 21 Wisconsin on Tuesday. Woodson acknowledged after the game that the Hoosiers are running out of time in their bid to make a spot in the NCAA competition after coming up short last season.
“We’re just not a hard team right now,” Woodson stated. “We’re not. Psychologically we’re not hard.”
Indiana (14-9, 5-7 Huge 10) was ranked as high as 14th in the AP Top 25 in late November, however it has actually stumbled of late. The Hoosiers were only 65th in the web rankings before Tuesday’s game.Editor’s Picks
They weren’t playing so bad throughout this losing streak, a minimum of until Tuesday.The Hoosiers
led 31-25 at halftime of a 79-70 loss at Northwestern. They fell 79-78 in the house to No. 18 Maryland when the Terrapins’ Rodney Rice hit a 3-pointer in the final seconds. They suffered perhaps their most heartbreaking defeat of the season Friday by losing 81-76 at No. 7 Purdue in a game that included six lead modifications in the last 4 minutes.Then they never provided themselves a chance at Wisconsin, a place where the Hoosiers have lost 21 straight times and have not won given that 1998. Wisconsin led 26-4 less than 7 1/2 minutes into the game. “We have a game like we did at Purdue where
we actually competed for 40 minutes, then we are available in here and we lay an egg based upon how we started the ballgame,”Woodson stated.”You spot groups on the roadway 20, it’s going to get hard to get back in them. Again, that’s on me, guy. We’re pushing and pulling and scraping and just trying to get what we can get. Guys just didn’t step up again tonight.”Indiana dug itself an early hole as Wisconsin went 5-of-6 from 3-point range
in the first 4 1/2 minutes. Wisconsin’s 2 7-footers– Steven Crowl and Nolan Winter season– opened the game by striking 3-pointers.”Their bigs got away,” Woodson said.”That was the difference. I thought Malik [
Reneau] and [Oumar] Ballo did a dreadful task in regards to guarding the bigs. “Indiana’s slide likely will lead to more questions about Woodson’s future going into the tail end of
the season. He got Indiana to the NCAA competition in each of his first two seasons before the Hoosiers went 19-14 and refused an NIT quote last season.Indiana has eight games delegated try to restore its postseason hopes. 5 of those games are at home, including a Saturday matchup with No.
24 Michigan. “It’s not brain surgery, “Woodson stated. “Today, our backs protest the wall. We’re not playing great basketball. We’re playing in spurts. I believed the last three games prior to tonight we played pretty good ball, and we lost. We just win maybe one or two of those, you’re feeling good about yourself. I’ve got to determine a game where we can get these guys back feeling great about themselves and see where it goes from there. “