Coach Mike Woodson addressed the media after Saturday’s 63-48 loss to Rutgers and kept reiterating that Indiana basketball “just got out-toughed”.
It was pretty apparent as soon as the ball tipped off, that Rutgers came out with energy and heart and the Hoosiers did not. From Race Thompson finishing with zero points and little impact in the game to Xavier Johnson turning the ball over six times and missing nine of his 11 shots.
The Hoosiers were outrebounded by 14 and Rutgers dominated the offensive glass with 17 total. That’s hustle and energy.
"“It takes effort to block out and rebound the basketball, and we just didn’t do that… That’s an area we have to get better as a team. I mean the Big Ten, big teams"
Indiana basketball actually played pretty well defensively, holding the Scarlet Knights to just 63 points, the problem was offensively and effort.
"“Our defense was decent. They out-toughed us. That’s all.”“Well we’ve been shooting the ball pretty well, tonight, we couldn’t throw it in the ocean.”"
There are nights where we definitely have it and look like a Final Four-caliber team, and then there are nights like Saturday night where the Hoosiers look like a team that is battling with the bottom of the Big Ten.
Let’s just hope for less nights like Saturday as we head into our second conference game of the season against Nebraska on Wednesday.
Watch the entire postgame press conference after Saturday’s loss below: