Mike Woodson seems to be the one thing standing in Indiana's way of moving onto the next level of basketball. Since their biggest losses in the season to Iowa and Illinois, Indiana has at least been in each game. They played down to the wire, but they just can't finish the game off, something happens somewhere, or a timeout isn't called, or the play drawn up goes wrong, you name it, it's happened.
Against No. 10 Purdue, Indiana was down by one point with a little under 10 seconds left in the game. Indiana had the ball and two timeouts on the board, but instead of calling a timeout, Woodson let the play go. Myles Rice tried to put up a shot and draw a foul call but instead missed the shot horribly, and the refs didn't blow the whistle and Purude ended up with the ball.
Woodson had two timeouts in his pocket and chose not to call one of them, and this was his reasoning as to why he didn't.
"Couldn’t get his attention, and about the time he got where he was going – I thought he got fouled on the play, but they didn’t make the call," Woodson said in his post-game press conference. "Once he took off, I couldn’t get to him, it was too late. The official had went by, again, that’s just – we gotta connect better, that’s just the bottom line."
Last we checked, a head coach or a player can call a timeout either when the ball is dead, or their team has possession of the ball. Woodson didn't have to get the attention of Rice, he only had to get the attention of the refs on the court, and even if one goes by, then get the attention of another.
It just seems like it is another excuse that Woodson has for the reason that Indiana had a bad play late in the game. At that point, Woodson needs to just call the timeout, whether Rice is going or not, call the timeout and get a better play called in the huddle.
The more the losses pile up, the more likely Woodson may be out of a job after this season. The Hoosiers have lost five of their last six games and have fallen from the top five in the Big Ten down to ninth in the conference.
Indiana needs to figure something out as they prepare to take on No. 17 Wisconsin tomorrow night in Wisconsin at the Kohl Center at 9:00 p.m. EST.