IU fans seem to be done with Mike Woodson after loss to Penn State, and they have a point
IU basketball stinks, but say this for coach Mike Woodson: He isn’t about to make excuses or single out his own players or attack the media.
Just kidding. That’s exactly what he’s going to do.
We’ll get to the excuses and finger-pointing and media attack later. It’s ugly, coming from someone with this much experience in the public eye — how did he survive two full seasons coaching the New York Knicks? — but first let’s get to the ugliest thing IU fans have seen all season, this 85-71 loss Saturday to a Penn State team that came into the game with a losing record … and without its leading scorer.
The game was at Assembly Hall, where fans were leaving with almost five minutes left. Normally it’s the older fans who leave early while the students stick it out, but on this day it was everybody. Well, almost everybody. A handful of IU fans hung around to boo the Hoosiers after the final horn.
Insider: IU can kiss NCAA tournament hopes goodbye after Penn State's loss
What was happening on social media was even worse. Good luck wading through #iubb Twitter without seeing some combination of the words Woodson and fired.
Should he be fired? Let me be as clear as I can, because a few weeks ago — after a lousy loss at Rutgers — I wasn’t clear enough, and that’s on me. That day I wrote “the clock should start ticking on Mike Woodson.” What I meant, all I meant, was this:
Some coaches leave when they want to leave, the rest leave when someone tells them to go, and Mike Woodson is obviously in that second group. He’ll leave whenever the IU administration gets tired of his program and pushes him out — meaning, the clock is ticking. Would it happen after Year 3? I can’t imagine that, no. Wasn’t thinking that after the Rutgers loss, and not thinking that after this Penn State loss. Three years is not enough time to give anyone, much less an IU alum who played for Bob Knight.
Good news, Mike Woodson: You’ll almost surely be back next season.
Bad news, #iubb fans: He’ll almost surely be back next season.
Mike Woodson takes credit for Kel'el Ware
Let’s be clear: Mike Woodson didn’t miss a shot, foul a 3-point shooter or dribble a ball off his foot and out of bounds. But his players did those things, over and over Saturday — and Woodson picked these players, and Woodson coaches them.
Players rarely get better here, unless we count Kel’el Ware, and why should Woodson get credit for Kel’el Ware? It’s true, Ware didn’t do much last season at Oregon, where coach Dana Altman felt his motor revved too low. Ware, a 7-foot NBA talent, entered the transfer portal and chose IU and has become the player he should’ve become, and believe me when I say:
Mike Woodson has taken the credit for that.
Listen to his media conferences or read the transcripts, and he’s always patting himself on the back for getting Ware to play hard. Could that be the case? Sure. Is it just as likely that Ware did some serious soul-searching after his disastrous year at Oregon and decided, for the good of himself and future generations of his family, that he should play harder? Sure.
Woodson loves to think he made Kel’el Ware, though, while taking no responsibility for the back-sliding of almost every other player on roster, Malik Reneau excluded. No one has gotten worse, at least from a shooting standpoint, than Trey Galloway. The senior from Culver is playing a much better floor game and has become the Hoosiers’ de facto point guard — even when Xavier Johnson is healthy — but Galloway’s shooting from 3-point distance has dropped from 46.2% last season (30-for-65) to 27.3% this season (21-for-77).
My bad, says Mike Woodson?
No. His bad, says Mike Woodson.
“Gallo is down from last year,” Woodson volunteered Friday, when asked about the prehistoric offense — IU is 355th of 351 teams nationally in 3-point attempts, and no, that’s not a typo — the Hoosiers play. “Gallo shot it I thought extremely well for us last year. He's not shooting it that well this year.”
Woodson kept going, singling out one of the best shooters on roster, freshman Mackenzie Mgbako, who had missed nine of his 11 last attempts from distance before Saturday. Did Woodson cut him some slack, noting Mgbako had gone 16-for-32 in the previous seven games? Nope.
“Mack has had his struggles,” Woodson said, “and you can go on and on.”
Yeah, Mike, but why would you?
Here’s one thing he did say, seconds later, while riffing on the same topic of IU’s 1980s offense.
“Listen,” he said, so here I’ll ask you to lean closer and hear him out, “in the NBA I led the league in taking 3s with the Knicks and made 3s.”
He’s referring to those two seasons — 2012-14 — when he coached the Knicks.
To recap: When guys don’t take enough or make enough 3-pointers, that’s on them. Gallo’s not shooting that well, you know, and Mack has had his struggles, too.
But when the team is shooting well? Mike Woodson did that.
In the NBA I led the league in taking 3s with the Knicks.
Mike Woodson blames media, throws team under bus
Penn State reported to Assembly Hall without leading scorer Kanye Cleary and his 18.4 ppg, and posted its third-highest points total of the season, two more than the Nittany Lions managed against St. Francis — the one in Pennsylvania, I think. Maybe it’s the one from New York. Like it matters.
Penn State destroyed the IU from Indiana, because the IU from Indiana can’t shoot from 3 or stop opponents from doing the same. Penn State entered the game 318th in the country at 30.5% from distance, but went 12-for-22 on 3-pointers.
As for IU, remember how I said the Hoosiers were 355th out of 351 Division I teams in 3-point attempts, at 15.4 per game? Here’s how that math works: There are 351 teams currently eligible for the 2024 NCAA tournament, but 10 more are transitioning into D-I and playing a D-I schedule and therefore counting in the statistics. Technically IU is No. 355 out of 361 Division I teams, but 355 out of 351 feels more accurate.
Everything else feels impossible, doesn’t it? What we’re seeing from this IU basketball program? Now, granted, the Hoosiers have had their moments. They’re coming off a victory against Iowa, one of the top feel-good moments of the season, and nearly beat then-No. 2 Kansas earlier this season, also at Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers are 13-9 overall, and 5-6 in the Big Ten, so it’s not like they’re terrible.
Then again, if they can be 361st out of 355 teams in 3-point attempts, well, they can have a winning record and still be terrible. The math checks out.
As for Woodson, he’s checking out of responsibility and pointing fingers at his players. After this loss, he talked out of both sides of his mouth when he said:
"I'm not gonna throw my guys under the bus," he said, then started revving the engine like it was Kel'el Ware or something, "but they just didn't perform the second half. They were flat as hell."
Also:
"They didn't fight the second half," he said, apparently believing there is no "I" in this team. "That's kind of disappointing."
Woodson has saved some of his most passive-aggressive ammunition for the media. First, he talks repeatedly about the injuries IU has suffered this season, and no, IU’s health has not been perfect. But just two regulars have missed a game, and one, Ware, has still played 19 of 22 games.
The other, Xavier Johnson, missed his eighth game Saturday. Can we be honest, without enjoying it? My heart goes out to Johnson, whose final season on campus has not gone well, but his absence could be addition by subtraction. He’s struggled that much, with career-low numbers across the board in a career that spans six years.
Or, put another way: Without Trace Jackson-Davis around to make things easier, Johnson has regressed that much under Mike Woodson.
Doyel last month: Xavier Johnson is struggling, and the outside world is just piling on
Woodson doesn’t see it that way, of course. He sees this whole thing — all the negative attention, the complaints on social media, the booing from fans — as the media’s fault. Here’s another thing he said Friday:
“We haven't had a full team since November,” he’d said, “and nobody has even printed that. It's like: ‘Go win anyway.’”
Yeah, Mike. Go win anyway.
If not?
Tick, tick, tick, tick.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IU basketball stinks as coach Mike Woodson blames everyone but himself
