“Look, guys, we’re sitting here, you know, we’ve won 14 games, man. We’re 14-5. It’s not like it’s 5-14. We’ve played some pretty good basketball and had some good stretches,” Woodson said.
This is a concerning comment. It shows me he doesn't know the difference between a Chevy Camaro and a Ferrari Competizione 812. He doesn't see that it's mid January and he's already about one more loss away from missing tourney despite paying millions to luer highly talented recruits in the off season.
It shows me he doesn't understand the game by game edge that requires a highly competitive mindset- every game.
It shows me his expectations do not match the fan base nor the University's historical feats, and perhaps it shows he undervalues the IU fanbase in general, or underestimates our basketball knowledge.
If he thinks they are going to just flick a switch and start beating all the top teams in the conference and winning consistently against top 25 foes, then maybe he has done very little coaching to get them this far, because they are getting beat handedly by every good team they play, and that takes a lot to reverse.
Defiance isn't going to cut it. Mike Woodson needs to acknowledge openly that this team has underperformed all season and is currently not playing like an NIT team, let alone an NCAA torney team.
They need to be a lot better. And they need that now, not in early March when they have 12-14 losses.