Indiana basketball coach Mike Woodson expressed disappointment with the team's performance, citing their inability to sustain an early lead, turnovers, and being physically outmatched by Auburn. Auburn coach Bruce Pearl praised his team's performance and highlighted their ability to respond to Indiana's early lead. He also emphasized the team's improved shooting and the significance of the victory. The game ended with Auburn securing a 104-76 win over Indiana.
ATLANTA — Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl's complete postgame Q&A after Auburn's 104-76 win over Indiana. #iubb Video courtesy of @NathanKing247. https://t.co/YfikG9VJCs
Aden Holloway, K.D. Johnson and Bruce Pearl recap Auburn's beatdown of Indiana in State Farm Arena Watch: https://t.co/3Icw3fp6s5 https://t.co/MwGxo9B3bS
ATLANTA — Indiana basketball coach Mike Woodson's complete postgame Q&A after Indiana's 104-76 loss to Auburn — pulling the starters early when IU was going on a run, defense and more. #iubb https://t.co/PPbRvyn04A
Bruce Pearl is proud of how Auburn responded to the early 12-point deficit — and the rowdy Indiana crowd: “That’ll shake your cage. Our guys hung in there.”
#Auburn HC Bruce Pearl says the staff's job this week (re: shooting struggles) was to just keep instilling confidence. BP: "We think we're an improved shooting team. ... as long as you keep taking good shots, that's the important thing."
Auburn HC Bruce Pearl on snapping out of the 3-point slump: "We think we're an improved shooting team. Our job this week was to continue to give the guys confidence."
Auburn HC Bruce Pearl: "We didn't panic when Indiana came out and knocked down shots... That's just not who they are."
#Auburn HC Bruce Pearl says this was like an NCAA Tournament environment. BP: "That was special for us today."
#Auburn HC Bruce Pearl says this was the best performance the Tigers have had all year at the shooting guard spot. KD Johnson and Denver Jones combined for 26 points on 8-15 (53.3%) shooting.
Auburn HC Bruce Pearl: "I'm proud of Denver for getting his confidence back, and I'm proud of K.D. for hanging in there and showing that he can turn around a game like this." the 2 guys combined for 26 points vs. Indiana
Auburn HC Bruce Pearl: "Great victory over a historic program. We played really well... If you look up and down the roster, virtually everybody had a big day. I don't know how if you need to be hard on IU, because I don't know if we could have played any better."
Hearing from #Auburn HC Bruce Pearl now. BP: "As you look up and down our roster, virtually every player had a big day. ... I don't know that we could play much better."
Woodson: "We showed wonderful signs tonight against a good team, early on, and then we just didn't sustain that." #iubb
Bruce Pearl and Jaylin Williams both talked about how physical of a matchup this would be earlier in the week. IU HC Mike Woodson, just now: “I’d say that they (#Auburn) were the most physical team tonight.”
Woodson: "Three turnovers, I'd say they were the most physical team tonight In a game like this, you've got to force more turnovers, get more stops. Rebounding wasn't that big of a difference but I just thought physically they were the better team tonight." #iubb
Woodson: "They just physically took us out of everything we wanted to do, so you've got to give them credit. I'm not happy with the way we played tonight. It's kind of like a carbon copy of our UConn game ... It was back and forth, and then finally, we just ... caved in." #iubb
Indiana HC Mike Woodson: “We couldn’t really move the ball, even going back to the very first play we tried to execute. That’s just how (Auburn) plays… They just took us out, physically, of everything we were trying to do.”
More Woodson: "I thought we came out ready to play. We built a 12-point lead and the ball was moving, we got defensive stops, we rebounded the ball, we did everything we set out to do coming into this game. And then we just stopped playing." #iubb
Mike Woodson to Don Fischer: "After they smacked us around a few times, we just stopped playing." #iubb