Mike Woodson finally takes some of blame for Indiana’s play as of late

Things are looking really bleak for the Indiana Hoosiers at this point in the season. a four-game losing streak, as well as losing six of their last seven games, the NCAA Tournament seems like a pipe dream at this point. While it looks like things might be going a bit better after the fight seen against No. 10 Purdue, Indiana showed up as if they didn’t know what was going on against No. 21 Wisconsin.

The Hoosiers fell to Wisconsin 76-64 last night in Madison for their 21st straight loss at Wisconsin, but the game was not as close as even the final score makes it look. The Badgers kept almost a 20-point lead between them and the Hoosisers for the majority of the night as Indiana just looked sluggish and couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn when it came to scoring.

Head coach Mike Woodson should be feeling a pretty hot seat beneath him at all times at this point. the fans are done, and the administration probably isn’t too far behind. However, for the first time in a few games, Woodson finally took some responsibility for what happened on the court.

“Right now, we’re just not a tough team right now, we’re not, mentally, we’re not tough,” Woodson said in his post-game press conference. “You spot teams on the road 20, and it’s going to be tough to get back in them, and again, that’s on me, man. We’re pushing and pulling and scraping, trying to get what we can get, and guys just didn’t step up again tonight.”

Did Woodson really take responsibility, though? Of course, he said it is on him about his team not being tough, but what are you doing to try and fix it? That is your job as a head coach is to get your team right and ready for every single matchup, whether it is a top team in the country or an FCS team.

Woodson finished off the question about the season slipping with a. That was a bit of a lackluster answer. He talked about there being eight games left, five of them being at home and figuring out how to win at home, but also how to win the away games as well. Thanks, Woodson, I never would have guessed that you were trying to figure out how to win games, it seems a bit obvious to everyone else.

While Woodson took some of the responsibility for the loss, it didn’t stop him from placing blame on the players as well. Wisconsin, one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the Big Ten, made 12 three-pointers against Indiana, and the Hoosiers just couldn’t figure out a way to stop them.

“Their bigs got away, that was the difference,” Woodson said. “I thought Malik (Reneau) and (Oumar) Ballo did an awful job in terms of guarding the bigs. We were terrible in transition early; they got a few there.”

Woodson may not be watching the same team everyone else is, though, because he talked about how good the team has been playing of late. While yes, they have played better and been in games late, they haven’t been able to finish games, so not sure how any coach can be happy with the way his team is playing when games are still resulting in a loss.

Woodson has a lot of work cut out for him, and he is practically doing it under the microscope of the administration and the Hoosier fans. Indiana welcomes No. 24 Michigan on Saturday, and if Indiana can’t find a way to get a win or at least look competitive again, they may be playing in an empty gym by the final buzzer.