Indiana University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Indiana vs. Ohio State
1/6/2022 9:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Postgame Quotes
Indiana vs. Ohio State
Jan. 6, 2022
MIKE WOODSON | INDIANA HEAD COACH
Q. Can you talk a little bit about coming off the loss to Penn State and just the energy portrayed by your team tonight out there?
WOODSON: Well, I mean, it was a total team effort. When we left Penn State, we knew that was a game that was a very winnable game. I couldn't get them over the hump, and we came back and had a couple days to prepare for Ohio State. They were a little down when we first got back. It was kind of grabbing and fighting and pushing to get on the -- erase that loss and get ready for Ohio State, but we were able to rebound from it, man, and I thought this is probably the best game we've played all season in terms of how we defended and how the ball moved offensively. We did a lot of good things on both sides of the ball tonight, which was really nice to see.
Q. Guy taking two months off and coming and playing like that, that's really unusual. What is it about Trey? What did he do to make him make such a big impact right off the bat?
WOODSON: Again, before he got hurt he was in the rotation, guys. He's been in the rotations since the Bahamas. We knew that was a piece that was missing, but again, my thing has always been next man up, and we patiently waited for him to rehab to get back and he responded tonight, which was kind of nice to see.
Q. Your thoughts on the way Trayce played, 27 & 12 and completely outplays EJ Liddell. What did you think of the way Trey played in this game against that level of competition?
WOODSON: Well, again, I expect him to play like that. I mean, he's shown that this season that he can produce numbers like that, and so he was kind of harsh on him more than anybody coming out of the Penn State game because he had five rebounds, and that can't happen, being a 6'9", 6'10" kid like himself and that's very athletic. He's got to rebound the ball. We know he can score. We get him enough touches, so I'm not concerned in that area, but he defended the rim tonight with five, six blocks. That's who he's got to be.
Q. You've discussed the last two weeks the importance of protecting home court. I'm curious about your thoughts on maybe how it impacted the game in the second half down the stretch and even the crowd a little bit in that game.
WOODSON: Crowd the fabulous. I mean, hell, the crowd is who they are, man. Hoosier Nation has always been great here in Assembly Hall, and they travel well when we're on the road. I mean, guys, when I look at games like this, man, it's just -- you've got to beat good teams and you've got to win at home if you're going to give yourself a shot at the Big Ten. Michigan State is sitting at the top. There are a lot of good teams at the top right now, but we've just got to take it one game at a time. Minnesota is next. We've got to go back and start preparing for them after we break this tape down tonight.
Q. Trayce talked about just watching Trey Galloway and his preparation when he wasn't on the court and lifting weights and running on the treadmill. What in terms of that have you seen from him in terms of the time that he was out and preparing to come back?
WOODSON: Well, he did all the endurance things that we would do. He just didn't -- and he did everything with his left hand basically. You'd never know -- he played, what, 18, 19 minutes. It was like he played 40 minutes the way he played. You never know how a guy when he's injured how he's going to respond coming back because practice is not the same as game speed. But I thought he was right in tune with what we were doing, and boy, he made a lot of great plays on both ends of the floor.
Q. To go back to Trayce, you mentioned being harsh on him after the Penn State game. One of the things he said was he liked that you were picking his game apart. What do you like about the way he responds to challenges?
WOODSON: Listen, when you consider one of the best players in the country, you've got to accept challenge. I've always believed all players want to be coached. You've just got to push the right buttons to coach them, and that might not even work sometimes, but he's a good young man. He's coachable. When I have to go at him, I go at him, and he responds. I thought tonight was a prime example of that.
Q. I know this team is not about one person, but whether it's Trayce Jackson or Trey Galloway, but when you have someone like Trey who comes in and plays like he did tonight, what does he do for some other guys on the team that may need to see that maybe?
WOODSON: Well, again, I mean, it's -- hey, I'm going to play guys that play hard. That's how you build a winning team. If I see that you're not giving me that, you've got to come sit next to me. It's just that simple. You would think some of the young guys after watching watching Gallo being out that long and coming back and producing like he did, that's got to be encouraging for these guys to pick it up some, too. But it was a total team effort. I thought Race was great tonight. We were good across the board, everybody that played.
Q. After the last game you said you wanted to set up some actions to create more looks for Parker and Miller. What did you think about the looks you got? I know they didn't knock them down, but how important is it that they start to score off the bounce, which I think they both did tonight?
WOODSON: Well, they got good looks. I mean, we didn't shoot the three ball again tonight, so we've got to go back to the gym and start shooting more, which we've been doing that, but maybe we've got to shoot a lot more, man. I don't know. I mean, I ran some plays for them tonight just to see if they could respond, and they just missed some shots. I'm going to keep pushing them and I'm going to keep going at them and going to them, and they'll eventually make them.
TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS | INDIANA FORWARD & TREY GALLOWAY | INDIANA GUARD
Q. Trayce, how much did Coach Woodson's little criticism of you after Sunday factor into how hard you played tonight, and two, if you could comment on the guy next to you as to what he gave you guys tonight.
JACKSON-DAVIS: So basically he told me I needed to rebound harder, but I didn't think I just needed to rebound harder, I needed to play harder all across the board. He's not going to go out and call me out about every aspect of my game. But I got the message, and it was loud and clear. Me and him have that relationship. He can call me out in front of whoever he wants, but I'm going to prove him wrong and I'm going to bring it the next game.
Q. Trey, this is your first game action since November 17th. I know you've been practicing for a couple weeks, but surprised to make the impact that you did? Were you feeling good in practice? What was it like to be able to come out in your first game after that layoff and perform the way you did?
GALLOWAY: Yeah, I just think it was just the preparation, just that time off, just trying to stay ready. I knew I wanted to keep supporting my teammates because they're going to pick me up when I got back, and I came back in and worked hard through a couple weeks. I think that's really what helped me out was just trying to stay ready for my teammates because I knew I got their backs and they got mine. So just try to stay ready for them
Q. Trayce, you end up with 27 & 12, outplayed EJ Liddell; how important was it to you to play this well and why do you think you respond well to challenges like this?
JACKSON-DAVIS: Obviously it's bigger than just me. It was about our team, and I knew that coming off that Penn State game that we needed one and we needed one bad. It was just the preparation this week. I thought we had a great week of practice coming off that game, and we had a little sit-down as a team, we figured some things out, and we were locked in from the start to finished. We played harder than them tonight, and I think showed.
Q. Trayce, I missed the beginning of your first answer asking about how Coach Woodson challenged you, but you talked when you came back about how he pointed things out in your game that you didn't want to hear. Was there anything in particular he showed you from Sunday that you looked at and said, I've got to get better and that's got to change and that you think you did today?
JACKSON-DAVIS: Obviously I think rebounding. That was a big thing. Rebounding and sprinting the floor. I think that was another big thing. So I sprinted the floor really hard tonight. I thought I got easy looks just from that, and we were pushing the pace. So I thought that wear and tear on their bigs. They kept throwing guys at me, but I thought I was just out-hustling them.
Q. Trey, from the time you were injured against St. John's, what has the recovery process been in terms of after surgery and just trying to get your body as ready as you can and keep developing that?
GALLOWAY: Yeah, I think the one thing was just conditioning. Our strength coach really pushed me this past month, month and a week and stuff, just pushing me to stay in shape because I knew my time was going to come soon eventually. I think that was the main thing was just to stay ready and keep my body conditioned so I could be ready right when I got back, and I think the other thing is just give glory to God because it was supposed to be about eight weeks, but the time was cut shorter, so I think just glory to God, bringing me back earlier than I was supposed to be.
Q. Trayce, I want to hear from you on what Trey did for this team today. It's almost like he was the spark you guys have been waiting for the last 10 weeks.
JACKSON-DAVIS: Yeah, so basically a few weeks ago they asked me how Trey was doing, and I told them that he's going to come back even better than what he was at the time. He's been working really, really hard with our strength coach. I've seen him running on the treadmill and weights, doing stuff every day to make sure that he stayed ready, and all that preparation that he did just showed tonight. He's a great player and he adds that much-needed spark coming off the bench, and he just gives us so much lift when he comes in.
Q. Trayce, Joey Brunk was pretty emotional out there in the first half, got a couple of nice buckets early. What was your reaction to that specifically and just facing an old friend tonight?
JACKSON-DAVIS: Obviously Joey is my brother. He'll always be my brother. He's also a great player, and he's in a great situation. But on the court, there's no friends, and he thinks the same way, but off the court I'm going to text him after the game and apologize for what I did because I didn't mean to hit him there. But at the same time it's basketball; things happen. That's my brother, and he played well, but we needed a W and we got it.
Q. You guys held Ohio State to 31 percent shooting, no points for five minutes there at the end. That's one of the better offensive teams in the country. What was working for you guys defensively tonight?
JACKSON-DAVIS: I just think that it's Woodson's philosophy, honestly. I don't think defense has really been our problem this year. It's just been movement and cutting and that's what we did tonight, so offensively we had it all going, and defensively we just stuck with our game plan. We listen to what Coach Woodson says, and with that being said, I think it's worked most of the time.
GALLOWAY: I think just what he said, touching off that, just us being able to talk, five guys as one on the court.
CHRIS HOLTMANN | OHIO STATE HEAD COACH
Opening Statement…
HOLTMANN: Give Indiana credit. I thought they played well. We obviously must do some things a lot better, but I want to give them credit.
Q. On how Indiana's defense looked in person…
HOLTMANN: I thought it was really good. We obviously must figure out a better plan, better attack. We've got to do some things better but give them a lot of credit. I thought their defense was as good as we thought it was going to be.
Q. On how the players got frustrated by the Indiana defense…
HOLTMANN: We've had that in other games. I just think having Trayce (Jackson-Davis) on the back line really presents a lot of problems. His ability to play on the back line and do some things. But, all in all we missed some open shots too, but give their defense credit.
Indiana vs. Ohio State
Jan. 6, 2022
MIKE WOODSON | INDIANA HEAD COACH
Q. Can you talk a little bit about coming off the loss to Penn State and just the energy portrayed by your team tonight out there?
WOODSON: Well, I mean, it was a total team effort. When we left Penn State, we knew that was a game that was a very winnable game. I couldn't get them over the hump, and we came back and had a couple days to prepare for Ohio State. They were a little down when we first got back. It was kind of grabbing and fighting and pushing to get on the -- erase that loss and get ready for Ohio State, but we were able to rebound from it, man, and I thought this is probably the best game we've played all season in terms of how we defended and how the ball moved offensively. We did a lot of good things on both sides of the ball tonight, which was really nice to see.
Q. Guy taking two months off and coming and playing like that, that's really unusual. What is it about Trey? What did he do to make him make such a big impact right off the bat?
WOODSON: Again, before he got hurt he was in the rotation, guys. He's been in the rotations since the Bahamas. We knew that was a piece that was missing, but again, my thing has always been next man up, and we patiently waited for him to rehab to get back and he responded tonight, which was kind of nice to see.
Q. Your thoughts on the way Trayce played, 27 & 12 and completely outplays EJ Liddell. What did you think of the way Trey played in this game against that level of competition?
WOODSON: Well, again, I expect him to play like that. I mean, he's shown that this season that he can produce numbers like that, and so he was kind of harsh on him more than anybody coming out of the Penn State game because he had five rebounds, and that can't happen, being a 6'9", 6'10" kid like himself and that's very athletic. He's got to rebound the ball. We know he can score. We get him enough touches, so I'm not concerned in that area, but he defended the rim tonight with five, six blocks. That's who he's got to be.
Q. You've discussed the last two weeks the importance of protecting home court. I'm curious about your thoughts on maybe how it impacted the game in the second half down the stretch and even the crowd a little bit in that game.
WOODSON: Crowd the fabulous. I mean, hell, the crowd is who they are, man. Hoosier Nation has always been great here in Assembly Hall, and they travel well when we're on the road. I mean, guys, when I look at games like this, man, it's just -- you've got to beat good teams and you've got to win at home if you're going to give yourself a shot at the Big Ten. Michigan State is sitting at the top. There are a lot of good teams at the top right now, but we've just got to take it one game at a time. Minnesota is next. We've got to go back and start preparing for them after we break this tape down tonight.
Q. Trayce talked about just watching Trey Galloway and his preparation when he wasn't on the court and lifting weights and running on the treadmill. What in terms of that have you seen from him in terms of the time that he was out and preparing to come back?
WOODSON: Well, he did all the endurance things that we would do. He just didn't -- and he did everything with his left hand basically. You'd never know -- he played, what, 18, 19 minutes. It was like he played 40 minutes the way he played. You never know how a guy when he's injured how he's going to respond coming back because practice is not the same as game speed. But I thought he was right in tune with what we were doing, and boy, he made a lot of great plays on both ends of the floor.
Q. To go back to Trayce, you mentioned being harsh on him after the Penn State game. One of the things he said was he liked that you were picking his game apart. What do you like about the way he responds to challenges?
WOODSON: Listen, when you consider one of the best players in the country, you've got to accept challenge. I've always believed all players want to be coached. You've just got to push the right buttons to coach them, and that might not even work sometimes, but he's a good young man. He's coachable. When I have to go at him, I go at him, and he responds. I thought tonight was a prime example of that.
Q. I know this team is not about one person, but whether it's Trayce Jackson or Trey Galloway, but when you have someone like Trey who comes in and plays like he did tonight, what does he do for some other guys on the team that may need to see that maybe?
WOODSON: Well, again, I mean, it's -- hey, I'm going to play guys that play hard. That's how you build a winning team. If I see that you're not giving me that, you've got to come sit next to me. It's just that simple. You would think some of the young guys after watching watching Gallo being out that long and coming back and producing like he did, that's got to be encouraging for these guys to pick it up some, too. But it was a total team effort. I thought Race was great tonight. We were good across the board, everybody that played.
Q. After the last game you said you wanted to set up some actions to create more looks for Parker and Miller. What did you think about the looks you got? I know they didn't knock them down, but how important is it that they start to score off the bounce, which I think they both did tonight?
WOODSON: Well, they got good looks. I mean, we didn't shoot the three ball again tonight, so we've got to go back to the gym and start shooting more, which we've been doing that, but maybe we've got to shoot a lot more, man. I don't know. I mean, I ran some plays for them tonight just to see if they could respond, and they just missed some shots. I'm going to keep pushing them and I'm going to keep going at them and going to them, and they'll eventually make them.
TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS | INDIANA FORWARD & TREY GALLOWAY | INDIANA GUARD
Q. Trayce, how much did Coach Woodson's little criticism of you after Sunday factor into how hard you played tonight, and two, if you could comment on the guy next to you as to what he gave you guys tonight.
JACKSON-DAVIS: So basically he told me I needed to rebound harder, but I didn't think I just needed to rebound harder, I needed to play harder all across the board. He's not going to go out and call me out about every aspect of my game. But I got the message, and it was loud and clear. Me and him have that relationship. He can call me out in front of whoever he wants, but I'm going to prove him wrong and I'm going to bring it the next game.
Q. Trey, this is your first game action since November 17th. I know you've been practicing for a couple weeks, but surprised to make the impact that you did? Were you feeling good in practice? What was it like to be able to come out in your first game after that layoff and perform the way you did?
GALLOWAY: Yeah, I just think it was just the preparation, just that time off, just trying to stay ready. I knew I wanted to keep supporting my teammates because they're going to pick me up when I got back, and I came back in and worked hard through a couple weeks. I think that's really what helped me out was just trying to stay ready for my teammates because I knew I got their backs and they got mine. So just try to stay ready for them
Q. Trayce, you end up with 27 & 12, outplayed EJ Liddell; how important was it to you to play this well and why do you think you respond well to challenges like this?
JACKSON-DAVIS: Obviously it's bigger than just me. It was about our team, and I knew that coming off that Penn State game that we needed one and we needed one bad. It was just the preparation this week. I thought we had a great week of practice coming off that game, and we had a little sit-down as a team, we figured some things out, and we were locked in from the start to finished. We played harder than them tonight, and I think showed.
Q. Trayce, I missed the beginning of your first answer asking about how Coach Woodson challenged you, but you talked when you came back about how he pointed things out in your game that you didn't want to hear. Was there anything in particular he showed you from Sunday that you looked at and said, I've got to get better and that's got to change and that you think you did today?
JACKSON-DAVIS: Obviously I think rebounding. That was a big thing. Rebounding and sprinting the floor. I think that was another big thing. So I sprinted the floor really hard tonight. I thought I got easy looks just from that, and we were pushing the pace. So I thought that wear and tear on their bigs. They kept throwing guys at me, but I thought I was just out-hustling them.
Q. Trey, from the time you were injured against St. John's, what has the recovery process been in terms of after surgery and just trying to get your body as ready as you can and keep developing that?
GALLOWAY: Yeah, I think the one thing was just conditioning. Our strength coach really pushed me this past month, month and a week and stuff, just pushing me to stay in shape because I knew my time was going to come soon eventually. I think that was the main thing was just to stay ready and keep my body conditioned so I could be ready right when I got back, and I think the other thing is just give glory to God because it was supposed to be about eight weeks, but the time was cut shorter, so I think just glory to God, bringing me back earlier than I was supposed to be.
Q. Trayce, I want to hear from you on what Trey did for this team today. It's almost like he was the spark you guys have been waiting for the last 10 weeks.
JACKSON-DAVIS: Yeah, so basically a few weeks ago they asked me how Trey was doing, and I told them that he's going to come back even better than what he was at the time. He's been working really, really hard with our strength coach. I've seen him running on the treadmill and weights, doing stuff every day to make sure that he stayed ready, and all that preparation that he did just showed tonight. He's a great player and he adds that much-needed spark coming off the bench, and he just gives us so much lift when he comes in.
Q. Trayce, Joey Brunk was pretty emotional out there in the first half, got a couple of nice buckets early. What was your reaction to that specifically and just facing an old friend tonight?
JACKSON-DAVIS: Obviously Joey is my brother. He'll always be my brother. He's also a great player, and he's in a great situation. But on the court, there's no friends, and he thinks the same way, but off the court I'm going to text him after the game and apologize for what I did because I didn't mean to hit him there. But at the same time it's basketball; things happen. That's my brother, and he played well, but we needed a W and we got it.
Q. You guys held Ohio State to 31 percent shooting, no points for five minutes there at the end. That's one of the better offensive teams in the country. What was working for you guys defensively tonight?
JACKSON-DAVIS: I just think that it's Woodson's philosophy, honestly. I don't think defense has really been our problem this year. It's just been movement and cutting and that's what we did tonight, so offensively we had it all going, and defensively we just stuck with our game plan. We listen to what Coach Woodson says, and with that being said, I think it's worked most of the time.
GALLOWAY: I think just what he said, touching off that, just us being able to talk, five guys as one on the court.
CHRIS HOLTMANN | OHIO STATE HEAD COACH
Opening Statement…
HOLTMANN: Give Indiana credit. I thought they played well. We obviously must do some things a lot better, but I want to give them credit.
Q. On how Indiana's defense looked in person…
HOLTMANN: I thought it was really good. We obviously must figure out a better plan, better attack. We've got to do some things better but give them a lot of credit. I thought their defense was as good as we thought it was going to be.
Q. On how the players got frustrated by the Indiana defense…
HOLTMANN: We've had that in other games. I just think having Trayce (Jackson-Davis) on the back line really presents a lot of problems. His ability to play on the back line and do some things. But, all in all we missed some open shots too, but give their defense credit.
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