Galloway Ready for Heavy Down-the-Stretch Workload

Wednesday, February 26

Bloomington, Ind.

8:30 p.m.

Indiana University

Penn State

Galloway Ready for Heavy Down-the-Stretch Workload

2/26/2025 12:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Play 20 minutes. Thirty minutes. Forty or more if necessary. Trey Galloway is fine with any of it. The Indiana senior guard is healthy and fit -- last off-season's knee injury and rehab now in his rearview mirror -- and ready to do whatever is necessary to win and have a postseason to remember.

"Just keeping my body ready and knowing that I've got to be prepared to play when Coach (Mike Woodson) needs me to play, whatever minutes he needs me to play," he says.

During Sunday's 73-58 rivalry victory over top-20 Purdue, that meant 38 minutes, including all 20 in the second half. Galloway totaled 15 points and nine assists as a catalyst for the Hoosiers' dominating 48-21 closing run.

Galloway has a team-leading 114 assists this season to go with the 143 he had last season. He's the first Hoosier to have consecutive 100-plus-assist seasons since Yogi Ferrell did it four straight years from 2012-16. Current Team and Recruiting Coordinator Jordan Hulls had two straight in 2011-12.

Galloway has 398 career assists over seasons along with 949 points, 325 rebounds, and 105 steals.

"Gallo is a steady force," assistant coach Yasir Rosemond told Voice of the Hoosiers Don Fischer during Monday night's weekly radio show. "He played point guard in high school. He's played point guard for us. He understands the game. Everybody loves to play with Trey because he's a guy who will pass the ball."

Sunday's victory was a huge boost to its NCAA tourney-making prospects. It is 16-11 overall, 7-9 in the Big Ten. Next up is Wednesday night's home game against Penn State (15-13, 5-12) followed by a West Coast trip to Washington (13-14, 4-12) and Oregon (20-8, 9-8) before ending the regular season at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall against Ohio State (15-13, 7-10).

The Big Ten tourney runs March 12-16 at Indianapolis' Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

"We have to continue to get better every day and keep building good habits for us to be successful," Galloway says.

The key, Rosemond told Fischer, is "just playing hard."

"Fans obviously want to win, but they want to see some effort out there."

Woodson stepping down after the season is a motivator, Galloway adds, but not the only one.

"We're all playing for each other because we're all in it together," he says. "Obviously, this is Coach's last year, and we want to make it special for him. We want to make it special for everyone."

Woodson and his staff used transfer portal success to try to build a championship team. While a regular season Big Ten title is no longer possible, the conference tourney championship, with its automatic NCAA tourney bid, is still in play.

"This team was assembled for a reason," Galloway says. "We have a chance to keep competing down the stretch, win games and put ourselves in the right position. It's a collective unit and it's all together, and we're trying to do it for each other, including Coach and the rest of the coaching staff and all the players, and everybody."

Against Purdue, Woodson shook up the starting lineup with center Oumar Ballo and swingman Mackenzie Mgbako coming off the bench and forwards Malik Reneau and Luke Goode starting. Ballo played 23 minutes and totaled 12 points, five rebounds, and one block. Mgbako played just nine minutes.

Besides Galloway, also playing more than 30 minutes were Goode (33) and guards Anthony Leal (35) and Myles Rice (31). Only eight Hoosiers played, just six in the second half.

"In the long run, we can't play those guys those many minutes," Woodson says. "The rest of the way, we're still going to need guys to contribute off the bench. I'm not throwing in the towel on any of our players. I'm a big believer in guys. When you get in the game, you make the most of it and put us in the best position possible to win.

"It was seniors (Galloway, Leal, Goode) that carried us. I refused to change up anything much throughout the course of the second half. (The other players) will be back in there and Mac will get an opportunity to possibly be back in there, as well."

Reneau continues his dominating play after missing five games with a knee injury. In the last four games, he's averaged 16.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 3.3 assists while shooting 57.4% from the field. Against Purdue, he had 15 points on 7-for-7 shooting, plus six rebounds, four assists, and one steal.

"He was great," Galloway says. "Just him being patient. He knows he demands a double team because of how good and how skilled he is. By opening things up for himself and making the right reads out of the double, and he did that all (game). We knew by watching film and prepping all week that he was going to get a double.

"Nobody can guard him one-on-one. Just having that mindset of the willingness to pass shows the kind of teammate he is, and it's pretty special to see that. It's going to continue to happen. For us to continue to win, he's got to continue to do that for us and be big all the rest of the year. "

IU's offensive execution has soared over the last four games. It has averaged just 7.8 turnovers in that stretch. Its four straight games with less than 10 turnovers are the best by the Hoosiers since at least the 1997-98 season.

Leal contributed to that against Purdue with four assists, no turnovers, and eight points on 3-for-4 shooting. He also had three steals.

"You expect that," Woodson says. "Anthony has been around me awhile. He's gone through a lot with me.

"We didn't play him a whole lot (early in the season), but he never quit working. That's a testament to him in terms of how he approaches the game and now he's getting an opportunity to play and he's making the most of it. You expect that from seniors. I wouldn't expect anything less."

Rice defended Purdue's Branden Smith, one of the Big Ten's best point guards, into irrelevance with eight points, five assists, and six turnovers.

Rosemond told Fischer that Rice "probably played the best defensive game that he's played since he's been here."

Penn State has won two straight games but is 1-7 on the road. IU won the first meeting last month in Philadelphia, 77-72, behind Ballo's 25 points and 13 rebounds, and Mgbako's 20 points.

The Nittany Lions are led by guard Ace Baldwin Jr. (13.7 points), center Yanic Konan Niederhauser (12.9 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.2 blocks), and guard Nick Kern Jr. (7.6 points, 5.1 assists).

Rosemond told Fischer that the Hoosiers "have to come out with an edge" because "we still have goals of making the NCAA Tournament."