INDIANA UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 6, 2022

Trayce Jackson-Davis

Trey Galloway

Postgame Media Conference

Indiana 67, Ohio State 51

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.

TRAYCE 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?

TREY 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?

TRAYCE 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?

TRAYCE 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?

TREY 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.

TRAYCE 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?

TRAYCE 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?

TRAYCE 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.

TREY GALLOWAY: I think just what he said, touching off that, just us being able to talk, five guys as one on the court.