INDIANA UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 6, 2022

Mike Woodson

Postgame Media Conference

Indiana 67, Ohio State 51

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?

MIKE 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?

MIKE 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?

MIKE 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.

MIKE 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?

MIKE 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?

MIKE 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?

MIKE 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?

MIKE 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.