INDIANA UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 6, 2024

Trey Galloway

Oumar Ballo

Postgame Media Conference

Indiana 75, Miami 57

Q. Trey, is it fair to say you're a more confident shooter now than last year?

TREY GALLOWAY: Yeah, I would say a little bit. I'm making shots right now, so it's good. Just the same work I've been doing, just continuing to be consistent with it.

But I think just trusting it and having confidence.

Q. Oumar, you had some big numbers rebounding in points tonight, but you also had six assists. Are you starting to feel more comfortable with the looks you see when you're passing the ball in this offense?

OUMAR BALLO: Yeah, for sure. Coach have a lot of trust in me to making the right play. That's why ball screen situation, the ball is in my hand a lot, to make the right read. Fortunately for us tonight the shots were falling, so happy with the result.

Q. Held Miami to a good percentage tonight. Coach Woodson said there were some breakdowns that would have hurt you more against a higher-caliber team. How close do you feel you are to developing a defensive identity?

TREY GALLOWAY: I think it's just continuing to get better. It is early. We got to learn quick. And we can't have those breakdowns. There was a lot tonight. I think it's just our attention to detail and really focusing and sticking to the game plan.

There's a lot of miscues that we had that we shouldn't have. If we clean those up, it takes away a lot of those buckets that they got.

Overall just really kind of focusing on that and making sure we clean up everything with that. It's little things, but we got to make sure we take care of that.

Q. You open Big Ten play next week. Is there enough urgency from the players? Who is leading the charge to make sure you can turn the page on those?

TREY GALLOWAY: Yeah, I mean, it's here now. The Big Ten is real. Anybody can win on any given night. You got to be prepared and practice with urgency and with a purpose.

I think that's our biggest focus, is getting back to work tomorrow and getting ready for Minnesota because that's our first game.

But we got to take it one game at a time because every team is a good opponent and you got to focus on each team.

Q. How confident are you right now and comfortable playing alongside Malik?

OUMAR BALLO: Really good. Malik is not the first big that I play with. Malik is really easy to play with 'cause whenever he get the ball to him, I know he going to try to find me or find an open guy. I feel we have a really good flow together. I'm excited to see it for the rest of the season how it going to turn out to be.

Q. Oumar, did you feel comfortable today that you could throw your weight around a little bit? Was that satisfying and fun?

OUMAR BALLO: Oh, yeah, a little bit for sure (smiling). Whenever you play against guys you got a couple of pounds on, you have to take advantage of that.

Q. Oumar, there were several stretches tonight it seemed they couldn't stop you. Can you sense that out there? When you do, does it make you more aggressive to take advantage of it?

OUMAR BALLO: Yeah, for sure. My teammates are doing a really good job trying to find me in early transition. I have to take advantage of trying to see my guy and get real easy, quick layups.

Q. (Question about points given up in last game compared to this one and if anything was said at halftime.)

TREY GALLOWAY: Yeah, I mean, nothing specific. Just more urgency just because we shouldn't go into halftime only up three. We got to find ways to fix that. Obviously we're a better team than that.

So just coming out with that sense of urgency in the second half, trying to extend the lead. I think, I mean, it's nothing specific being said. It's just, like I said, really focusing on what we need to do to make sure we can stop them.