Player Q&A: Kel’el Ware and Trey Galloway react to Indiana basketball’s 65-53 win against Maryland

Q. Trey, six rebounds tonight, Coach Woodson said the wings played a big part in winning the rebound battle tonight. Has that improvement, especially from the perimeter guys, come from drills, film, focus? Where does that come from the last few games?

TREY GALLOWAY: Yeah, I think just a little bit of everything. I mean, early in the season, we were getting killed on the offensive glass in every aspect. We wanted to clean that up and make sure we’re finding guys and boxing out, and also getting the offensive glass. I think we have got a good amount of those tonight. We’ve got guys that are athletic enough to go get rebounds. We just have to stick our head in there and go get them, and we did a good job of that.

Q. Kel’el, you guys in your first three home games struggled to get the wins but you got them. How important was it tonight to come out and just get off to that good, quick start and just hitting on all cylinders early?

KEL’EL WARE: I felt like it was good us as a team to get that start early, just to show the team that we came here to play today and just complete the mission to win the game.

Q. Kel’el, what did it mean to you, I think the first time you caught the ball they sent three defenders at you, hard, but the team kind of responded to that physical challenge that Maryland posed early and imposed your own will on that. What did that mean to you to be able to do that in this game?

KEL’EL WARE: Now that I know that I can do that, even if they keep sending people at me, I can find the open guys and get them open shots, like I said, yeah.

Q. For both you guys, this is the first game that you out-shot your opponent from behind the arc in both halves, actually. You limited them to one of nine in the first half, and one of, I think, seven in the second half. Was that something you guys consciously did that changed to affect the perimeter defense?

TREY GALLOWAY: I think with such two post presents out there like Kel’el and Malik down there teams are going to start doubling now. So we know and we’ve got to be ready to knock it down and it comes out of the post and just shoot it with confidence.

So I think just it’s going to keep happening and they are going to keep coming. So we’ve got to be ready to shoot it.

Q. The way they got the schedule set now, this wasn’t always like this. Do you guys like having two Big Ten games during the December part of the schedule, and then waiting to play the rest of them in January?

TREY GALLOWAY: It’s a little different. I mean, but I think it’s good, just to get a feel what the Big Ten is like. It’s physical every night. You’ve got to be ready to go out there and compete. So I think getting a little taste of it is good, and then refocusing back in January is good.

KEL’EL WARE: Well, this is my first year in the Big Ten, so I don’t really know too much but just going off what Trey said, like I said, we can get a feel of what the Big Ten is like right now and then play other games and then get back to the Big Ten, we’re going to already be prepared.

Q. You’ve gotten off so some slow starts this year but came out strong both halves. Was that a point of emphasis or did it just turn out that way?

TREY GALLOWAY: Yeah, I think any time you’re at home or on the road, you want to get off to a good start to kind of set the tone. And it just wasn’t offensively; it was defensively, too. We were able to go out there and with high intensity and we knew our coverages, and we executed well early and often, so it was good.

Q. With X out, what was the staff’s message to you in terms of what you needed to do and bring to this game, especially with your Jahmir Young matchup?

TREY GALLOWAY: We’ve got two freshmen starting, so we’ve got to kind of pull those guys along. It starts with me being the most experienced guy, so I’ve got to do a great job and do better in practice and come — leading into games, to help lead and we get into game time just be ready to go and play hard.

But I mean, obviously Jahmir Young is a good player and he’s quick and he can really score. But it’s all five of us guarding collectively.

Q. Obviously a lot of your game is predicated on the guards being able to get the ball to you down low. Kind of what did you see from Trey and then both from Gabe in the backcourt tonight?

KEL’EL WARE: I would say they were more active tonight. Even when they were sending guys, trapping me, they were cutting just attacking the basket, leaving other teammates open, and I feel like, yeah, we just keep doing that, we’re going to be good.

Q. With X out, all four of the regular starters were in double figures. Do you feel like it adds something extra to your game when it’s balanced out the way it was today?

TREY GALLOWAY: I think so, because we’ve got a lot of guys that can score. They are going to take certain things away front of us and we’ve got to be ready to go to all our other options.

The main thing is we’re not really worried about who is scoring. We want to get the win. I think all five guys knowing, whatever it takes to get the win, and the bench, it’s going to play a big role in us and the rest of the season.