BLOOMINGTON — The Trey Galloway that showed up at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Saturday needs to be Every Game Galloway.
The statistics only tell part of the tale, though the stats speak volumes. Galloway had a career-high 28 points on 12-of-17 shooting. He added three rebounds.
That level of production was certainly unexpected on the Kansas sideline, and I think it’s fair to say it was a pleasant surprise in the Indiana camp, too, but the stats are not what I’m fixated on.
Those stats will come and go. Some games — perhaps, most games, Indiana won’t need that level of production from Galloway.
No, it’s not the points. It was the assertiveness. The self-assured will. The confidence to take the bull by the horns and lead the Hoosiers because Galloway is perfectly capable of doing so on an every game basis.
Most of the focus this season has been on Galloway’s shooting slump. He was 2-for-4 from long range Saturday, nearly matching his season total heading into the game, so that was a welcome development.
What I think has held Galloway back a bit is passive play. He’s always trying. He’s always been a good voice off the court, but he’s never been the guy. That was Xavier Johnson’s job. Or Jalen Hood-Schifino. Or Trayce Jackson-Davis.
Perhaps he doesn’t need to be the guy, but he needs to be a guy. Indiana sorely needs someone to attack the basket in the absence of Johnson, perhaps even when Johnson returns, too. Galloway has it in his game but not every game.
He can take a lot of pressure off Kel’El Ware and Malik Reneau, and it doesn’t have to be from behind the 3-point line.
What I also liked was Galloway is really good when he wants to be at controlling the tempo. When Indiana ran after Kansas misses, it was invariably Galloway initiating the break. Of course he can break on his own, too. He has a good sense of when to speed things up and when to calm it down.
Defensively, Galloway has almost always been a positive influence.
Every Game Galloway doesn’t have anything to do with points, though they’re nice when they come. It has everything to do with assertiveness, confidence and making himself have to be accounted for by the opposition in a way that makes everyone else better.
INDIANA PLAYER OF THE GAME
Obviously, it was Galloway with the 28-point effort as he puts himself on the board in this category for the first time this season.
Honorable mention goes to Mackenzie Mgbako. His 14 points were nice, but his team-best plus-12 on the plus-minus front was a notable positive. I only saw Mgbako get beat for a 3-point shot once.
Tally this season: Ware 6, Reneau 2, Cupps 1, Galloway 1.
OPPOSING PLAYER OF THE GAME
Tough call between Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar Jr.
McCullar led the Jayhawks with 21 points. He was just 3-of-11 from the field but marched to the free-throw line 16 times, making 13. He also had six rebounds and four assists.
Dickinson had 17 points to go with 14 rebounds. Four of Dickinson’s buckets came in the final 10:35, the period when Kansas turned the tide.
I’d give the slightest of lean to Dickinson — no doubt by popular demand for the IU faithful who rode him mercilessly one last time.
HOW WAS IU’S OFFENSE?
As mentioned above, Galloway made a huge difference. Not just with his scoring but with his ability to dictate tempo.
Mgbako was a threat, and like Galloway, found his stroke from 3-point range with a pair of 3-pointers. Indiana made six 3-pointers overall, the second game in a row the much-maligned Hoosiers’ perimeter game reached that total.
Kansas hounded Ware, and he struggled in the scoring department with 11 points on 3-of-12 shooting. Reneau was isolated against Dickinson one-on-one in the paint several times. Dickinson has several inches on Reneau, but the sophomore occasionally bullied his way to the rim for a conversion or foul.
Indiana got no bench help whatsoever. Yes, the rotation shrunk, but Anthony Walker’s three points were all the reserves provided.
HOW WAS IU’S DEFENSE?
Passable. Kansas is not a great 3-point shooting team, either, so the Jayhawks didn’t punish the Hoosiers from beyond the arc as some other opponents have, though the four makes Kansas had in the second half were killers.
Kansas shot 35.3% in the first half but 51.9% in the second. Mike Woodson lamented the drop off.
“I don’t think our defensive intensity was there the second half like we started the game and finished the first half,” Woodson said.
The bench struggled here, too. Plus-minus is used with caution, but Kaleb Banks managed a minus-16 and had four fouls in 16 minutes. None of the other Hoosiers were within nine points of his plus-minus.
WHAT ELSE?
Indiana fans fixated on the rotation got their wish Saturday. Ware played 39 minutes, Galloway for 38 and Gabe Cupps notched 37.
Among the complaints after the Auburn game was Ware and Reneau spent too much time off the floor in tandem. Obviously with Ware playing 39, that wasn’t at issue against the Jayhawks.
Some of the postgame complaints still focused on the rotation and Mgabko coming off the floor from the 10-minute to 4-minute mark in the second half when Mgbako had four fouls. That was the period Banks was on the floor.
Again, this seems like a no-win for Woodson. Keep Mgbako and he fouls out? Some fans are all over him. Take Mgbako out and save him? Some fans are all over him.
Again, haggling about rotations misses the bigger reality. As I said in this space last week and in a Twitter thread last Monday, the limitations of this roster are a straightjacket on what you’re capable of doing rotation-wise. There’s no getting around that.
CUTTING ROOM FLOOR QUOTE
“As a coach, I’m going to always have confidence in my team. We just had to go back to work. We put a good week of work in. We kind of put the Auburn game behind us because nobody wants to sit through that. As a coach and as a player, you don’t want to go through that. But we did.
“I thought we rebounded tonight. But again, we didn’t win, so we got to go back to work tomorrow and get ready for our next two games.”
— Mike Woodson on the response after the 104-76 loss to Auburn the week before.
NEXT
Indiana hosts Morehead State at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
