BLOOMINGTON, Indiana — Trayce Jackson-Davis had 31 points and 15 rebounds in Indiana’s 82-69 win over Michigan State on Sunday, and Tamar Bates and Trey Galloway added 17 each. It was the third straight win for Indiana, who is now down to 4-4 in the Big Ten and 13-6 overall.
The three met with the media after the game. Here is the transcript of their press conference:
ASK: “Trayce, you knew Michigan State would play you differently than they did last week. You still have yours, but these two guys (Tamar Bates and Trey Galloway) made it big today. Talk about them contributing so much, not just three, but drives and everything else.”
TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS: “It just opens the ground early. I missed a couple of hares early on and they were seated but we were moving the ball around and they were hitting shots. In the second half. First. I feel like there isn’t a person in the whole country who can honestly protect me. So that’s how it is when we take shots and everything clicks. We are a great team and hard to beat.”
Q “You guys had lost three in a row and there was some murmuring and people were questioning this team. They’ve now beaten Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan State by an average of 15 points. What has changed?”
JACKSON-DAVIS: “I think we finally settled into the new unit we were in. We only play for each other and that’s the biggest thing for us. Like I said about (Jordan Geronimo) he didn’t have a great game today but Malik (Reneau) came in and strengthened. We have to do that. The guys are starting to strengthen. Race (Thompson) came back, so that’s good. We’re going to try to bring him in and hopefully with (Xavier Johnson) coming back here soon we just have to keep going and the lads have to keep moving up.”
Q “Trey, we saw you do some primary ballhandler stuff last season when the guys were injured or out or whatever. The manager said he challenged you both this summer to improve your ability to put the ball on the ground and get the team on offense and you got a lot of that today.
TREY GALLOWAY: “Just running that second session helped me prepare for the season. It was really tough against Jalen and Xavier in the fall. They made me a lot better at handling the ball and practicing against each other and having that experience in training really helped and it showed today.
Q “Tamar, did you see what Leilani did at halftime?”
TAMAR BATES: “I saw that she got the dub. The comeback win, and really because she was ready to be picked up. I saw that she was crying the whole time, but we’ll make it, the first competition ever. She is undefeated.”
Q “My real question is, when you got into this game, Michigan State played a lot of three-guard lineups. Were you prepared to have a supporting role in this game because of that?”
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BATES: ”No doubt. And the way Trayce is playing, we knew we had to stay ready, whether it was to be able to shoot or drive, but more so to be ready on defense because we knew they were playing three guards. Our three guardians had to be able to make amends for whatever they brought on either end of the floor. We were all definitely ready to go.”
Q “Tamar, what’s it like playing against such a well-trained Tom Izzo team in an extremely competitive atmosphere?
BATES: “It’s literally what we’re doing it for, all the work that we’ve done as individuals and as a team to this point. That’s why you play college basketball. We look forward to every game, but especially when we have a really good opponent. When they come in, everyone raises their level of play.”
Q “Trey, I wanted to know your thoughts on Trayce, sort of the big picture. He ties Jeff Newton for the IU block record, consecutive 30-point games and 40 double-doubles in his career. What do we watch and when? we watch him play so well?”
GALLOWAY: “I mean it’s a good question, it’s very special. I mean, because just the improvement he’s made over the last year just took the pressure off and handled it so well, I think because we had our backs against the wall early in the big ten seasons and he stayed calm. I know he was in pain and he struggled through it and now he’s finally sort of healed. It appears. So I think he just keeps at it and I think he’s also a willing passer. She can’t, they don’t double that much. He could create so many more possibilities for himself or others. I honestly think it’s just amazing just to see him like that and I’m glad he’s on my team. ”
Q “Tamar, it seems like every Big Ten team went through the route you went through, a string of wins followed by a string of losses or vice versa. You can only control your own house, so how do you keep it? Work things out and avoid the trap that some of the other teams in the league fell into?”
BATES: “For us, it’s about staying stuck, just focusing on each opponent and then just focusing on what works. We can see from a game and watching movies what wins us those games and it all starts on defense. We just stick with our habits and control like you said what we can control. I feel like if we do what we do best, we’ll live with the results.
Q “Trey, one of the things that was talked about in the losses is the lack of fire and now you’ve won three straight and the defense has come back. Something I saw today seemed to be a lot more emotion and not just tenacity. but emotions. What was the difference between the three-game losing streak and the three-game winning streak? What has changed for you?”
GALLOWAY: “We just sort of looked at ourselves in the mirror and we knew what we had to do and it was play defense and play harder. I think to go back to what we did last year, we were really good defensively last year and we watched “some of those games and we saw some of that. But obviously it’s a new team but we had to go to ours Going back to principles and what Coach Woodson preaches and that’s defense. We didn’t do that with these losses. Now we’re finally there.” We come together and play harder defensively and it leads to more attacking as we get stops.
Q “After that three-game losing streak, was there anyone on the team that said we need to make changes and how were those conversations when you guys had to do some kind of soul searching as a team and figure things out? ”
GALLOWAY: “I mean, we all kind of got together. Nobody panicked because like I said, there was no need to panic because it’s a long Big Ten season and there are still a lot of games left. We can’t get too high and we can’t get too low. We just need to stay balanced the whole time and know we have a lot more games to play. We just have to take it one game at a time and stay focused on the task at hand.
- INDIANA BEATS MICHIGAN STATE (game history): Michigan State couldn’t find a way to protect Indiana on Sunday and it resulted in another convincing win for the Hoosiers, this time 82-69 for their third straight win. Trayce Jackson-Davis had 31 points and 15 rebounds, and Tamar Bates and Trey Galloway each added 17. It’s her longest Big Ten winning streak in four years. CLICK HERE
- WHAT WOODSON SAID: Indiana won its third straight game by double digits on Sunday, beating Michigan State 82-69. Coach Mike Woodson was thrilled with the win, which he described as an absolute team effort. Here’s the full video of his post-match press conference, plus the transcript. CLICK HERE
- FAMILY DAY FOR BATES: It was a big day for the Bates family as second warden Tamar scored 17 points and his daughter Leilani won the baby race at halftime. CLICK HERE
- PHOTO GALLERY: Here are 25 pictures from Indiana’s win over Michigan State on Sunday. It’s a great collection of images for you to enjoy. CLICK HERE
- WATCH MILLER KOPP DUNK: Indiana forward Miller Kopp beat the Michigan State defense for an easy dunk, prompting a roar from the convention hall crowd. Check out the highlights. CLICK HERE
- WATCH TREY GALLOWAY’S 3-POINTERS: Indiana’s junior guard Trey Galloway had the hot hand early on, knocking down a pair of 3-pointers to put the Hoosiers ahead. CLICK HERE
- WATCH JACKSON-DAVIS DUNK ON HAUSER: Indiana’s star forward Trayce Jackson-Davis caught a pass in transition and dunked Michigan State’s Joey Hauser. CLICK HERE
- LIVE BLOG: Relive the full play-by-play of the game straight from the press series on Tom Brew’s live blog. CLICK HERE
- THOMPSON RETURNS AGAINST MICHIGAN STATE: Sixth-year Indiana forward Race Thompson has been out since his knee injury on Jan. 5 in Iowa but returned to action Sunday against Michigan State. CLICK HERE
