BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – It’s a moment forever memorialized on video, perhaps the biggest shot of Trey Galloway’s five-year Indiana career, perhaps the shot that clinched a Hoosier NCAA tourney-bid in Mike Woodson’s final coaching season.
Crunch time had arrived last Saturday against Ohio State at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and IU was scrambling back from a 10-point deficit. Shot-clock-time confusion and tight Ohio State defense had created peril. Galloway had the ball on the perimeter with Buckeye guard Bruce Thornton in his sights and the shot clock ticking under five seconds, the game clock under a minute.
Galloway cut right, cut left, cut right, then pulled up for a 30-footer, Thornton’s right hand in his face. The high-arching shot splashed through the net. Moments later, the 66-60 victory was secured and with it, perhaps, a NCAA tourney at-large bid.
“I trusted my shot,” he says, “and it went in.”
Shots have gone in enough for Galloway to have scored 1,005 career points as IU prepares for this week’s Big Ten tourney at Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse. He’s the 56th Hoosier to reach 1,000. He’s also totaled 424 assists and 254 rebounds. He has 39 games with at least five assists, including the six he had on Saturday.
“He continues to work, do what he does well and just be super reliable,” fellow fifth-year senior guard Anthony Leal says. “That’s been big, not just this year, but in previous years.”
Galloway’s high-energy style keeps observers on the edge of their seats, and if it isn’t always flawless, it does come from the heart. Galloway cares deeply, and it shows.
“The thing you can remember about Trey,” says coach Mike Woodson when asked about Galloway’s legacy, “is that he plays hard. He competes. You would be fooling yourself if you think anything else.
“That’s all I’ve never known him as. I nicknamed him ‘Crazy Man’ when I first started coaching him because he was all over the place. You didn’t know what you were going to get from him, but he competed. That’s all he’s ever done.”
Galloway has become a master at executing the pick-and-roll, especially with center Oumar Ballo. It comes from lots of hard work and hard coaching, IU director of player development Calbert Cheaney told Voice of the Hoosiers Don Fischer during Monday night’s radio show.
“It was like pulling teeth trying to get (Galloway) to understand how to run the pick-and-roll,” Cheaney told Fischer.
Galloway gets it now. He averages 8.5 points and 4.5 assists, but in the last five games, all crucial to IU’s postseason prospects, it’s 14.2 points and 7.0 assists.
Cheaney told Fischer that, “I can’t say enough about Gallo and what he’s done. He’s going to be one of the top Hoosiers in the history of Indiana basketball.”
Galloway’s early season inconsistency as he battled back from last spring’s knee surgery generated occasional home-crowd boos, which sometimes happens when dealing with a passionate fan base. Galloway got invaluable insight from his father, Mark, a long-time successful high school coach in Indiana, on how to deal with it.
“My dad’s always telling me, if you listen to the crowd, you’re going to be sitting with them. That really hit home. You can’t worry about what’s going on in the outside.
“All I care about is what’s in the locker room with me. It’s trusting that my teammates trust me to make plays. No matter what’s said, or what’s going on, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is my teammates and trying to help them be better and help myself get better.”
The booing, Woodson adds, wasn’t right.
“That kid competes. He gives his heart. I have nothing but respect and love for Galloway.”
Galloway’s teammates have his back.
“He knows I’m here supporting him through the highs and the lows,” Leal says, “and we’ve had a lot of highs and a lot of lows through our careers.
“It’s a culmination of all the work he’s putting in. I’m proud of him. I know he’s going to do really good things coming down the stretch.”
Now comes the Big Ten tourney. The ninth-seeded Hoosiers IU (19-12 overall, 10-10 in the Big Ten) face eighth-seed Oregon (23-8, 12-8). The teams met at Oregon last week, with the Ducks scoring the game’s final 10 points for a 73-64 victory.
A Thursday win would put the Hoosiers against Big Ten champ Michigan State (26-5, 17-3) in Friday afternoon’s quarterfinals. The Spartans have won seven straight games since IU beat them at the Breslin Center, their only home loss of the season.
Oregon also has won seven straight games. Its coach, Dana Altman, has won 75 games in the month of March since taking over the program in 2010. That’s more than traditional powerhouses North Carolina (72), Kansas (71), Kentucky (70), and Duke (68).
Cheaney told Fischer the keys are rebounding and shooting. IU allowed 15 offensive rebounds against Oregon that were converted into 23 second-chance points.
The Hoosiers have never won a Big Ten tourney title and have made the finals only once — in 2001 when they lost to Iowa. They have made the semifinals only five other times, including 2022 and ’23.
But IU has found its winning edge after a 1-7 stretch, with victories in five of its last seven games, and three of its last four, to return to NCAA tourney consideration.
“The seasons are always so long,” Galloway says. “There are times where things look worse and look like everything is not going your way, and times where you feel like you’re on top of the world.
“Good teams are able to balance that and stay even keel. We’ve done a great job of that recently to be able to bounce back from big wins and big losses. We weren’t doing that early in the season. Now, we’re starting to figure that out. We’re winning games.
“We’ve just got to stick to that. We’re not done yet.”
IU has thrived recently with physical perimeter defense. Galloway and fellow guards Leal and Myles Rice forced Purdue’s Braden Smith, one of the Big Ten’s best point guards, into a series of second-half mistakes in a Hoosier victory. They did the same thing Saturday against Ohio State guards Thornton and John Mobley Jr.
“Indiana was really physical against them,” Buckeyes coach Jake Diebler said. “They were really physical with our guards to disrupt our rhythm. They found with physicality to keep our guards from getting separation on ball screens and forced them into crowds in the paint. Their physicality on the ball was really impactful.”
The result — the Hoosiers have a chance for a March to remember. This is why Leal and Galloway returned for a final season. It’s why Fort Wayne native Luke Goode transferred from Illinois to IU for his last college shot.
“All three of us take a lot of pride in wearing this jersey and representing it the right way,” Leal says. “We know what it means growing up as kids here. We love that challenge.
“We know with us as leaders and a foundation, we are willing to overcome a lot of things if we just keep chipping away. It’s almost like a dream come true, being seniors coming down the end of the year in March. It’s the opportunity to make plays, trust each other and give it our best.”
