Trey Galloway Didn't Expect Much Playing Time, Now He's a Starter for Indiana

Trey Galloway admits he didn't expect to play much his freshman season, but now he's being inserted into a starting role in Big Ten play.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The realization hit Trey Galloway early. College basketball is much more difficult than it seems.

Coming to Bloomington from Culver Academy, Galloway had to hit the adjust button real fast when transitioning from high school to college. The players are stronger, faster and ultimately better.

He admits that he didn't expect much playing time from the start, but his mindset was to come in and work as hard as he can in practice.

"I was going to work hard no matter what, whether I got playing time or I didn't," Galloway said Tuesday.

In seven of Indiana's first eight games, Galloway was always the first guy off the bench for the Hoosiers. Against Stanford, Galloway started in place of an injured Al Durham.

Durham came back the next game, and Galloway went back to his role off the bench. But just last Saturday at Illinois, Archie Miller made the decision to move Galloway into the starting lineup for Rob Phinisee — a move that may be more permanent as Big Ten play rolls on.

"He's gotten other guys shots," Miller said on Galloway during his radio show Monday night. "A lot of Armaan's success is off of Trey's success breaking guys down and kicking out. He will take it right into the fire. He's not afraid."

Galloway attributes growing up with his dad as a coach as a reason why he has been so ready to play college this early in his career.

"He's been able to teach me a lot of things that have helped me translate into the college game," Galloway said. "We've just been around the game so much, and I've been around him coaching all my life."

Galloway is currently third among Big Ten freshmen averaging 22.8 minutes per game.

Even though he is the top contributor among the Hoosiers' four freshmen this season, he believes the other three are going to have their moments as well. Galloway stresses that no one is frustrated right now in terms of playing time, and they're all working to get better.

"We're all going to struggle, especially as freshmen," Galloway said. "But, we know that if we stick together and we pick each other up, we're definitely gonna be all right, and we know we can be something special if we all stick together."

Galloway has been the perfect example of showing what happens when you commit on defense and move the ball on offense. His ability to do the dirty work has earned him so much playing time already this season.

As for the other three, Miller said during his radio show that he wants to give more minutes to Anthony Leal, Khristian Lander and Jordan Geronimo.

Right now, Indiana needs contributions from anyone it can get. The Hoosiers are hosting Penn State on Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m. ET. 

Both teams are seeking their first wins in conference play at 0-2.

"We've really been focused in on locking in and taking it one day at a time," Galloway said. "We know we've had a couple tough losses back-to-back, and we're just really focused on Penn State and doing what we got to do to try to win that game."

Related Stories:

• HOW TO WATCH INDIANA-PENN STATE: For all the information on how to watch Indiana's game with Penn State, CLICK HERE
• WHAT ARCHIE MILLER SAID ON HIS RADIO SHOW: Archie Miller recapped Indiana's two losses and previewed Penn State on his radio show Monday. CLICK HERE
• BIG TEN POWER RANKINGS: For Tom Brew's most recent Big Ten basketball power rankings, CLICK HERE