What Kel'el Ware, Malik Reneau Said After Indiana's 89-80 Win Over Wright State

Indiana secured an 89-80 win over Wright State on Thursday, thanks to strong performances from Kel'el Ware and Malik Reneau. Here's everything Ware and Reneau said after the game.

Jack Ankony | Nov 16, 2023

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana improved to 3-0 with an 89-80 win over Wright State on Thursday at Assembly Hall.

The Hoosiers were led by its starting front court of Kel'el Ware and Malik Reneau. Ware scored 22 points on 9-for-11 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds, and Reneau added 16 points and eight rebounds.

Q. Malik, earlier this week you were talking about how you and Kel'el's chemistry is coming along and you guys dropped the term buddy ball. For either of you, now that you're getting more games under your belt, how do you see your chemistry coming along?

RENEAU: "It's just realizing what the defense is giving us. Kel'el pointed out to me that when the double-team comes, just they got us coming down to drop down. He's not really helping down too much so you can just throw it over the top, and I finally got a glimpse of it and was able to make that pass over the top. Then the lob pass, just looking back I seen Kel'el running, so I knew my first instinct in my head was I'm not laying this ball up, this is going up top and making a highlight play. I wanted to throw it up and get the crowd hyped and stuff like that, so I made that work."

"The term buddy ball is definitely what me and Kel'el been looking at, especially on the perimeter I'm looking to get top down, not post. I'm looking for him, get some early seals, early post-ups. Get their big men in foul trouble so we can have an easier game plan there, secondary unit and stuff like that. But yeah, buddy ball is huge for us."

Q. Malik, you watched Race and Trayce last year, you fit in with those guys. When you start playing with Kel'el when he comes in in the summer and you start to learn his game and how the two of you can fit together, how does he approach that position in ways different from Race or Trayce?

RENEAU: "Kel'el is a big frame, very agile, can move, and just knowing that any step he gets on his defender, he's got a chance to raise up and get dang near to the top of the backboard. You can throw it anywhere to him. Just knowing that he's able and got great hands when he's going up to go get the basketball, catch the ball well and stuff. Just looking back at Race and Trayce, I've been seeing it the whole last year, the buddy ball system, and just when I'm in the game, looking for Trayce, too. I had a bunch of passes where I caught it high, threw the lob pass over the top to Trayce last year, too. Just keep working on that and keep trying to find my buddy."

Q. Kel'el, the fans are seeming to respond to you very strongly with the blocked shot, certain rebounds, things like that. Are you sensing that, that the reaction has been -- is it feeding you a lot? Are you noticing it?

WARE: "Yeah, all the time. I love when the fans get involved in the game because it just makes us -- not even just me but the whole team, even the bench, just the chemistry grows, the energy grows, and if we can just keep that going on and the fans just keep on cheering, I feel like we'll be great."

Q. Kel'el, do you feel like your confidence is kind of at an all time high in terms of your collegiate career? Do you feel like you're in a groove finally?

WARE: "I would say I'm more in a groove now with Coach Woodson giving me that role where he trusts me enough to just go make the play and attack the basket, score, even throw it out to my teammates and just play smart on the court. As long as I'm playing hard and just giving them that, then we should be good."

Q. You guys have gotten out-rebounded through the first three games and Wright State had 14 on the offensive glass. What would you attribute those issues to and how can you kind of turn that around ahead of the Empire Classic?

RENEAU: "Yeah, just prioritizing boxing out and our guards come in and help us because for me I'm switching 1 through 4 so half the time I'll probably be on a one man and I'm trying to contest a 40-footer and trying to get in to rebound. Just trying to contest the rebound and making sure I get back to rebound and help Kel'el out and not just expecting Kel'el to get every rebound. I think that's a big thing for us, and then just game rebounding, too, bringing the guards in to help. I think we're going to prioritize that and we know we've been getting out-rebounded. We've just got to prioritize that and make that a big issue for us."

Q. X mentioned Sunday that effort in practice maybe hadn't been where you guys wanted. Was there anything that changed throughout the last week?

RENEAU: "Yeah, Coach has got strict on us. Practice has been hard. We really got to step our focus up and practice and step our whole attitude or our approach towards practice, and then once we do that, we should be fine and ready to go."

Q. Kel'el, looking ahead, UConn is next. You played them last year. What do you remember about that matchup and how much are you looking forward to a rematch? They have some talented bigs, too.

WARE: "I'm looking forward to playing the team. They're a tough team and we're just going to have to go and compete. I'm with a new team now, they have a new team, so we just have to compete."

Q. Malik, on offense in the first half it looked like you were trying to push the pace off makes or misses. How much of a point of emphasis was that going into this game?

RENEAU: "That was huge. We're very static especially when we're trying to get in the offense so we already have set plays called. I was telling X, if I get the inbounds we've got to push the pace. Passes up the court, even the swing pass to me and then starting the offense or initiating some type of movement so we can get the basketball moved side to side and then get into our initial thrust, we did that very well in the first half I believe just getting those advance passes up and even me when I get it on the break to swing up to Gallo the one time, the advance pass up the sideline. It's a big priority that we set in practice, just trying to get flow and different movement and create different matchups and switches and angles that we can exploit when we come down the court."

Q. Against these smaller teams, both of you have to guard on the perimeter a lot. How challenging is that, and what do you take away from that kind of going into the Big Ten season?

RENEAU: "It's definitely challenging, but Coach wouldn't give us no challenge that we can't handle. Guarding little six-footers or 6'1" people, they're quick so you've got to give a little step, but be able to contest the shot when they're ready to pull up because hard because you're trying to get space so you won't get blown past, and you're trite to get a shot up so you've got to do two at once. You've got focused locked in, ready to go when they come your way and try to attack you."

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