Indiana Basketball 2018-19 Player Previews: Devonte Green

The 2018-19 Indiana University men’s basketball season is right around the corner.  To help get you ready, The Daily Hoosier is profiling every player on the 2018-19 IU roster.  You can see all of our 2018-19 player profiles in one place here.  If you are looking for the 2018-19 IU basketball schedule, you can find that here.

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Things started fast for Devonte Green in the 2017-18 season.  The first gold jersey, the leading scorer at Hoosier Hysteria, and the leading scorer, rebounder and assist man in the first exhibition against Marian.

Right or wrong, the expectations for Green soared as the season approached.

While he had his moments, his performance during the regular season for the most part didn’t live up.

Green saw action in all 31 games and while he opened the season as a starter, in the end he started just 12 times

While he averaged a respectable 7.6 points per game, he was nowhere near that 22 point performance against Marian.  Confidence seemed to be a major issue.

Green led IU with a 43.6% rate from three-point range as a freshman.  That dropped to 33.7% in 2017-18, and overall he shot just 36.4% compared to 44% the year prior.

Turnovers were an issue as well.  While Green made improvements year-over-year in both his turnover rate and assist to turnover ratio, there is still progress to be made.  His 2017-18 ratio was 1.29, and it probably needs to be closer to two or higher to keep his head coach happy.

While perhaps the season didn’t meet the expectations, it wasn’t a complete disappointment either.

Green seemed to hit his stride in February, when he averaged 8.6 points, 4.3 assists and shot 50.0% from three-point range.  He had noteworthy performances throughout the season, including —

• After losing his starting job he came off the bench and had a then career-high 16 points at Seton Hall.  Of course this is the game where he made national waves by stealing the ball while holding his shoe.
• He came off the bench with 12 points, five boards and two assists against Iowa.
• Green came off the bench and had 12 points, four boards and three assists in 36 minutes against Notre Dame.
• Had a career-high 20 points and made four of five three-pointers at Ohio State.
• Posted seven points and six assists without a turnover against Michigan State.
• Had 19 points – including four three-pointers, to go along with seven assists and three steals against Minnesota.
• Green had 18 points, six assists at Iowa and tied career-high with four three-pointers.

What you’ll find upon closer examination of Green’s game log are disappointing efforts interspersed among these impressive showings.  Looking forward, that’s going to be the big story for Green in 2018-19 — finding consistency and earning the trust of Archie Miller.

ESSENTIALS

• Height:  6-foot-3
• Weight:  186
• Position:  Guard
• Class:  Junior
• Hometown:  North Babylon, New York
• High School:  Long Island Lutheran

2017-18 STATISTICS

• Minutes per game:  22.5
• Points per game:  7.6
• Assists per game:  2.5
• Rebounds per game:  1.9
• Steals per game:  1.0
• FG%:  36.4%
• 3FG%:  33.7%
• FT%:  70.5%

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING

Miller in May on Green —

“I thought, with our six-month program in the spring, he was as consistent as any (IU player).  He focused a lot on his shooting the ball in the spring and he really improved.”

He showed glimpses at times where he can really be one of the better guards in the league at times for how he did things, I thought toward the end of the season, he was our most consistent ball-handling guard, but he took a step back when the season ended and we got him to our spring program.

I thought, in our conversations, he’s starting to take his game a little bit more serious. He’s starting to take the approach of (having) his own individual pride in what he is and how he does it and go up a level.”

VIDEO

WHAT 2018-19 SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

If you ask Green what he’s been working on in the offseason, the first thing he points to is the mental side of the game.  He described his development in that area this way at the IU media day —

“I don’t think it was any one big situation,” he explained. “I think it was a bunch of little things that led to me mentally developing my game. I actually spent all of May working with my brother (Danny Green). He was really helpful.”

Juwan Morgan sees it as more of a mentality —

“Devonte has just become more under control, not making home run plays but making more singles than he has before,” Morgan said at the IU media day.

If Green plays within himself, and works to be more of a facilitator rather than a creator, he could end up becoming the key variable in what has the potential to be a very successful season.

With Morgan and Romeo Langford expected to carry the scoring load, Green can be more opportunistic, taking good open opportunities with they present themselves.  Last year, understandably at times, Green had to try to create things that weren’t there as the offense became stagnant and couldn’t hit perimeter shots.

So what does success look like?  Maybe 8 to 10 points per game, and 4 or 5 assists per game while getting that assist to turnover ratio up over 2.  Those would be impressive numbers while being pushed for minutes by Rob Phinisee and Al Durham.  If he can do all that while getting his field goal percentage back up well above 40, there is little doubt that the narrative on Green will be vastly different coming out of his junior season.

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Previous Player Previews:

• Damezi Anderson
• Jake Forrester
• Jerome Hunter
• Romeo Langford
• Rob Phinisee
• Race Thompson
• Vijay Blackmon
• Al Durham
• Clifton Moore
• Justin Smith
• Johnny Jager
• De’Ron Davis

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