Indiana Basketball 2018-19 Player Previews: Johnny Jager

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.

Indiana basketball fans love a guy like Johnny Jager.

He’s a local guy that went to play at Wabash and thrived there as a freshman.  He started in all 26 games and scored 15.0 points per game and added 5.5 assists and 2.4 rebounds per contest.

When the opportunity came to return to Bloomington as a walk-on, he jumped on it.  Jager sat out the 2016-17 season to satisfy NCAA transfer rules, but his journey isn’t about playing time anymore, it is about getting a degree and learning to become a coach.  In that regard Jager, who is Academic All-Big Ten, is thriving.

Having had the benefit of playing and learning under both Tom Crean and Archie Miller, Jager should be well prepared to transition into coaching when his playing days are over.

Jager attended Bloomington South High School and was named First Team Academic All-State as a senior.  He averaged 13.2 points, 5.1 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game and shot 54 percent from the floor and 46 percent from behind the 3-point line in his final high school campaign.

ESSENTIALS

• Height:  6-foot-0
• Weight:  185
• Position:  Guard
• Class:  Redshirt Junior
• Hometown:  Bloomington
• High School:  Bloomington South

2017-18 STATISTICS

Jager played seven minutes in six games and had two assists on the season.

VIDEO

Of course with limited playing time there isn’t a lot of good tape on Jager, but there is this (and note the Twitter handle) —

We thought this gif worked well for @moveslike_JAGER’s birthday 😏

Happy birthday, Johnny! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/KQFsHyolz8

— Indiana Basketball (@IndianaMBB) September 27, 2018

WHAT 2018-19 SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

When Indiana was struggling mightily from 3-point range last year there were some that believed Jager deserved a chance.  His high school 3-point percentage certainly suggests that the ability is there.

Like all walk-ons at this level, Jager has serious game.  We’ve seen Hoosier walk-ons not named Zach McRoberts see meaningful action in recent years, including Harrison Niego, Ryan Burton and Jeff Howard.

But let’s be honest, if Jager is getting serious minutes this year, it is a major red flag, either because players ahead of him are injured or not performing at a high level.  Unlike previous years, there are a lot of guards that would seemingly need to have issues before that happened in 2018-19.

Jager can still have a meaningful role on this team.  He is well liked by his teammates, can be a positive voice in the locker room, and performs the invaluable role running the scout teams to help prepare for the opposition.

Previous Player Previews:

• Damezi Anderson
• Jake Forrester
• Jerome Hunter
• Romeo Langford
• Rob Phinisee
• Race Thompson
• Vijay Blackmon
• Al Durham
• Clifton Moore
• Justin Smith

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