The 2019-20 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 2019-20 IU roster. You can see all of our player profiles in one place here. If you are looking for the 2019-20 IU basketball schedule, you can find that here.
He has been a popular pick to be IU’s breakout player seemingly since he stepped on campus in Bloomington.
There has no doubt been progress with Devonte Green’s game since he arrived at IU, but there have also been plenty of bumps along the rocky road.
Is he IU’s breakout player for the 2019-20 season? It’s now or never.
While some of the early breakout chatter stemmed from flash-in-the-pan moments like a 22 point, seven assist, and six rebound preseason exhibition game in 2017, a more prolonged stretch of steady play during the final weeks of his junior season suggest a true turning point.
Green averaged 15.4 points per game over the last seven contests of the 2018-19 season, including a 26 point outburst against Ohio State at the Big Ten Tournament. He was in double figures in each game, and shot better than 50 percent from three point range in the final seven.
But before that? There was a really bad stretch in February, a suspension, and just generally erratic play that has come to define Green. That’s been the story for most of his career — high level potential that only emerges occasionally.
Can Green’s senior year be the year? Can he put it all together along side Rob Phinisee and form a potent guard duo? Can he pick up where he left off in March?
It feels a little foolish to boldly say yes to these questions.
But then, it also feels a little foolish to doubt him.
ESSENTIALS
- Height: 6-foot-3
- Weight: 185
- Position: Guard
- Class: Senior
- Hometown: North Babylon, New York
- High School: Long Island Lutheran
2018-19 STATISTICS
- Minutes per game: 25.2
- Points per game: 9.4
- Rebounds per game: 3.4
- Assists per game: 3.0
- Steals per game: 1.4
- FG%: 40.2%
- 3FG%: 41.0%
- FT%: 73.6%
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
Head coach Archie Miller —
“Devonte did finish the season fantastic for us.
When he’s played well throughout his time with us we’ve had some great wins. Consistency is what we’re looking for, but he’s coming into his senior year. Mentally he is in the best place he’s been since I’ve been here. His five-week pre-season and off-season has been very distractionless on the floor, and the off floor in the weight room and conditioning areas, he’s hit all-time high marks. He’s good there. Best he’s been.
He’s our most talented offensive player without question. To be able get the most out of him, you’re going to have to live with him doing some things at times that probably you would like to take back. But for him to be able to be himself, for hmm to be able to do it at another level more consistently, he’s got to have some more rope.”
Devonte Green on his improved play to closed out the 2018-19 season —
“I think I would just say that I just matured at that point. Realized the situation that I was in, and I think just relaxed and played the basketball that I know how to play. I think it (confidence) is a big part of it. Over my career my confidence has wavered, and I’ve learned to keep that consistent confidence in the last year.”
Green on being a team captain —
“I’ve been here four years. To finally be captain in my senior year is definitely a big deal for me.”
VIDEO
WHAT 2019-20 SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
As Miller’s quotes above suggest, the narrative on Green is different this year.
With Romeo Langford and Juwan Morgan gone, Green is being looked at as the primary offensive threat on this team.
“I feel like I’m a natural scorer,” Green said at the IU basketball media day. “It’s a new opportunity and I’m ready to embrace the opportunity.”
Green’s abilities as a scorer were on full display at the end of last season, but now he’ll have to produce while being the focus of opposing defenses. If Green can become a threat not only behind the three-point line but at all three levels he should be able to step into the leading scorer role. One of his challenges last year was from inside the three-point line, where he shot just 39.2% for the season.
With his production increasing each year from 4.4 to 7.6 to 9.4 points per game and coinciding with an increase in minutes each season — it is reasonable to expect that Green’s numbers will take a jump during his senior campaign.
Playing about 30 minutes a game, Green could easily average 12 to 14 points per contest, maybe more, — and IU will need it.
Quietly, Green’s assist to turnover ratio has also improved each year while he’s been at IU. Miller said he’s giving him more rope, but further strides in that area would be a welcomed sight. Although he is moving off the ball this year, Green is a strong facilitator and could still average more than three assists per game.
Finally, on the defensive end Green needs to continue trending in the right direction. He had a top 10 steal percentage in the Big Ten for the 2018-19 season to go with a top 25 block percentage according to KenPom.
Green told us at the Big Ten media day that he was a leader by example, and nowhere is that approach going to shine through more than the defensive end.
Along with fellow senior De’Ron Davis, Green is trying to avoid being one of the first four year players at IU since 1972 to have never played in the NCAA Tournament. Despite all of the talk about scoring the ball, passionate, high energy leadership on the defensive end from Green will play a major role in getting the Hoosiers back in the tournament for the first time since 2016.
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