BLOOMINGTON — One of the biggest storylines around IU men’s basketball last season was its thin backcourt.
Indiana quickly ran into problems at guard last year, with Jakai Newton being unavailable all year and Xavier Johnson suffering injuries in November. That situation forced head coach Mike Woodson to turn to Gabe Cupps, Anthony Leal, and CJ Gunn to fill in the gaps. And while they all had their moments, all three proved too inconsistent for what IU needed in the backcourt.
It taught Woodson a valuable lesson that he carried with him into transfer portal season. He knew he needed to get stronger at guard coming into this year.
That emphasis paid dividends on Saturday. The 16th-ranked Hoosiers defeated South Carolina, 87-71, at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. And IU’s new-look backcourt of Myles Rice, Kanaan Carlyle, and Trey Galloway led the way.
“You kind of have three different guards that can do everything. Trey is the Swiss Army knife. Kanaan is more of a combo guard. I can be a combo as well,” Rice said after the game. “I think we all feed off each other really well.”
Rice turned in a stellar effort, scoring a team-high 23 points on 7-of-10 shooting, with four rebounds, three assists, and one steal. The sophomore was really impactful on both ends of the court, just like he was during IU’s exhibition victory at Tennessee.
Carlyle has worked through bruised ribs early this season, but Saturday was clearly his best outing so far in an IU uniform. The sophomore shot 5 for 9 for 12 points with two assists, a block, and a steal. He, too, played effective defense, and his mid-range game provided an important threat.
Galloway was quiet in the first half, but gave IU a real spark after halftime. He chipped in 11 points, with six coming at the free-throw line as the Hoosiers put the game away.
That trio combined to shoot 6 for 10 from 3-point range. Rice, alone, went 3 for 4. But all three guards played a big role in IU’s strong 8-for-17 mark from beyond the arc. Woodson was pleased with that shooting performance.
“If we can get much better than that, I’ll take it. Tonight was a step forward in making threes,” Woodson said. “What did we shoot, 47% from the three? Anybody in college basketball would take that.”
This win wasn’t completely driven by Indiana’s guards, as Mackenzie Mgbako (17 points, seven rebounds) and Malik Reneau (13 points) both had nice games as well. The Hoosiers also did a good job defensively in shutting down South Carolina standout Collin Murray-Boyles, who entered Saturday averaging 21 points and 10.7 rebounds per game. But the sophomore was limited by foul trouble and good defense by IU and recorded just two points and six rebounds in Bloomington.
But after a 2023-24 season when Indiana so rarely had multiple guards with strong games like this, it’s a clear positive to have the backcourt clicking like this already against a high-major opponent. Both Carlyle and Rice displayed ability to create shots for themselves, which can be huge for the Hoosiers. That makes a big difference with offensive spacing, which opens things up for those other players.
“It’s amazing,” Mgbako called IU’s backcourt with Rice and Carlyle. “So much easier just being able to run with Myles and K, getting on the break and easy buckets, and us feeding off each other and the energy.”
Still, Woodson wasn’t completely satisfied with his team’s performance.
IU had control for most of the afternoon, but didn’t really put the Gamecocks away until the end. Woodson thought the Hoosiers took their foot off the gas when they could’ve made a knockout punch.
Specifically, Woodson said he wants to see better ball movement.
“We did it in spurts. And when we did it in spurts it looked pretty good, the ball movement from side to side and getting easy looks. Then we got stagnant,” Woodson said. “We went up 15 points — from that point on, we didn’t play very well from an offensive standpoint. Defense was still solid, but I just got to help us get better.”
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