BLOOMINGTON — After a rocky start to his Indiana men’s basketball career, Luke Goode is settling in.
The Illinois transfer averaged just 4.3 points per game in his first seven contests as a Hoosier, while shooting 6 for 21 from 3-point range. Goode’s effort never wavered as he endured the struggles, and he displayed leadership in some important moments when IU needed it. The Fort Wayne native routinely plays the hardest of anyone on the floor when he’s in the game for Indiana.
His outside shooting has since improved — Goode entered Wednesday’s game against USC at 37.8 percent over his previous eight games, and then went 4 for 5 from long range against the Trojans. His strong performance, with 16 points and four rebounds, helped IU pull away with an 82-69 victory at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Goode has started in Indiana’s last four games, and he’s feeling very comfortable in the bigger role.
“My teammates make it easy for me. When I’m starting in the game, the offense looks a little bit different. I think that helps everybody that’s involved. Able to get (Oumar) Ballo looks, spacing the floor with another shooter has been great for our team,” Goode said after the game. “Been the story of my career. In and out of the lineups, playing what I need to play. When my teammates have confidence in me, whatever role they want me to play, I’m going to do to to the most I can.”
For Goode, working through the early slump required him to maintain self-belief.
The wing shot 38.8 percent from 3-point range across his three years at Illinois. That ability didn’t just disappear. He had to remember that, and trust that his shots would start falling sooner or later.
Goode broke out with a career-high 18 points against Sam Houston State in early December. But he’s been particularly locked in over the last three games, shooting 10 for 15 from beyond the arc in three straight conference wins for the Hoosiers.
“I had the confidence and my teammates had the confidence in me to know when I’m out there it’s going to go up. I’m not going to lose that confidence in myself,” Goode said. “When you got teammates that have trust in you and a coaching staff that never loses faith in what you do, good things happen.”
Goode is just one piece of a very large transfer portal puzzle IU head coach Mike Woodson and his staff put together ahead of this season. IU’s roster needed time to jell, with so many new pieces coming together early this season.
And while some of those transfers have already proven their worth, or made that value obvious right away, Goode is starting to show why he’s such an important piece for the Hoosiers. Few others, if anyone, on their roster can find a shooting rhythm as quickly and efficiently as the Illinois transfer. And he’s setting good examples for his teammates with his strong effort and leadership.
Goode is one of just two IU players with prior experience in the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. He knows what it takes to get there, and he’s using that to help guide Indiana this year.
“He’s the one in the huddles, the meetings. He’s always saying something to us, giving encouragement to the guys. It’s been that way since the summertime. He’s been trying to put us in the right position,” Malik Reneau said after the Sam Houston State game. “He just knows what it takes to get to that stage. So just having Luke Goode as one of our leaders on the team just helps us out a lot.”
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