Indiana has missed the NCAA Tournament six of the last eight years.
Sorry to ruin your day with that reminder.
But it’s a fact, and a run of futility that spans three coaches, and has Hoosier fans on edge at the moment after Mike Woodson’s first March Madness whiff in three seasons.
And if you had to pick one constant during this less than stellar run of IU basketball, an overall lack of dynamic backcourt play might just be it.
Consider this: Indiana hasn’t had a first team All-Big Ten guard since Yogi Ferrell in 2016. They haven’t had a consensus All-Big Ten second team guard since Ferrell either, although Romeo Langford (coaches) and Jalen Hood-Schifino (media) won that honor via one group of voters.
So that’s two seasons in eight years where Indiana had even one all-league caliber guard, and those were both one-and-done freshmen.
Much was made about the April national championship game matchup involving 7-footers Donovan Clingan and Zach Edey for UConn and Purdue, respectively. Indiana has had its own high-level big men over the last eight years, including Juwan Morgan, Trayce Jackson-Davis and Kel’el Ware.
But also on those national title game teams were consensus first team All-American guard Tristen Newton for UConn, and consensus first team All-Big Ten guard Braden Smith for Purdue.
It is stating the obvious, but to build a program that consistently contends for conference titles and makes NCAA runs, you need elite talent in both the frontcourt and the backcourt.
And when it comes to the backcourt, it’s clear IU has come up short more often than not over the last eight years.
In a candid mood on Wednesday evening, Mike Woodson admitted — whether through injuries, an overall lack of talent, or both — he hasn’t had an adequate backcourt during his time in Bloomington.
“I’ve learned in this short period of time that I’ve been in college, you win with good guard play,” Woodson said. “It’s great to have big guys that can play and do the things that we’ve had with our bigs over the last three years that we’ve coached, but you win with good guard play.
“That was something that coming out of this season, we had to really amp up our backcourt and get better, and I’ve thought we’ve done that.”
On multiple occasions Wednesday, Woodson mentioned a new era of college basketball with the transfer portal. He said it would be nice to “trust the process” and build a program with freshmen who develop over time. While that approach is still possible, it is becoming far less common.
And in this new era, if you don’t have a first team all-conference guard, you can go get one.
That’s what Woodson and his staff did when it came to Washington State transfer Myles Rice, who was first team All-Pac 12, and the league’s freshman of the year.
Rice averaged 14.8 points per game and led the Cougars to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 16 years.
He’ll be joined in the IU backcourt by honorable mention All-Pac 12 guard Kanaan Carlyle from Stanford (11.5 ppg, 2.7 rpg, and 2.7 apg).
“They’re a different type of player that we haven’t had since I’ve been here, and they remind me of players I’ve coached in the NBA,” Woodson said.
“I tried to build our team around how I played in New York. We had guys like Jason Kidd, and Raymond Felton and Pablo Prigioni, guys that can create and make plays not only for themselves but for their teammates. That was one of the things when we sat down after the season in terms of evaluating players that entered the portal, that was going to be an emphasis.
“These two guys are capable of making plays off the bounce, they’re capable of making plays for their teammates, and their capable of putting the ball in the hole.”
Indiana also returns fifth-year guard Trey Galloway (10.6 ppg, 4.6 apg, 2.9 rpg), giving the Hoosiers a trio of guards who averaged double-digit points at the high major level a year ago. That seems like a major pivot from last season, when our “three keys to game” regularly had an entry similar to this one from Indiana’s 85-71 home loss to Penn State:
Guard production lacking. It’s been a recurring theme, and once again Indiana’s backcourt didn’t deliver nearly enough on Saturday afternoon. IU got 17 points from guards, but six of those came in the final two minutes when the game was well out of hand. Indiana guards shot just 2-of-10 from three. As a team, IU had as many turnovers (13) as assists.
Guard injuries have been a not insignificant part of the story since Woodson took over at IU.
Xavier Johnson missed 37 games over the last two seasons. Rob Phinisee dealt with an injury in 2021-22. Galloway has had numerous injuries, including a season-ending knee issue that required surgery this year.
“You think about our guard play over the last three years, and it’s no knock, we had guys like X (Xavier Johnson) and (Rob) Phinisee, we couldn’t keep anybody healthy, number one,” Woodson said.
The now fourth-year IU head coach said he thought Gabe Cupps played well as a freshman, but also acknowledged he was forced into significant action far sooner than expected. He also said Galloway was forced to learn to play point guard, something he says the Culver, Ind. product performed well also.
But the last few seasons have involved a lot of patchwork efforts like that.
And the hope is now — with Rice, Carlyle and Galloway as the headliners — and guys like Cupps, redshirt freshman Jakai Newton and true freshman Bryson Tucker as the wildcards, Indiana won’t find itself in scramble mode in the backcourt this season.
“One thing I have learned, is we gotta be deeper in certain positions,” Woodson said. “We really counted on Xavier (Johnson) to be back after all his injuries, and he we just thought we had him back. And that crushed us. We never really rebounded from it.
“I didn’t want to be in that position again.”
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