IU basketball guards Myles Rice, Kanaan Carlyle generating positive early returns: ‘These two guys, it’s gonna be fun to play with them’

IU basketball head coach Mike Woodson didn’t mince words this offseason when he addressed his roster and what change were needed in order to rebound after a disappointing season. While Indiana’s front court has always been the focal point for Woodson, that will change this year. Why? He realized you need good guards to win consistently in college basketball.

“You think about our guard play over the last three years … no knock on them, but we couldn’t keep anybody healthy,” Woodson said last month. “I’ve learned in the short period of time I’ve been in college, you win with good guard play. It’s great to have big guys who can play and do the things we’ve had over the last three years we’ve coached but you win with perimeter and good guard play and that was something we came out of this past season, with the games X missed, that we needed to amp up our backcourt and I thought we did that.”

The result was landing two dynamic playmakers with Myles Rice and Kanaan Carlyle. Rice, the Pac-12 Freshman of the year, and Carlyle, a top-60 prospect in the 2023 class, bring a vastly different skillset to Indiana from recent memory.

Rice averaged 14.8 points, 3.1 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game at Washington State and is expected to lead the backcourt for Indiana this year. He is a terrific scorer off of the dribble and can create shots for himself using ball screens or creation on his own. He has great length and quickness to allow him to get into the lane and finish at the rim with great effectiveness. He scores .800 points per possession when he is the ball handler in a screen and roll. He scores 1.15 points per possession in transition with his quickness.

While Myles Rice will bring a much-needed scoring punch to the IU basketball backcourt, it’s his ability to make plays for his teammates that is standing out in the first few weeks of summer workouts.

“Myles averaged 15 last year and he comes into practice and we run fives and he’s getting five, six, seven, eight assists a game,” Illinois transfer Luke Goode said. “So he’s special.

“Myles is special. He is tough. I like him a lot. He’s gonna be a really good player.”

But, the backcourt punch doesn’t stop there. Kanaan Carlyle comes in after having an inconsistent season at Stanford, but one that showed a great amount of promise if put in the right system, surrounded by more talent.

That’s what he has at Indiana. And, Goode is extremely impressed with his ability.

“Kanaan is gifted too,” Goode said. “He’s super quick, he’s probably the second fastest player I’ve played with other than Terrence [Shannon Jr.] in terms of having the ball in the open floor.”

He averaged 11.5 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game last season. While he’s a score-first guard, he also had a 20 percent assist rate last year.

IU’s backcourt bring playmaking skills that will open up the offense

Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The duo of Myles Rice and Kanaan Carlyle will be the first backcourt pair under Mike Woodson to have a 20+ percent assist rate.

That will open up the entire offense and is why a transfer like Luke Goode was so interested in joining Indiana and why he’s so excited to play alongside them.

“These two guys, it’s gonna be fun to play with them for sure,” Goode added. “Because they can both pass, too. ”

“… You kind of always got to have a shooter on the floor, in my opinion. You got to be able to space the floor in today’s college basketball game, especially with big guys.”

The ability to have shooters and playmakers on the floor at once is a style of play that Mike Woodson has been craving since he arrived at Indiana. Now he has that ability.

“I tried to build our team around how I played a little bit in New York,” Woodson said. “We had guys like Jason Kidd and Raymond Felton, (Pablo) Prigioni. Guys that can create, make plays not only for themselves, but for their teammates. That was one of the things when we (the staff) sat down after the season in terms of evaluating players that entered the portal — that was going to be an emphasis on players that we brought back here from a perimeter standpoint.

“And these two guys (Rice and Carlyle) are capable of making plays off the bounce. They’re capable of making plays for their teammates. And, they’re capable of putting the ball in the hole.”

With the guards needed to score and make plays, Luke Goode is another important piece to the puzzle. He is a career 38.8 percent three-point shooter and arrives at Indiana with the critical skillset IU basketball was missing a season ago. He made 61 3s off of the bench for Illinois, 11 more than IU’s leading three-point shooter.

Goode was part of two Big Ten championships with Illinois — a regular season title in 2022 and then a tournament title in 2024. He’s also seen last least one win in the NCAA Tournament in all three of his collegiate seasons, including an Elite Eight last year.

So, winning is part of his DNA. He’s not looking for that to change at Indiana and believes with all of the pieces coming together, that they have the tools to be part of a championship in Bloomington.

“My favorite thing to do is win championships,” Goode said. “So I think this team has a good chance to win a championship this year,”

SEE ALSO: One question facing all 12 Indiana basketball players entering the summer

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