The theme coming into the offseason for the IU basketball program was how it would replace the production from All-American Trayce Jackson-Davis. It was truly a new era — one that would not revolve around the talented forward in all aspects of the offense.
IU head coach Mike Woodson was honest heading into this offseason. He wasn’t sure what the offense would look like in terms of style of play. He just knew that the roster needed to get better.
“I don’t know where we’re going to be next season in terms of how our style of play will be,” Woodson said following IU’s loss in the Round of 32. “But we’ve got to get better. I do know that.”
It was an honest assessment of where Indiana was at the time. It was losing four starters — including a front court that accounted for 68.1 percent of the team’s scoring, 63.3 percent of rebounding and 65.1 percent of the assists.
The lone returning forward was sophomore Malik Reneau. The 6-foot-8 forward played a reserve role last season, especially once Big Ten play arrived. His offensive skillset blossomed at times but it was his defensive inconsistencies that kept him from having a larger role.
So, Woodson went out and re-loaded his front court with a much different type of skillset than what he had a season ago.
Indiana landed commitments from former five-star center and Oregon transfer Kel’el Ware — a 7-footer with raw talent that failed to meet the expectations he had going into his freshman season. Then, a commitment from a highly sought-after, mid-major transfer in Payton Sparks, a powerful 6-foot-9 and 240-pounder. But, IU wasn’t done just yet. A later commitment from versatile and veteran 6-foot-9 forward Anthony Walker seemed to sure up the depleted frontline.
More: IU basketball ushering in a new, versatile style of play starting next season
But, the Hoosiers were still looking to add a hybrid forward to the mix — someone who could play both on the perimeter with the ball in his hands while still having the versatility to be effective in the paint. They got that in five-star freshman Mackenzie Mgbako.
All five forwards — including Reneau — have much different skillsets, and all five look to have a major impact for IU this season.
“I think we loaded up pretty well,” Reneau told reporters on Thursday. “You got Kel’el (Ware) and got Payton (Sparks). And both are pretty great, skilled players. Can finish with both hands, can step out a little bit and shoot the ball too. So you see a good flow of where we’re trying to go with our frontcourt, you know, and understanding that we don’t have Trayce anymore, so we got to look somewhere else to find it.”
The theme of ‘untapped potential’ lingers with this group, however. The potential is clearly there with this group of forwards but the production and consistency hasn’t shown itself.
Mike Woodson’s style of play is clearly rearing its head though. He wants versatile front court players who are interchangeable, can step out on the perimeter and can even grab a rebound and push the ball in transition. All of which will be on display this season.
The old style of a slow-tempo and post-up offense will slowly go away, albeit not altogether. But, it’s clear with the moves Indiana made this offseason the path it wants to go down.
“We’re still emphasizing posting up. That’s just a part of how we play. I mean, we probably won’t post up as much as last year like we did with Trayce, but we’re still posting up,” Reneau said. “And it’s gonna be a lot of ball screens and running up and down the court and getting out in transition and getting easy buckets and stuff like that. So we’re trying to be a fast-paced team and get up and down the court and defend.”
The college game is going away from ‘traditional’ big men and is now revolving around 6-foot-7, 6-foot-8 scoring wings, versatile and athletic forwards and veteran guards. That’s not what Indiana has been built on. Now, it will be.
“So there are a lot of things that I started implementing because again, it was new for me with the guy (Jackson-Davis) with his back against the bucket and giving him the ball and trying to design things to get him to basketball. I don’t have that anymore coming into this season and I can pretty much go back to my comfort zone and how we somewhat played in New York,” Woodson said earlier this summer. “We kind of spread at the floor and that’s not to say our bigs, if I got mismatches and our bigs are early running, I expect them to try to post and get early strikes that way. We try to get easy buckets right off our initial thrust. It’s gonna be a little bit different.”
While shooting remains a question mark, IU’s new style of play should offer the ability to mask some of those inconsistencies. But, there will surely be growing pains in the process with so many new faces.
It’s a critical offseason for IU basketball but one with so much potential and upside. Now, it’s up to Mike Woodson to be able to showcase his true system and style of play he’s used to and comfortable with.
“I mean, I haven’t seen all of them yet in person, but I would say from my watch, I think we have a pretty unique team,” Woodson said. “We’ll be more athletic than last year’s team. It’s hard compete with Trayce’s (Jackson-Davis) athletic ability, but I think Kel’el (Ware) is up there because he’s seven foot and he can actually jump out of the gym as well and he can spread the floor out and shoot as well. (Mackenzie) Mgbako, he can shoot, he can score at all three levels. I mean, I can go down a list, but I ain’t gonna name all of them, but I think we have some pretty solid pieces coming in.”
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