This season should have shown Mike Woodson his roster construction didn’t work. Instead, he is doubling down on his system with Indiana basketball

Indiana basketball is just one game above .500 and it’s been clear that the way this roster was constructed has limited the success and the ceiling of the team. While there was a lot of untapped potential coming into this season — it’s evident now that the offensive system Mike Woodson has been running may be a bit outdated.

The Hoosiers (14-13; 6-10) have no shot at an NCAA Tournament bit outside of an unforeseen run to win the Big Ten Tournament next month. And, after two straight years with an at-large bid for Indiana, taking a step back this year has been a major disappointment. Especially with how the team has looked through the eye test.

While the eye test isn’t everything and metrics and analytics aren’t everything alone, the two of them together tell the entire story.

Indiana currently ranks 104th in KenPom’s rating, the lowest since Tom Crean’s second season in 2009-10. That team finished 10-21 overall on the season with a KenPom ranking of 192.

Indiana is also ranked 107th in the NET rankings with a record against Quad 1 opponents at 1-8 and Quad 2 of just 4-4.

While those metrics show the bigger picture, how did IU get there? For starters, its inability to shoot. Indiana ranks 292nd overall with a 31.5 percent three-point rate, making just five 3s per game — ranked 353rd overall. It also ranks 354th overall in total points from three.

Despite seeing its top three scorers come from its front court, there were major questions about how all three would fit and this season showed that they didn’t. Mainly due to the inability to be consistent shooters from the perimeter or be any sort of perimeter-oriented player.

But, on Monday Mike Woodson doubled down on his system and desire to play two bigs.

“Well, when we won, we won with both of our bigs on the floor. You know, that’s what I look at,” Woodsons said over zoom. “You look at analytics based on we haven’t played a lot (of minutes) where we played four around one this year. So you’re looking at short stats basically.”

Malik Reneau is averaging 16.1 points while Kel’el Ware is at 15.1 points per game. That duo has taken 38 percent of the Indiana basketball shots per game this season and made 45.7 percent of the total field goals. But, neither is a real threat from three.

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Reneau is shooting 32.5 percent and has made just 13 3s this year — making just one since Jan. 12. Nine of his 13 3s came in a four game stretch from Dec. 21 to Jan. 9.

Ware, while shooting 41.9 percent from three, has attempted more than one three just three times since Dec. 19. He has just two games where he’s made more than one three.

“We basically have played with two bigs on the floor most of the season,” Woodsons continued. “The games that we have won and played well, they’ve been in and out of the game. So I don’t look at — I look what the we’ve done as whole.”

As a whole? A 14-13 record and an offensive efficiency rating of 11th in conference play and 112th in the country doesn’t scream successful for any team, let alone Indiana basketball.

“From a basketball standpoint it’s hard to gauge our season based only the fact we haven’t had Xavier (Johnson),” Woodson said. “I’m not putting it all on that, but Xavier was a big piece to the puzzle in terms of leadership and being able to run our team as a senior point guard.”

Xavier Johnson has been in and out of the lineup, missing seven games earlier this year with a foot injury and now six in a row with an elbow injury.

But, when he’s been in the lineup it has been okay at best. He is averaging just 8.3 points and 2.1 assists — both career lows — in 14 games.

So, it’s been Gabe Cupps and Trey Galloway who have had to step into the point guard role. Cupps currently ranks last in the Big Ten among point guards with qualified minutes in points per game. He also ranks second to last in assists per game.

Galloway has been inconsistent as well despite showing some very bright moments. He ranks sixth among qualified shooting guards in points per game and second in assists per game. But, because he’s spent so much time on the ball making plays for teammates, it limits his ability to be a slashing scorer or shooter as he showed last year.

Last year, Galloway ranked second in the Big Ten in three-point percentage at 46.2 percent. But, didn’t rank in the top-25 in made 3s. He played his role perfectly, however. That was because he had a dominant on-ball guard in Jalen Hood-Schifino and another shooter on the wing in Miller Kopp. It also didn’t hurt to have All-American forward Trayce Jackson-Davis in the paint with his passing ability.

Unfortunately, this year has turned in very mixed results because of the poor floor spacing due to roster construction. If there is an inability to shoot 3s, defenses are going to pack it in the paint. So, when you have two traditional bigs who see the majority of their points come from within five feet, any slashing lanes for the non-shooting perimeter players becomes non-existent.

“We haven’t made them this season,” Woodson said of open shots following the loss to Penn State on Saturday. “We’ve had our ups and downs. We’ve had stretches where some nights we have made them. But for the most part we have not made them.”

“The game is played differently than when I played. We didn’t shoot threes,” Woodson said on Monday. “The three-ball wasn’t a play when I played in college, and even when I went to the NBA, you only shot a three as a necessity when you needed a three … but it’s not going away (now).”

It should be clear to Mike Woodson that in order to keep up with the ever-changing times of basketball, he needs to adapt. He even said it, ‘the game is played differently than when I played’.

Mike Woodson can’t keep his stubborn attitude if he wants to maintain the level of success he wants for the Indiana basketball program. Because, this year hasn’t worked.

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