IU basketball guards Gabe Cupps and Anthony Leal went up to Fort Wayne (IN) over the weekend for a fan meet and great for Scheerer McCulloch.
At the event, the former Mr. Basketball’s took questions from WANE 15 News, as well as other media, where the duo discussed the event, the Indiana fanbase, the offseason, Indiana’s team chemistry, their roles for this upcoming season and much more.
The event in Fort Wayne allowed the two Indiana guards to give back to the Hoosier fanbase and interreact with them up close.
“Yeah, it’s great to see them,” said freshman guard Gabe Cupps when speaking to the media at this event. “Having this many people come out and want pictures and want autographs with me and Anthony is really cool to see. I would say it’s just confirming to me what I already assumed. Everyone is always talking about Indiana’s fans being the best in the country.”
“It’s really humbling that just to see people would actually come out to meet us, get an autograph from us” added senior guard Anthony Leal. “Still hasn’t really registered with me the platform I have and the place that I am at, but it’s awesome just to come out here and celebrate IU with a bunch of other IU fans.”
There were a lot of different pieces that came into this IU basketball program this offseason. In total, the Hoosiers brought in six newcomers to replace the six rotation pieces that departed from a season ago.
Building the team chemistry was going to be one of the top priorities for Mike Woodson and this IU basketball team over the summer. While there hasn’t been much work putting the ‘X’s and O’s’…the team chemistry seems to be getting stronger and stronger during the summer workouts.
“I think they have gone pretty well,” said Cupps. “Everybody is jelling together and we are just getting better playing as a team. We haven’t really put too many ‘X’s and O’s’ in…we’ve just been trying to learn how to play with each other. It’s been good getting better with the guys.”
“It’s been good, the chemistry has been good,” Leal added. “Obviously it’s still early and we are still building everything but for myself being a senior and being one of the older guys on the team, I am really just embracing the role of making sure everybody is getting along, fitting in, adjusting well because it’s a big adjustment.”
Both Cupps and Leal come into the 2023-24 season with much different roles than one-another. With Leal, as he mentioned above, he is now one of the older guys on the team and now has the task of being one of the leaders for the Hoosiers alongside fellow senior guards Xavier Johnson and Trey Galloway.
While Leal is unlikely to have a major role on the court this season like in year’s past, his role of a leader is coming natural to him.
“It’s very natural to me but I have also had to develop a little bit and get outside of my comfort zone and take it to the next level as I have grown from freshman to senior,” said Leal.
Cupps, on the other hand, comes in as one of three new freshmen and will be looking to carve out a role like most of the new guys. While the game of basketball is much different jumping from the high school level to the college level, Cupps believes he is adjusting well.
“I would say just finding our roles and how we are each going to contribute to the team in different ways,” said Cupps. “Solidifying those and just doing our best in roles each and every day.”
“I think the guys that I am competing against everyday in practice are really high level….just slowing down and make sure I am staying at my pace all the time. Early I was getting sped up because guys were pressuring me, stronger than me, more physical so I thought I was able to adjust to that pretty well. ”
There are many questions with this IU basketball team for the 2023-24 season, however, with the untapped potential and confidence they are showing this summer, they have a chance to see a lot of success this year.
“I think going into every game, we are going to believe that we are going to win every single game and we are going to be prepared to do that. The only thing stopping us is ourselves and if we are all committed to the same goal, we are going to be very good.”
Full interviews of Anthony Leal and Gabe Cupps from WANE 15 News YouTube page below.
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Kyler Staley is a Basketball Recruiting Analyst for Hoosier Illustrated, a comprehensive site covering news, updates and recruiting for Indiana University athletics. Kyler has been in the basketball recruiting industry since 2019 and is a credentialed media member. He has covered Indiana since 2021 while continuing to also work for Prep Hoops Indiana. He has previously worked for Rivals.
