Basketball Buzz – Roster Transformation Fuels Hoosier Optimism – Indiana University Athletics

By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
 
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Are you ready for Indiana basketball? Hoosier Nation certainly is.
 
Forget the June calendar and IU football buzz under new coach Curt Cignetti. Basketball excitement is never out of Cream ‘n Crimson minds, especially with the way Mike Woodson has rocked the NIL-transfer portal universe.
 
These are all-things-are-possible times, and not just because the offseason always is, especially in the wake of the hugely popular Huber Orchard and Winery fan extravaganza that this year included NIL opportunity.
 
Fans see what Woodson has done with the Hoosier roster — dominate the transfer portal, land a 5-star high school player, retain key veterans — and are unanimous in their belief the season cannot start soon enough.
 
On paper, IU has everything it needs for a deep run. It has players who can shoot short and long; players who attack the rim, rebound, run, and defend. It has size, experience, and depth at every position.
 
It has, in fact, the kind of roster Woodson has always envisioned for the Hoosiers since taking the job in 2021.
 
The best college teams, the elite teams, the teams that win championships (can you say Connecticut?), do so with fierce defense and spread-the-floor-and-attack offense.
 
Woodson is all in. It is the style he thrived in while coaching the New York Knicks a decade ago. Until now, he has not had the Hoosier personnel to make it work.
 
Now that he does, it is all about turning talent into a potential title-winning team. Summer workouts geared to help do that began Tuesday.
 
“These eight weeks of summer play will shape where we are as a team and give me some indication going into next season,” Woodson says.
 
Convincing forwards Malik Reneau (15.4 points, 6.0 rebounds, 55.8% shooting) and Mackenzie Mgbako (12.2, 4.1, team-leading 50 3-pointers, Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors) to remain Hoosiers was a big key, but far from the only one.
 
“Getting them back was huge because they are a big piece to our puzzle,” Woodson says. “Moving forward, you got to put pieces around them. They cannot do it by themselves. We needed the pieces.”
 
Woodson and his staff hit the transfer portal hard to find those pieces and landed one of the nation’s best transfer classes, including three ranked in the top-25 with Oumar Ballo out of Arizona, Kanaan Carlyle from Stanford, and Myles Rice from Washington State.
 

Luke Goode from Illinois, a former Indiana high school standout out of Fort Wayne, was another major catch. Do not overlook Langdon Hatton, a 6-10, 240-pound center who shot 34% from 3-point range in a small sample size (16-of-47) in two seasons at Bellarmine. He also played a year at William & Mary and is a former Indiana all-state player out of North Harrison High School.
 
“We’ve gotten players that want to wear the Indiana uniform, want to play for us, and who are really good players,” Woodson says.
 
The 6-10, 246-pound Ballo is a dominating inside presence who earned first team All-Pac-12 honors last season by averaging 12.9 points and 10.1 rebounds. He surpassed 1,000 points and 800 rebounds in his college career.
 
The 6-3 Carlyle made the All-Pac-12 freshman team after averaging 11.5 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 2.7 assists while making 32 3-pointers.
 
The 6-3 Rice was the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year after averaging 14.8 points, 3.8 assists, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.6 steals.
 
The 6-7 Goode shot 38.8% on 3-pointers in three seasons at Illinois while averaging 4.1 points and 2.6 rebounds. He’s a former standout at Fort Wayne’s Homestead High School with a rich Hoosier pedigree that includes former IU quarterback Trent Green as an uncle and his father Craig as an ex-Indiana football player.
 
247 Sports rates the transfer class second only behind Arkansas and new coach John Calipari.
 
IU also signed five-star high school forward Bryson Tucker out of Maryland. The 6-6 Tucker is a McDonald’s All-American who helped lead USA Basketball to a gold medal in the 2021 FIBA Americas Championship.
 
The roster transformation started as soon as last season ended with a 19-14 record.
 
“We sat down at the end (of the season),” Woodson says, “and I treated it like I was when I was in the NBA. I made our (assistant coaches) rank the top-10 players at their positions, then I made the decision on who I was going to go get. And if it is the best player, then we have got to give it a shot because all they could do is tell us no.
 
“We got involved with Ballo early. We did not know if he was going to go into the portal or not. There were rumblings out there. I made it very clear that if he went in, we would get involved. He went in, we got involved and landed him.”
 
In today’s game, you are only as good as your guards. Woodson has loaded up with returning veterans Trey Galloway, Anthony Leal, and Gabe Cupps, plus Jakai Newton, who missed last season with a knee injury, plus Carlyle, Rice, and Goode.
 
“You win with good guard play,” Woodson says. “We had to amp up our backcourt and get better. We have done that.”
 
One temporary glitch — Galloway is out while recovering from knee surgery.
 
Galloway was hurt practicing for last March’s regular season finale against Michigan State. He played a few minutes in that game and missed IU’s two Big Ten tourney games.
 
While playing plenty of point guard due to Xavier Johnson’s injuries, Galloway averaged 10.8 points and a career-high 4.8 assists.
 
“He’s going through rehab,” Woodson says. “He’s not ready to play on the floor. We’re hoping he’s going to be back once the season starts.”
 
When he does return, Galloway figures to play more to suit his natural off-guard position.
 
“We had to make Gallo a point guard,” Woodson said. “He did a hell of a job. He grew in the area of trying to handle the ball and make plays not only himself but for his teammates.”
 
Overall, Woodson has lineup options to fit any scenario, which includes punishing teams from the perimeter, a long-time weakness. He can go big by playing Ballo and Reneau together, or go smaller with Mgbako, Goode, and even Hatton at power forward.
 
“I have not been able to get there, and I think we can this year,” Woodson says. “I’m going try to play two bigs. We will test it and see. You never know. Hatton can make threes.”
 
Building title-contending teams through transfers is the new normal, the result of escalating annual roster turnovers.
 
IU lost six players last season from either graduation, transfer, or the NBA Draft, forcing Woodson and his staff into a major roster transformation.
 
“This is not like the Bob Knight days where you can build your team over three, four years and trust the process,” he says. “My process now is changing every year because you do not know who is coming and who is going. We had to fill a lot of holes. So, it was a busy (spring).”
 
Woodson has adjusted and thrived, in part because of IU’s strong NIL presence.
 
“It is what it is,” he says. “You just do not know. I would love to grow a team with high school kids who stay with me for four years. Those days are gone. I mean, you get a player that is disgruntled, ‘Hey, I want more minutes,’ and I am trying to put a team together. You cannot worry about minutes; it has got to be about the team. You have got to commit to the team because then everything else takes care of itself.
 
“That is with any coach in college basketball. That is what you have to navigate. Everybody wants to play. Everybody wants to go to the NBA. Well, that is not realistic; you cannot play everybody 40 minutes and everybody is not going to play in the NBA. That is being real. I am a guy that spent 34 years of his life there, so it is what it is.”
 
Ultimately, it comes down to this — Woodson has assembled a team rich in title-winning potential.
 
Are you ready for Indiana basketball?