My Two Cents: Fair To Ask If Mike Woodson Has Failed Trayce Jackson-Davis This Season?

Indiana won't have a winning record in the Big Ten this season, and the late-season losses have been painful. We didn't see enough variety added to Trayce Jackson-Davis' game this year, and the question has to be asked. Did Mike Woodson do enough to make him better?

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — There's just one game to go in Indiana's regular season, and for all the fun this year, there's been plenty of disappointments as well. The late losses have been hard to swallow, and they just keep on coming.

Wednesday night's late loss to Rutgers really hurt, because an NCAA Tournament berth was right there for the taking. And then it slipped away.

And it slipped away in the same way it has so many other times this year. Why does this keep happening? How is this not getting fixed? 

Why, why, why?

It was just two weeks ago when I wrote a lengthy column titled "One Common Theme to Indiana's Late Collapses That Might Surprise You'' It published on Feb. 22, the morning after Indiana's overtime loss at Ohio State that was the fifth game in the five-game losing streak that derailed this season.

A deep dive into the play-by-play and replays of several game revealed that Jackson-Davis' impact on games late was practically non-existent, and that was troubling. (If you haven't read it, I hope you do.)

I made sure that I wasn't pointing a finger and casting blame directly and solely at Jackson-Davis because there was plenty of blame to go around, both with him for a bit of a lack of assertiveness, but also on his teammates for not making enough wide-open shots when he passed out of double teams and traps, either against man-to-man defenses or zones.

I threw shade at Mike Woodson and his staff for not making things easier for Jackson-Davis, and I was curious how things would change, if at all. 

It hasn't changed one bit. And now the chances of making the NCAA Tournament are pretty slim.

Remember when Indiana had a 27-point lead last Sunday against Minnesota and nearly let it all slip away? Jackson-Davis had no baskets in the final 14:17 of that game.

And Wednesday night against Rutgers, the late drought was even longer — and even more stunning, mostly because Jackson-Davis scored 15 points in the first half and was unstoppable, all-American-like unstoppable. He scored on a dunk in the first minute of the second half — and never scored another again, scoring only two free throws the rest of the way.

Why, why, why does this keep happening?

I did ask Jackson-Davis about it the morning after that first article, curious as to why we don't see any shots away from the rim. He is basically following orders, he said.

“Really it’s just what Coach Woodson wants me to do. Right now, he wants me to be a back-to-the basket player for us,'' Jackson-Davis said. "Obviously I feel like I can do more, but at the same time, if he thinks that helps us win, I’ll do that for him. That’s Coach Woodson’s game plan, playing inside out, and that’s what we’re going to do.''

And that begs the question. Was that really the right approach, both from a team standpoint and for Jackson-Davis individually?

Though dramatically better than a year ago, when they finished 12-15 and looked disinterested under Archie Miller, this Indiana season has still been something of a disappointment. They are just 18-11 and 9-10 in the Big Ten heading into the regular season finale at Purdue on Saturday. 

For the sixth straight year, Indiana will finish .500 or worse in the Big Ten, which is still a mind-numbing stat to me. The Hoosiers are the ONLY TEAM in the Big Ten to not finish above .500 at least once during the stretch.

That really shouldn't have happened with this group because, quite frankly, this team is better than that. Sure, they have flaws, the biggest one their inability to make shots, especially late in games. 

And not having your best player dominating games late is an issue, too. 

We have talked a lot about how good Indiana's defense this season, and Jackson-Davis is a big reason why. The offense, though, it's downright ugly at time. It bogs down, especially when he is being double-teamed, and they go long stretches without scoring.

But what we've seen in the design of this offense is Race Thompson hitting jumpers from the elbow. We've seen Jordan Geronimo hit jumpers from the elbow. Heck, even in mop-up duty, we've seen seldom-used freshman Logan Duncomb make jumpers from the elbow.

We don't see that from Trayce and, to me, his answer to me was almost disturbing that it's not part of any plan. Because it was supposed to be. From his very first conversation with Woodson back in late March, it was all about winning games and helping Jackson-Davis get ready for the next level, and adding pieces to his game.

But we have not seen that development, have we? What he does around the rim is tremendous. But literally nothing else goes on more than a few feet from the rim.

I'm on record for being a huge fan of the Mike Woodson hire, and I do think he's a very good coach. He has more basketball knowledge than you or I, and it's not even close. Don't ever debate that. Mike Woodson absolutely knows what he's doing.

But it's also fair to ask if Woodson has come up short in not finding better ways to get scoring opportunities late in games for Jackson-Davis. The second half was a perfect example of Indiana basically taking their star out of the game themselves. When he was set up on the low block, he was doubled every time he caught the ball. They weren't going to let Jackson-Davis go off like he did in the first half. And he didn't.

But what about more off-ball screens for Jackson-Davis, especially when Rutgers was in man-to-man? What about quick isolations and 10-foot jumpers? What about curls to the elbow, where he could catch and then have multiple options?

My point is this: For as good as Trayce Jackson-Davis is — and he's the best Indiana player since the Cody Zeller/Victor Oladipo era — I think we missed opportunities this season for him to be even better.

He was a preseason All-American, but hasn't played to that level. It's highly unlikely that he's going to be on postseason All-American teams. He was in the late first-round of some early 2022 NBA Draft mocks, but he's not even considered a second-round pick in most drafts now — and there are 12 Big Ten players listed ahead of him.

Can you imagine that? Twelve guys in the NBA who are better future pros.

Adding some pieces — he's been better with his right hand, has better moves to his right and is a much better shot blocker and defender — has all been great. But adding perimeter weapons to his game would have made him a first-round pick. I grew up in a power forward era where Karl Malone and Tim Duncan made millions of dollars hitting 15-foot jumpers. (Kids, look them up. They were really good.) Jackson-Davis needs to have all of that, too.

I do think it's fair to say that Woodson and his staff didn't do enough this year to help Jackson-Davis get better. And that's a shame.

I have no idea what happens next year and, frankly, I don't even like talking about because I still think there's a lot to accomplish this year. I really do. 

But I would love to see Jackson-Davis come back next season and play power forward instead of center almost exclusively. I would like to see him DISPLAY all those extra pieces. Become a dominant power forward, not an undersized center with no NBA future at that position.

It's a shame we didn't see that THIS YEAR. Things were left untapped this season, and that's too bad. Things have slipped so bad at Indiana the previous five years, and I do see improvement in this group, and I love next year's incoming class.

I also can see Indiana adding more pieces in the offseason, especially at center. But I'll wait to go there. Let's leave it at that. 

Find a better game plan for Purdue. Find a way to make noise in the Big Ten Tournament. Find a way to do something in the postseason, in whichever tournament you're in.

And also remember that we left some meat on the bone this season. And that's too bad.

Related stories on Indiana basketball

• HOOSIERS FALL TO RUTGERS: Once again, favored Indiana let a double-digit lead slip away, and wound up losing to Rutgers 66-63 when Ron Harper Jr. hit a three-pointer with 2 seconds to go in the final regular-season home game of the season at Assembly Hall. CLICK HERE.
• WHAT JACKSON-DAVIS SAID: Indiana forward Trayce Jackson-Davis had a great night against Rutgers putting up 19 points and nine rebounds, but it wasn't enough to stop the Scarlet Knights who won 66-63. Here's what Jackson-Davis had to say in a postgame press conference. Read his transcript, or just watch the attached video. CLICK HERE.