What Concerns You About Indiana Trying to Win Big Ten Title?
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana basketball hasn't had expectations this high in a decade.
The Hoosiers are widely considered the Big Ten favorite in 2022-23, and preseason Big Ten Player of the Year Trayce Jackson-Davis is raking in All-American honors left and right. Coach Mike Woodson landed the Big Ten's top two recruits, Jalen Hood-Schifino and Malik Reneau, and Indiana has several reserves primed for breakout seasons.
The conference experienced a major talent overhaul this offseason with 14 of the 17 All-Big Ten players gone, leaving Jackson-Davis, Purdue's Zach Edey and Michigan's Hunter Dickinson as the conference's top returners. There's plenty of unknown up and down Big Ten rosters entering the season, which could be why the Hoosiers are the early conference favorites. Indiana ranks second in the nation in percentage of returning minutes, including starters Jackson-Davis, Xavier Johnson, Race Thompson and Miller Kopp.
Preseason hype goes out the window once the season starts on Nov. 7, and Indiana still has plenty of questions to answer in its pursuit of a Big Ten title and beyond.
Here are the biggest concerns:
Where does the 3-point shooting come from?
This was an area of struggle throughout the four-year Archie Miller era, and it continued in Year 1 under Mike Woodson. Indiana finished 11th in the Big Ten with a 33.3 3-point field goal percentage last season. Woodson thought Indiana's offense created good looks from 3 last season, but they were unable to knock them down on a consistent basis.
The Hoosiers' best perimeter shooter, Parker Stewart, transferred back to UT-Martin, where he started his career. Stewart shot 39.3 percent from 3, and started 31 games for Indiana in 2021-22. Point guard Xavier Johnson was second among Hoosiers at 38.3 percent, and he found his stroke in the final nine games, making 15 of 30 3-point attempts.
Improved efficiency from Miller Kopp, who shot 36.1 percent from 3 last year, and Tamar Bates, a 29.8 percent 3-point shooter as a freshman, will be crucial to Indiana offense. Jordan Geronimo only made nine 3-pointers all season, but he showed late improvement by connecting on 3 of 7 attempts in the final four games of his sophomore year. Woodson has continued to encourage sixth-year forward Race Thompson to let it fly after a 15-for-55 season in 2021-22, which was more attempts than his first four years combined.
Freshman CJ Gunn shot 37.4 percent from 3 as a senior at Lawrence North High School, and could play his way into an increased role if he's hitting from the outside. The same goes for Anthony Leal, a heralded 3-point shooter in high school who's been in an out of the rotation in two years at Indiana.
"I think we'll be OK in that regard this year," Woodson said. "It's not like we're not working on threes. We shoot them every day. We shoot free throws every day. It's just when you get to a game situation, you've got to feel comfortable and ready to knock them down. That's my job, to relax them and get them in that position."
Can Indiana improve late-game execution?
You can't expect a win every close game, but Indiana let a number of close ones slip away last season. It started in the Big Ten/ACC challenge when Indiana suffered its first loss of the year in double overtime at Syracuse. About a week later at Wisconsin, Indiana held 17-point lead at halftime and a six-point lead with three minutes to go, but was outscored 11-0 to end the game.
January road trips to Penn State and Iowa told a similar story, and Wisconsin's Johnny Davis scored the game's final eight points to beat the Hoosiers at Assembly Hall in February. Ohio State outscored Indiana 17-6 in overtime for the Hoosiers' fifth straight loss.
Nearly playing their way out of the NCAA Tournament picture, Indiana dropped a home game to Rutgers on Ron Harper Jr.'s 3-pointer with two seconds left. Three days later, a 3-pointer from Miller Kopp put the Hoosiers ahead by four points at Mackey Arena with seven minutes remaining, but three costly turnovers led to a two-point Purdue win.
Mike Woodson consistently said he needed to figure out how to get his team over the hump last season, and that's the overarching challenge for him in year two at Indiana. The Hoosiers return more experience than any Big Ten team, which could help with Indiana's poise in closing moments.
How will Indiana navigate a grueling Big Ten Schedule?
With a 20-game conference slate and 14 teams in the Big Ten, there's bound to be unbalanced aspects in the schedule. It's unavoidable in the current structure. Each team plays seven conference opponents twice, with only one game against the remaining six teams.
As things stand heading into the season, Indiana appears to have a difficult conference schedule. Here's the Big Ten preseason poll, voted on by beat writers around the conference. And below, check out how Indiana's slate compares to other projected Big Ten contenders.
- Indiana
- Illinois
- Michigan
- Michigan State
- Purdue
- Ohio State
- Iowa
- Rutgers
- Wisconsin
- Maryland
- Penn State
- Minnesota
- Northwestern
- Nebraska
(Note: the number next to each school is their projected finish in the Big Ten, according to the preseason media poll)
Indiana
- Home and road games: Illinois (2), Michigan (3), Michigan State (4), Purdue (5), Iowa (7), Rutgers (8), Northwestern (13)
- Road only: Maryland (10), Penn State (11), Minnesota (12)
- Home only: Ohio State (6), Wisconsin (9), Nebraska (14)
- Number of games against projected top five: 8
- Number of games against projected bottom five: 6
Illinois
- Home and road: Indiana (1), Ohio State (6), Wisconsin (9), Penn State (11), Minnesota (12), Northwestern (13), Nebraska (14)
- Road only: Purdue (5), Iowa (7), Maryland (10)
- Home only: Michigan (3), Michigan State (4), Rutgers (8)
- Number of games against projected top five: 5
- Number of games against projected bottom five: 8
Michigan
- Home and road: Indiana (1), Michigan State (4), Wisconsin (9), Maryland (10), Penn State (11), Minnesota (12), Northwestern (13)
- Road only: Illinois (2) Iowa (7), Rutgers (8),
- Home only: Purdue (5), Ohio State (6), Nebraska (14)
- Number of games against projected top five: 6
- Number of games against projected bottom five: 9
Michigan State
- Home and road: Indiana (1), Michigan (3), Purdue (5), Ohio State (6), Iowa (7), Rutgers (8), Nebraska (14)
- Road only: Illinois (2), Wisconsin (9), Penn State (11)
- Home only: Maryland (10), Minnesota (12), Northwestern (13)
- Number of games against projected top five: 7
- Number of games against projected bottom five: 6
Purdue
- Home and road: Indiana (1), Michigan State (4), Ohio State (6), Maryland (10), Penn State (11), Minnesota (12), Nebraska (14),
- Road only: Michigan (3), Wisconsin (9), Northwestern (13)
- Home only: Illinois (2) Iowa (7), Rutgers (8)
- Number of games against projected top five: 6
- Number of games against projected bottom five: 9
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