BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Mike Woodson’s Indiana basketball teams have had strong front court tandems each year. “Buddy ball,” he calls it.
In 2024-25, returning junior power forward Malik Reneau and Arizona transfer center Oumar Ballo will fill that role. Woodson, whether his approach is truly unsettled or he doesn’t want to reveal too much before the season, said at Big Ten Media Days on Oct. 3 that he doesn’t know yet how much Reneau and Ballo will be on the floor together.
But one thing is for sure. The use of Reneau and Ballo will look different than Indiana’s buddy-ball duos of the past.
“A lot of it’s gonna depend if Malik can step out,” Woodson said. “Malik’s been playing out on the floor a lot from this summer’s play to now, and can he consistently make some threes for us? If he takes two or three, can he at least make just one? Because we’re shooting a number of threes now. As I speak, you guys are probably happy about that. But you still gotta make them.”
There are stylistic differences, too, but the most notable change in how Woodson may utilize his power forwards and centers this year starts simply with playing time.
Trayce Jackson-Davis played over 32 minutes per game in each of his final two seasons, and he logged 11 38-plus minute games as a senior. Indiana couldn’t afford to take him off the court. His buddy, Race Thompson, averaged 23.2 and 28.5 minutes per game in his last two years as a Hoosier.
Last season, Kel’el Ware played 32.2 minutes per game and was on the court for 36-plus minutes 10 times. Reneau averaged 28.7 minutes per game, and foul trouble limited his playing time more than anything. Together, they averaged 31.3 points per game and dominated inside with a 59.8% 2-point field goal percentage.
Ballo is unlike Jackson-Davis and Ware in that respect. As a two-time first-team All-Pac-12 center at Arizona, he logged just 26 minutes per game last season and 27.6 the year before.
But he made the most of his minutes. Ballo led the Pac-12 and ranked top 10 in field goal percentage the last two seasons, and he finished top 20 in both offensive and defensive rebounding percentage in 2023-24.
Woodson doesn’t see that changing in Ballo’s sixth-year senior season.
“And that’s plenty. He doesn’t have to play 30 minutes, not on this team,” Woodson said. “So I mean, the fact that he’s only played about 25 minutes, hey, we might keep him at that number. I don’t think Ballo’s ever complained about one thing since he’s been with us. He just wants to win.”
The disparity in minutes between Ballo and past Indiana centers – as well as its overall roster makeup – opens the door for Woodson to play small-ball lineups. Woodson believes his new-look roster can play faster and shoot more 3-pointers this year, especially when it shifts to smaller lineups.
“[Reneau] can still play in the hole some when we take Ballo out and play some five,” Woodson said. “And we can really go small with Mack [Mgbako] and [Luke] Goode playing together, because they’re our two best shooters right now.”
Reneau has teamed up with the likes of Ware, Jackson-Davis and Thompson the last two seasons. Ballo’s frontcourt running mate last season was 6-foot-7 forward Keshad Johnson, and before that it was the 6-foot-11 Azoulas Tubelis.
When Arizona defeated Indiana 89-75 in Las Vegas during the 2022-23 season, Tubelis and Ballo combined for 36 points, 19 rebounds and four blocks. Jackson-Davis had his second-lowest scoring game of the season and shot his worst percentage, finishing with 11 points on 4-for-10 shooting. Thompson had 16 points and nine rebounds.
Though it may be for fewer minutes than Indiana’s previous power forward-center duos, Reneau and Ballo still have to learn to play together. Playing alongside another big is nothing new for either one, but it’s taken a few adjustments.
“It’s gonna be a new experience, because Trayce was an unbelievable player,” Reneau said. “Kel’el was a floor-spacer that also played very well around the rim and was a lob threat. Ballo, it’s just like the size he has, that’s him. That’s how he’s getting open, with his size. He’s moving people out of the way, so instead of throwing it over the top, you can just throw it right to him down low and swing it right to him and let him make his move right there in the post. His body and his size make a huge difference compared to Kel’el and Trayce.”
Now teammates, Reneau has had fun playing with Ballo, a 7-foot, 265-pound center who can dominate down low and makes the game easier for him. He said it’s easy to get Ballo the ball in high-low situations, because he fills up so much space.
Reneau thinks the key to making his on-court relationship with Ballo work starts with understanding what his new teammate is capable of and reacting from there. He knows Ballo is dominant when he catches the ball on the block. So in those situations, Reneau can either cut to the basket and look for a pass from Ballo at the rim, or space the floor.
“[Ballo] moves very well for his size, too,” Reneau said. “He’s quick. He gets off the ball screen very quick, turns and he’s already at the rim. So you gotta be ready for him. Then if he doesn’t get it, he’s filling out space and posting and making it hard to get it.”
Ballo is comfortable playing in fast-paced lineups, too.
“[At Arizona] we were one of the fastest tempo when it comes to stuff like that in transition,” Ballo said. “We ran the floor, and that’s what Woody’s doing here, so it’s really nothing new to me.”
Ballo has 132 games and 71 starts under his belt in college, and Reneau has roughly half of that. He believes their experience has eased the transition to becoming teammates.
“[Ballo] knows a majority of the things already that coach Woodson talks about,” Reneau said. “It might be a different term or a different saying, but he still understands that that’s the same thing, what we’re doing. So he already knows, he’s been here. He knows what the buddy ball system looks like. So we really caught on real quick. It’s gonna be fun to see.”
Indiana could really put opponents in tough situations if Reneau continues to develop his perimeter game. He made one of the biggest jumps in the Big Ten last season, improving from 6.1 to 15.4 points per game. Scoring inside was still his strength, but he also made strides outside.
Reneau shot 33.3% from 3-point range on 45 attempts last season after attempting just eight 3-point shots as a freshman. He’s been working on catch-and-shoot situations in practice, as well as movement shots and mid-range jumpers. He aims for 100-200 makes from 3-point range during practice.
That also requires defensive improvements. Woodson has moved Reneau away from the basket more frequently this offseason and said the 6-foot-9 forward’s biggest challenge is defending smaller opponents. Reneau has been guarding players like Mgbako, Goode and Anthony Leal at practice, with an emphasis on improving his lateral quickness.
Foul trouble was a major issue for Reneau as a freshman, averaging 2.5 fouls while playing just 14.9 minutes per game. He made a slight improvement on that as a sophomore – averaging 3.1 fouls in 28.7 minutes per game – but he still fouled out seven times and picked up four fouls in nine additional games.
He took that to heart this offseason, working on closeout drills and one-on-one defense.
“Just ultimately working on lateral quickness and staying in front of people,” Reneau said. “Then also, I feel like a majority of my fouls were ticky tack. So just not being antsy on the court where I’m swiping a lot and getting those dumb fouls like that, which is something I tend to do a lot.”
Rebounding has been a big emphasis for Reneau, too. Indiana ranked No. 184 in defensive rebounding percentage and No. 233 in offensive rebounding percentage last season. Reneau thinks improving as a rebounder starts with having a mindset to always pursue the ball, and he’s taken it upon himself to get better in that area.
“Knowing we were a bad rebounding team last year, especially in my case, too, I could say I was a bad rebounder,” Reneau said. “Just being able to and emphasizing in my mind that I gotta rebound, too.”
From Ballo’s perspective, teaming up with Reneau isn’t entirely different from his time at Arizona. In 2022-23, Tubelis was a big who could stretch the floor and pass, in some ways similar to Reneau’s budding perimeter skill set.
Ballo said playing with another talented front court player takes pressure off of him, and he thinks he and Reneau already have good chemistry. Ballo noted Reneau’s passing ability – he dished out 88 assists last season – as a trait that could make them a difficult tandem to defend.
“[Reneau] has a really good read of the game when the double-team comes, where to put the ball at,” Ballo said. “I feel like that’s going to help me and him a lot, because he’s gonna get doubled and I’m gonna get doubled. Connecting and knowing where to find each other, that’s gonna be a good thing for us.”
Defensively, Woodson doesn’t consider Ballo to be as prolific of a shot-blocker as Jackson-Davis (2.9 bpg) or Ware (1.9 bpg). He averaged 1.3 blocks per game last season, but Ballo’s size, strength and understanding of defensive concepts has pleased Woodson.
Indiana rounded out its front court with 6-foot-10 Bellarmine transfer Langdon Hatton, who averaged 10.5 points and 7.1 rebounds last season, and 7-footer Dallas James, who averaged 0.8 points and 1.3 rebounds per game.
Reneau has been impressed with Hatton’s footwork, use of both hands, outside shooting, strength, confidence and ability to catch on quickly to Woodson’s coaching. Altogether, Reneau thinks Indiana has a solid frontcourt.
While Woodson has a more guard-oriented roster this season following the additions of Myles Rice, Kanaan Carlyle, Bryson Tucker and Luke Goode, he won’t shy away from using efficient front court players like Reneau and Ballo.
“[Ballo] doesn’t have to have it a lot, but I’m going to utilize him. It’d be crazy not to,” Woodson said. “But he runs the floor, he creates space when he demands the ball, he blocks shots, he rebounds for his position. I think he and Malik will be just fine. It might free Malik up a little bit more to do some things that I want him to do differently this year but I think they can both co-exist.”
