College basketball is back. Kind of.
Indiana men’s basketball travelled down to Knoxville on Sunday to take on Tennessee in a charity exhibition matchup benefitting the John McLendon Foundation.
It goes without saying but I’m going to: It was an exhibition. These are for coaches to try out some lineups and guys to get some run against another team before the games start to count. Most programs don’t even run sets or scout the opponent.
There’s only so much you can take away, but here’s a few things that caught my eye:
Myles Rice
Indiana needed a point guard this offseason and landed one of the best in the portal: Myles Rice. The former Pac-12 Freshman of the Year at Washington State has been lauded throughout the offseason and showed why today,
He pushed the pace, got downhill, scored the basketball and did just about everything Mike Woodson wants out of his point guards. Rice finished with 20 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists on the day, getting to the rack with ease off of screens with his combination of speed and skill.
Malik Reneau
Indiana’s returning power forward had himself a day in Knoxville as well, leading the Hoosiers with 21 points while hauling in 8 rebounds and dishing out 2 assists.
That rebounding stat should jump off the screen. Indiana had issues with the boards as a team last year but Reneau’s 6 rebounds per game isn’t necessarily the number you want from a power forward. If he takes that leap, it’ll help the team considerably.
He played more sound defense than he did at times last season, got to his spots down low and even hit a pick-and-pop 3-pointer off of an assist from Rice.
And speaking of the rebounding point…
Rebounding
Issues on the boards plagued the Hoosiers just about all of last year. Kel’el Ware was a near-guaranteed double-double night in and out, but the rest of the roster left something to be desired in that department.
Oumar Ballo looked every bit the part of the rebounding machine he’s known to be, grabbing 11 in 32 minutes of play, but players up and down the roster including Reneau and Goode got after misses.
Indiana lost the rebounding battle by one, 39-38, but the Volunteers were able to get a few long ones from the 35(!!!) 3s they shot.
Which leads us to…
3-point shooting
It’s Indiana so I’ve gotta mention it.
What I’m gonna say: I wouldn’t read too deeply into the box score on this one. Tennessee, again, took 35 and made 8 of those attempts. Indiana took 19 and made 4. Last year, Indiana averaged 15.5 attempts per game.
I’d get into the weeds more on averages and whatnot but again: it’s an exhibition and it’s just one game. The sample size here was a bit too small and the actual games are probably going to look different.
Oumar Ballo
Beyond the rebounding, Ballo scored 6 points, blocked one shot and came away with two steals. The thing about that was it didn’t feel like Indiana was asking Ballo to score too much.
He was cleaning the boards, yeah, but Ballo spent a significant amount of time near the crest of the arc with the ball in his hands, reading the floor. That’s not really what he’s known for and struck me.
Mike Woodson has challenged his bigs to expand their game and become multidimensional. For Trayce Jackson-Davis, it was being set free as a rim protector and dishing the ball out as a passer. For Kel’el Ware, it was playing through contact down low.
So it wasn’t something new. Woodson pushing a big a bit out of their comfort zone to make more of an impact on the game. Probably something to keep an eye on.
Lineups
Woodson was more than willing to go small and did so often. His starters included two bigs, Ballo and Reneau, but it wasn’t long before Reneau slid over to the center spot and Ballo left the game for Luke Goode.
He did this a few more times and it speaks to the versatility Indiana has this season. If Indiana feels it can win with two bigs, that’s an option. If it wants a bit more of a modern player at the four, that’s also an option.
Depth
Finally, Indiana was down two rotation players in Trey Galloway and Bryson Tucker.
Galloway is still recovering from an injury he suffered late last season, Tucker took a knee to the thigh in practice that Mike Woodson said was “nothing serious” and Jakai Newton is also still working his way back onto the court.
So that was a pretty solid performance for a team missing some key depth. Had Newton been fully healthy he almost certainly would’ve gotten minutes today.
