If there's one thing that clearly destroyed Indiana's 2023-24 season, it was flawed roster construction.
For whatever reason, Mike Woodson and his staff were unable to acquire any big-time guard talent in the transfer portal last spring. And that incident, along with the injury suffered by Xavier Johnson, plagued them all year on both ends of the floor.
It seems like a clear lesson has been learned.
The Hoosiers wasted no time and jumped into the transfer portal with both feet, even if it meant skipping the NIT.
With strong economic tailwinds in the Name, Image and Likeness era, Indiana has aggressively attacked in the offseason and has achieved impressive results thus far.
How impressive is that?
Through Saturday, Indiana acquired Kanaan Carlisle (Stanford), Omar Baro (Arizona State) and Miles Rice (Washington State), making it No. 1 in transfer portal acquisitions in 2024, according to 247Sports. Ta. You never imagined how impactful the Big Ten's poaching of four Pac-12 teams would be leading to its demise, right?
Indiana's current 10-man scholarship roster produces an overall rating expected to rank in the top 15 based on final standings in 2024, according to data from Bart Torvik.
Carlisle and Rice provide Indiana with dynamic playmaking guards. Rice was named first team All-Pac-12 as a freshman. Carlisle, also as a freshman, had three games in which he scored 22 or more points against a top-ranked opponent in the majors. Some would argue that Indiana hasn't had a guard of that caliber on its roster since Yogi Ferrell, with the exception of Jalen Hood-Schifino. And now there are two.
It's interesting to compare Carlisle and Rice's freshman seasons to North Carolina's RJ Davis and Caleb Love in 2020-21. No one would argue that Carlisle and Rice would have similar careers to Davis and Love, but it's not unreasonable to argue that IU's two new guards were better than freshmen Davis and Love.
There are concerns about Carlisle and Rice's 3-point shooting ability, but please take that into account.
As a freshman at UNC, Davis hit 32 percent from three while Love hit 26 percent. Those conversion rates are about the same as freshmen Carlisle and Rice, respectively. Davis and Love both improved to 36% in his sophomore year, which is not crazy. That improvement was enough to lead his UNC to the national title game. It's no exaggeration to say that with both Carlisle and Rice shooting around 36% from three as sophomores, Indiana will be in big trouble for opponents. And directionally, that kind of shooting improvement doesn't seem unreasonable.
CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein said Saturday following Carlisle's addition, “Indiana State is a consensus top 25 team entering the 2024-25 season.” But does IU have enough talent to reach the Final Four like North Carolina in 2022? After all, Woodson has said many times that his goal is to win a championship, and the fan base shares his desire.
As impressive as things have been for Woodson and his staff so far, what we've seen so far has been kind of the “easy” part when it comes to rounding out the roster. And it looks like the Hoosiers are still a step or two away from really filling out their roster and being talked about as one of the best teams next season.
No, it really isn't easy to acquire talent like Carlisle, Burro, and Rice. But importantly, all three can commit to IU with some comfort that they will have key roles next season.
In addition to those three, returning players Trey Galloway, Malik Luhnow, and Mackenzie Mugako, as well as freshman Bryson Tucker, are expected to get the majority of playing time as of now.
Virtually everyone in the transfer portal wants playing time. They may all have other reasons for taking action, but they all want meaningful action. And it's not easy for IU to promise that with a straight face now. This fact has undoubtedly played a role in their missing recruiting of Connor Hickman, Ryan Conwell, and possibly Connor Essesian in their portal.
What do these three people have in common? They are very good shooters. And Indiana will no doubt continue to look for proven shooters to fill roles on the wings or in the frontcourt to fill out the roster.
Players like Evansville's Ben Hamrikas, Grace College's Elijah Malone, and Florida Gulf Coast's Zach Anderson have all received interest from IU but have made it to this roster without attracting public attention. There are plenty of other players who could come forward and really push themselves to an elite level.
Woodson and his staff have gotten this far, so there's no reason to doubt them now.
But it's not easy.
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