Indiana Basketball Player Report Card: Bryson Tucker

Bryson Tucker was something of a mystery in terms of what his role would be with the Hoosiers. Like most freshmen, he struggled, showed some promise, but then didn’t play late in the season.

Indiana's Bryson Tucker (8) shoots over USC's Saint Thomas (0) during the Indiana versus University of Southern California men's basketball game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – As the Indiana offseason continues, and as new coach Darian DeVries builds a new roster for the Hoosiers, Hoosiers On SI will give out grades for individual players based on their performances in 2024-25.

We continue the series with guard Bryson Tucker.

Preseason Expectations

Tucker was something of a mystery man. Like Mackenzie Mgbako the season before, Tucker was recruited late in the game. He was signed in late March 2024.

He was a five-star recruit from Arlington, Va. He played at Bishop O’Connell High School – the same school where Indiana point guard Xavier Johnson played.

A 6-foot-6 guard, Tucker was unusual in this era in that he didn’t play on the AAU circuit. He is also young for his class. He was 17 when he graduated. He did play on USA Basketball’s U16 team in 2021 and averaged 9.5 points.

How he fit in with the rest of the Hoosiers amassed for the 2024-25 season was also a bit of a mystery. Size-wise he was closer to Mgbako than smaller guards like Myles Rice or Kanaan Carlyle.

He was not noted for his 3-point shooting, so he wasn’t going to be a floor spreader. With Indiana possessing plenty of inside scoring options, Tucker’s fit wasn’t obvious.

How The Season Went

Indiana's Bryson Tucker (8) shoots over Chattanooga's Garrison Keeslar (24) during the Indiana versus Chattanooga men's basketball game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2204. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Tucker came off the bench in all 23 games he played for the Hoosiers. During the nonconference portion of the schedule, he regularly played between 14-28 minutes per game. He was an important piece off the bench. He was smooth, but he had a physical side that came out from time to time.

One skill that Tucker demonstrated right from the start was a deadly fade-away jumper. He had the propensity to penetrate into the lane, typically near the elbow. He would draw a defender or two, but fade off of them for a jumper. It was a difficult shot to defend if you weren’t prepared for it.

Tucker had some productive games. He was 5 of 7 from the field against Eastern Illinois, he was 5 of 9 against UNC Greensboro and 6 of 10 against Minnesota.

Like a lot of freshmen, he was also prone to cold streaks. In the first two months of the season, he had six games where he shot 33.3% or worse.

Tucker showed an ability to rebound, but as the season went along he didn’t develop much else in his game. He was an okay defender, but not a lockdown kind of player.

Once Big Ten play began, Tucker’s minutes began to decline along with his production. After Dec. 9, he never had another game where he reached double-figure scoring. After 25- and 23-minute games against USC and Iowa in early January, he only broke 20 minutes one more time for the remainder of the season. He missed four games in mid-January for reasons unannounced by the Hoosiers, though Mike Woodson mentioned a vague injury on a late January radio show appearance, Woodson’s last as it turned out.

By then, it was clear the Big Ten teams had sussed out Tucker’s jump shot. He wasn’t getting it as easily against Big Ten foes as he had early in the season. It’s not uncommon for freshmen to go through this as they adjust to playing in college.

Tucker returned to action in Indiana’s near-miss loss at Purdue on Jan. 31. He played four more games after that – none of them in a prominent role apart from 24 minutes played at Wisconsin in a game that was out of the Hoosiers’ hands by the second media timeout.

After Tucker played five minutes in a loss to UCLA on Feb. 14, he did not play again, even though he was around the team for the entire time.

No explanation was given – and it may never be given. Woodson is gone. Tucker is assessing his future with Indiana as this was written. Whether it was an injury, a disagreement with the coaching staff or whether he was shut down for an otherwise unexplained reason has not yet been publicly revealed.

Player Grade

Indiana Hoosiers forward Bryson Tucker (8) brings the ball up court against the Iowa Hawkeyes during the first half at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. / Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

There is a good player inside Tucker. Outside of bigs, Indiana did not have a great track record of developing players in the Woodson era. Tucker needed some development help. If he got it, it didn’t stick during his first season.

He’s hard to grade because of the nature of the final month of the season. The twilight zone that Indiana was in due to Woodson’s job situation made it weird for everyone. Was Tucker a victim of that? Or did he come apart a bit when it occurred?

Hard to know one way or another. Tucker certainly wasn’t a major contributor, but apart from being a highly touted recruit – something that has such a wide variance of success or failure in the first place – how much was really expected from Tucker?

For that reason, I’m inclined to grade Tucker kindly. In some ways, he got caught up in the strange vibe of the season itself. It will be interesting if DeVries wants to keep him around because Tucker fits the definition of the kind of guard DeVries had on some of his best teams.

Grade: C.

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