Woodson Says He's Moving Tamar Bates Into Indiana's Starting Lineup

Trying to end repeated slow starts, Indiana coach Mike Woodson said Monday night that he's going to put sophomore guard Tamar Bates into the starting lineup on Thursday when the Hoosiers resume Big Ten play at Iowa. Bates has had three games of 19 or more points off the bench already this season.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana sophomore guard Tamar Bates has talked often about how much more comfortable he feels when he gets extended minutes. That's not uncommon for scorers, and it certainly works for Bates.

He's been one of Indiana's best offensive weapons of late, and with point guard Xavier Johnson (foot) out for extended time, Indiana coach Mike Woodson said Monday night that he's putting Bates in the starting lineup on Thursday night at Iowa, and will use junior guard Trey Galloway off the bench. 

Indiana guard Tamar Bates and coach Mike Woodson chat on the sidelines. (USA TODAY Sports)

"We will change the lineup up a little bit with (Xavier Johnson) being out," Woodson said during his radio show on Monday night with Don Fischer. "We're going to start Tamar and bring Galloway off the bench to kind of back the second unit because I need another ball-handler in that regard.

"When I think back to last season, a lot of games we got off to a pretty good start, and it's kind of been a roller-coaster ride this year. So we're going to have to shake the lineup up a bit probably to see if that works."

Through much of December, Indiana has struggled to score points in bunches early. They fell into deep holes in both showcase games against Kansas and Arizona and also in their lone Big Ten loss at Rutgers. They never got back over the hump, despite grinding out some comeback stretches in all three losses.. They even let Kennesaw State hang around for far too long in their last game on Dec. 23 before pulling away late for a 69-55 win.

Woodson thinks having Bates in the starting lineup might help the Hoosiers get off to better starts. The Hoosiers (10-3, 1-1 in the Big Ten) play at Iowa at 9 p.m. ET on Thursday night.

"Somehow, I've got to make the adjustments in terms of who starts and who comes off the bench," Woodson said. "It's important when you're playing the good teams, the really good teams like the Kansas's, the Arizona's, the Rutgers', you can't get off to a slow start. And in all three games, we got off to a slow start and we paid for it. And that's something moving forward that we've talked about a little bit."

Bates has scored 19 points or more three times this season, and during Indiana's first 13 games, he is averaging 9.2 points and 22.0 minutes per game, while shooting 41.7 percent (20-for-48) from three-point range, 52.3 percent from the field and 100 percent (10-for-10) at the free throw line.

Woodson loved the idea of having two point guards on the floor at the same time when he started Johnson with freshman Jalen Hood-Schifino. They spent much of the summer working with Galloway and Bates on their ball-handling skills. Galloway will now see more time at the point when Hood-Schifino needs a break.

"[Ball-handling is] something that we tried to train him and Tamar Bates, and even CJ (Gunn) a little bit," Woodson said. "We trained Tamar and Galloway this summer just for this reason alone, just in case something was to happen to one of the point guards. So it's not nothing new, they just got to demonstrate it when we're playing games."

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