Woodson's Revamped Roster Gives Indiana Completely New Look Next Year

A roster full of better shooters should provide a new look on the floor for Indiana's basketball team next season, Mike Woodson's first as the head coach of the Hoosiers.

Tom Brew | May 28, 2021

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Four years of Archie Miller turned Indiana's fan base from fanatic to apathetic. It got so bad, and so predictable, that even opposing players like Illinois' Ayo Dosumnu and Purdue Sasha's Stefanovic talked openly about how easily Indiana's offense was to figure out.

Miller is gone now, and new Indiana coach Mike Woodson brings decades of NBA experience to Bloomington. He has completely revamped the roster, with four transfers and two high school recruits. The honeymoon period has begun and the first game is still five months off. But Woodson and had staff can finally get back on the floor wit their players on June 10, and he can't wait.

This much we know for sure. Come November, this Indiana basketball team will have a completely different look.

And that's encouraging.

"I'm excited about getting the whole group together and putting a system in place on both ends of the floor, and then we'll have individual workouts for each and every player and then you'll see who grows and how quickly they grow,'' Woodson said. "That's what coaching and basketball means to me, what it's always been about. These are all individual things that we got to do with players, but at the end of the day, it becomes a team when everybody is clicking on all cylinders and we're doing the things that are necessary to win on both ends of the floor.''

From the day Woodson arrived in Bloomington in late March, he's been preaching individual work and his players getting better. He had to do a sales job with top scorer and rebounder Trayce Jackson-Davis, and he was blunt enough to point out his shortcomings and promising to make him better, more NBA ready.

Right on down the list, from the first to the 13th player on the roster, that's the message, that they're all going to get better.

"When you look at the Davis kid, I sold him on how he's got to get better, from his right hand and being able to finish more willingly around the rim and he's got to got develop a shot.'' Woodson said. "When he picks and pops, he's got to feel about good making that shot.''

Making shots, obviously, is a huge focus on what this team will do different. There are more shot-makers on this roster now, most notably transfers Parker Stewart (UT-Martin) and Miller Kopp (Northwestern), who have already proven they can be effective three-point shooters at the college level. Xavier Johnson (Pittsburgh) will help as well, and even 7-foot center Michael Durr (USF) can make some threes, Woodson said.

"I think Miller was a guy that we had to address, because I think he can play 2, 3, and 4 at his size,'' Woodson said. "He possesses a weapon in being able to shoot the long ball.''

Kopp has made 122 three-pointers already during his three years at Northwestern, and he's added a piece that Indiana has been lacking – a forward with three-point range, Kopp will help fix that, and Woodson even thinks that forward Race Thompson will become more of a three-point threat this season as well.

And for the next five months, it's all about ALL OF THEM getting better. The fight for playing time is on. Improved shooting, from three and the free throw line, will be a priority.

"I like everybody to be able to make the threes. to be honest with you,'' Woodson said. "I think Tamar Bates, until he gets here from AAU and watching him play, he's shown he can make it, but now you got to show me you can make it at the next level.

"Same with (Trey) Galloway and guys like that. (Rob) Phinisee is streaky in his shooting, but these are things we all go to work on. This is our team as we move forward, and we are going to have to put the time in on the floor in terms of shooting the ball. Even from a free throw standpoint, because they just weren't a great free throw shooting team, we'll have to get better. All those areas have to be cleaned up if you're talking about competing big time in the Big Ten.''

For two years in a row, Miller went to battle with only 11 scholarship players instead of the allowed 13, and then injuries really sapped his depth. Indiana has 13 players now, and the right amount of diversity for Woodson and his staff to play with a lot of different look.

"I'm hoping to make everybody happy. I know I can't play everybody big minutes and I don't know how deep I'll go this season until I get on the floor and put it together,'' Woodson said. "But guys like Phinisee and Galloway and (Jordan) Geronimo, these are guys that have to get better. I've got to push them to get better for us to be better. That's going to be important as we move forward.

"And these new guys coming in, everything is new for them. They're going to be playing with different talents. So it's a matter of how quickly these guys are able to pick up things, because I'm going to throw things at them, not a lot of things at them like I would do at the NBA level. I've got to slow walk it a little bit I think. But I'm just interested to see how quickly they can adapt to what I'm trying to give them, and my staff. That's going to be important moving forward.''

Things will look different on the defensive end, too. Woodson joked at his Wednesday meeting with the media that he had no idea was the pack-line defense was. It will look different, too.

"I'll say this from a defensive standpoint: The ball is the first and most important piece when you start building a defense, and somehow I've got to get players to have pride in guarding the ball and not begging for help,'' Woodson said. "That's where it starts, and then you've got to put a system in place where if there is a break down, you've got to have help there and that helper has to have help and then the next man has to have help, so it becomes a team defense.

"I think great defensive teams, they work as a unit. Everybody is on a string, and when that damn ball goes up, everybody is responsible for rebounding, so you can go and do what you do the other way.''

Woodson was known as a great scorer at Indiana and in the pros, but he's always stressed defense at a coach, and that's not about to change. He is, after all, a product of the Bob Knight system.

"There are a lot of pieces in place that I've got to put in because I'm very picky when it comes to defending, and it all goes hand in hand. Great defensive teams learn to protect the paint and they learn to get out to shooters. It's all about effort and putting forth the will to defend.

"There is going to be lot of things moving forward with this team. Again, they don't know me and I don't know them yet. I only know them just from watching on film. That's why I'm so excited about getting them together and getting to work.

Related stories on Indiana basketball