Indiana Basketball So Far: Much Like His Team, Myles Rice Has Been Up And Down

Myles Rice is a vital part of Indiana’s attack, but consistency has been hard to come by.

Indiana's Myles Rice (1) directs the offense 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

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana men’s basketball is a third of the way through its season. Twelve games are in the books with a minimum of 19 to go, though it will likely be more assuming the Hoosiers make the Big Ten Tournament.

With the usual Christmas pause in games upon us, it’s a good time to look at Indiana’s most important contributors and how they’ve fared so far.

All players who have played 10 minutes per game will have a story devoted to them except Anthony Leal. The senior has not played in enough games (Leal only reached 10 minutes in four of the six games he played) to have a workable sample size.

We’ll start with point guard Myles Rice.

One note. Below you will see a graphic listing points produced, points allowed, net points and foul trouble.

Points produced and points allowed are included in the advanced box score provided to the media via live stats from each game.

Points produced and points allowed are based on how many points a player is responsible for or allows while on the court based on a per 100 possessions standard. The formula, developed by basketball analyst Dr. Dean Oliver, is way too complicated to explain here, but that’s the basic premise.

Net points is merely the points produced with points allowed subtracted.

Foul trouble is a measure I did myself. Foul trouble is obviously important because it compromises the rotation, but if a player plays with fouls, it can also compromise their defense.

A player qualified as being in foul trouble if: a) they picked up two fouls in the first half; b) picked up a third foul before 15 minutes are left in the second half; or c) picked up a fourth foul before five minutes are left in the second half.

The reason for this standard is to eliminate accumulated fouls late in the game that are done purposely to put the opposition at the free throw line. Those are not fouls that are bad or that necessarily compromise the team in the way earlier fouls do.

Myles Rice: Tale Of The Tape

Points, Rebounds, Assists: 11 ppg, 1.8 rpg, 3.2 apg.

Percentages: 48.5% FG, 54.9 2P%, 34.4 3P%, 87.5 FT%.

Advanced stats: 21.7% usage, 0.4 Offensive Win Shares, 0.6 Defensive Win Shares, 0.9 Overall Win Shares.

Opponent	Points Produced	Points Allowed	Net Points	Foul Trouble
SIU-Edwardsville	13.6	9.6	4	N
Eastern Illinois	6.3	8	-1.7	N
South Carolina	24.8	15.7	9.1	N
UNC-Greensboro	22.6	11.6	11	N
Louisville	3.5	10.5	-7	N
Gonzaga	6.6	10.6	-4	Y
Providence	7	11.8	-4.8	Y
Sam Houston	19.8	14.2	5.6	Y
Miami (Ohio)	9.6	11.8	-2.2	N
Minnesota	7.5	7.5	0	N
at Nebraska	20.4	9.6	10.8	Y
Chattanooga	5.9	9	-3.1	Y

What’s Been Good

NCAA Basketball Indiana guard Myles Rice / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

One thing that stands out when you look at Rice’s game-by-game performance is that when he involves himself in the offense in terms of shots, he tends to be a lot more productive. That might seem obvious, but it’s not true for every player, many of whom shoot regardless of whether they’re hitting them.

Rice rarely has a game where he takes a volume of shots and doesn’t make them count. In the five games where Rice took 10 shots or more, he was over 50% in four of them. The only dud was a 1-for-11 performance against Louisville – a game in which Indiana was collectively terrible.

Rice should almost certainly take more shots. He’s taken fewer than 10 shots seven times and fewer than five shots twice.

Vital for a point guard, Rice is very good at free throws. He’s converted 87.5%, though he needs to get to the line more as he only averages two attempts per game.

Rice can be opportunistic defensively as 1.1 steals per game, though that’s down from his 1.6 average at Washington State in 2023-24. Rice’s overall advanced defensive stats are solid. He’s one of the few players to cover himself well in conference games. At barttorvik.com, Rice has a 5.2 defensive box plus-minus in Indiana’s part of Big Ten games, a good rating.

What Needs Work

Sam Houston State Bearkats guard Josiah Hammons (57) dribbles the ball while Indiana Hoosiers guard Myles Rice (1) defends in the first half at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. / Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

Consistency is the main thing. Rice has a wide variance in form in almost every aspect. Whether it’s scoring, defense, foul trouble – the game-to-game points on a graph are very dispersed.

In scoring, for example, Rice has not had more than two games in a row where he’s reached double-figure scoring. He’s had three games over 20 points, but five games at five points or worse. His assist and steal totals similarly space themselves out.

Rice also needs to improve his assist-to-turnover ratio. He has 38 assists-to-31 turnovers, a plus-1.23 ratio. Rice ranks 90th among Big Ten players in the category and rates behind teammates Trey Galloway and Malik Reneau. Generally, point guards should rank near the top in this category – or at least within the top 18 among 18 Big Ten teams – and Rice is well short of that mark.

Rice has had four games where he’s been in foul trouble, but they’ve all come since the Gonzaga game at Battle 4 Atlantis so that needs to be shored up.

Is The Scheme Helping?

As the point guard, Rice is most vulnerable to Indiana’s uncertainty as far as what it wants to be offensively. Some of the “what needs work” above is attributable to the team as much as it is to Rice.

For example, is Rice a pass-first or score-first point guard? It seems to change by game. The glass half-full view would be that Rice’s talents give him an open role to do both. The glass half-empty view would suggest he needs his role defined more clearly.

Rice is one player where the Should Malik Reneau And Oumar Ballo Be On The Floor At The Same Time debate has some currency. That pair works well together, well enough to perhaps give up some scoring from the guards, but does Rice have space to work if both have defenders clogging up the lane to account for them? How much does that hurt players like Rice?

Rice is collectively part of the problem when it comes to Indiana’s problems with switching and help defense on the perimeter. None of Indiana’s guards escape scrutiny in that department.

The debate can be had on the root of these problems. Whether these problems are due to a defensive system that is ineffective overall, that would be 100% on the coaching staff.

Whether it’s a mix of players not absorbing what’s being taught from a system that might work – which would be a 50/50 proposition. Or whether it’s just pure poor execution, which would be 100% on the players. The truth is somewhere in there, but it hasn’t been identified by players or coaches yet. Until it is, Rice and Indiana’s other guards will suffer for it along with the rest of the team.

Related stories on Indiana basketball

• INDIANA GETS BY AGAINST CHATTANOOGA: The Hoosiers defeated Chattanooga, but some of their weaknesses were on display in the winning effort. CLICK HERE.

• HOOSIERS STILL GETTING TOP 25 CONSIDERATION: Indiana is still in the "also receiving votes" section of the AP Top 25 poll. CLICK HERE.