Mike Woodson Altering Indiana’s Offense With New-Look Roster

With seven newcomers, Indiana coach Mike Woodson believes he has his most talented roster, one that can play a different style of offense from his first three seasons.

Coach Mike Woodson answers questions during Indiana basketball's media day at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Coach Mike Woodson is tinkering with changes to Indiana’s offense heading into his fourth season.

A faster pace, more 3-point shooting and small-ball lineups have all been mentioned by Woodson and his players as emphases during preseason practices following significant roster changes this offseason.

Indiana lost six players from last year’s team that missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three seasons under Woodson. He replaced them with a six-man transfer class that’s ranked No. 2 in the nation and five-star freshman Bryson Tucker, who joined a roster with three of its top four scorers returning from last season.

“There’s no doubt it’s the best talent and the best roster we’ve had, and that’s not taking anything away from the last three previous seasons,” Woodson said in August.

Woodson maintains that defense wins games, but the combination of Indiana’s newcomers and returners create his deepest, most versatile and potentially best overall offense he’s had in four years in Bloomington. Its traits are shaping up to look different from Woodson’s previous rosters. 

That starts with playing fast. Over the last three seasons, Indiana has finished 122nd, 145th and 175th out of 362 teams nationally in adjusted tempo, per KenPom.com, which defines that as possessions per 40 minutes. 

Woodson had a speedy guard in Xavier Johnson who could push the pace, but he played in just 31 of Indiana’s 68 games over the last two seasons due to injury. When healthy, he was less effective than he was in 2021-22. Jalen Hood-Schifino excelled at a more methodical pace in half-court offense in 2022-23, and last year Indiana did not have enough guard depth to withstand Johnson’s injury and generate a potent offense. 

A major focus when building Indiana’s 2024-25 roster was improving the back court. That started with transfer portal guards Myles Rice from Washington State and Kanaan Carlyle from Stanford. Rice was named first-team All-Pac-12 and Pac-12 freshman of the year last season, averaging 14.8 points and 3.8 assists per game. Woodson said Rice has some traits similar to Allen Iverson, who he coached from 2001-03 as an assistant with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Washington State Cougars guard Myles Rice (2) drives against Colorado. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Rice said he’s been telling his teammates in practice that if they run the floor with him in transition, they’ll be rewarded with easy layups or open threes. 

“[Woodson] wants us to play fast, and I feel like he brought in the players and returned the players so that he feels we can do that,” Rice said. “And for me, I like to get up and down, I like to go coast to coast, I like to push the pace a little more, so we’re able to get more possessions. So I just feel like it’s more so about us dictating how we want to play versus kind of adapting. We want to be the initiator to a lot of stuff.”

Carlyle was an honorable mention for the Pac-12 All-Freshman team after scoring 11.5 points per game. He was recently tabbed No. 43 on ESPN’s top-100 2025 NBA Draft board, the lone Hoosier to make the list. Speed and quickness are two of Rice and Carlyle’s top attributes.

Conditioning plays a big role in Indiana’s ability to push the pace this season. But Woodson said it also comes with a change in his coaching style, with more of an emphasis on playing open and fast. He thinks turnovers are a potential downside to playing at a faster pace. 

“We got guards now that are a lot quicker than we’ve had in the past,” Woodson said. “I think Myles and Kanaan bring a totally different look. And then [Luke] Goode, Bryson [Tucker] being the young freshman who’s very talented, still gotta learn the college game but has played extremely well, I think, this summer for us.” 

“I’d like to play a little bit quicker this year, where we’re not walking it up. There were times we had fast break points that we made off of turnovers with our defense, but I’d like to play a little bit faster on makes. That’s something we’ve been working on since we put this team together this summer.”

Trey Galloway is the longest tenured Hoosier, along with Anthony Leal. Entering his fifth-year senior season, Galloway has already seen the impact Rice and Carlyle have had on Indiana’s new offensive approach. 

“It’s been great, because obviously it’s a new identity with a new team,” Galloway said. “So bringing in guys like Myles and Kanaan and stuff like that, guys that can play at a fast pace, I think that’s one thing that we’re really gonna look at this year is playing really fast. That’s one thing we’re gonna change a lot. Obviously last year there were times we could play fast a little bit, but this year the speed we got and the guys that can all handle the ball. It’s not just one guy that can bring the ball up, it’s multiple guys, so just getting out in transition and being able to run is the biggest thing that we’ve been focused on.”

Galloway’s role has changed throughout his Indiana career. He excelled off the ball in 2022-23, shooting 46.2% from 3-point range and playing solid defense. But injuries forced him to play more point guard for Indiana last season. While his scoring and distributing numbers increased to 10.6 points and 4.6 assists per game, Galloway’s 3-point and free-throw shooting dropped to career lows of 26% and 53.3%, respectively.

As he works his way back from knee surgery, Galloway is preparing for different responsibilities in his final season as a Hoosier.

“My role has changed every year, and it's gonna change this year as well. But just being able to sacrifice that and be able to move into different positions is great,” Galloway said. “I think just being able to have guys like Myles and the new guys come in, it's gonna really help my game as well, just being able to space the floor and make plays off the dribble and stuff. So it's gonna be great."

Stanford Cardinal guard Kanaan Carlyle (3) dribbles against Washington State. / Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

Having dynamic guards like Rice and Carlyle should help create more open looks from 3-point range than recent seasons. Indiana has been one of the least frequent 3-point shooting teams in the country under Woodson. Last season, 27.8% of Indiana’s field goal attempts came from 3-point range. That put the Hoosiers 351st in the nation in 3-point attempt rate. Indiana has ranked 321st or lower in that category during each of the last three seasons. 

A main reason behind its lack of 3-point attempts stems from roster construction. Last year, the Hoosiers shot 32.4%, which ranked 255th, their worst under Woodson. The far more efficient route to scoring was by passing the ball inside to Kel’el Ware, who shot 60.9% on 2-point attempts and Malik Reneau, who shot 59% on 2-point attempts. They simply didn’t have enough capable 3-point shooters to warrant many attempts.

Woodson’s first year aligned with his third. Indiana shot 33.3% from 3-point range, good for 200th in the country, and 31.1% of its field goal attempts came from beyond the arc, 321st nationally.

Indiana was actually a solid 3-point shooting team in 2022-23, when it ranked 39th in the nation at 36.8%. But even during that season, 3-point shooting wasn’t a frequent part of Indiana’s offensive approach, which centered around Trayce Jackson-Davis, a non-3-point shooter. Just 26.6% of its field goal attempts came from 3-point range that year, which ranked 351st in the nation.

Miller Kopp led the Hoosiers in 3-point shooting that season at 44.4%, but he attempted just 4.1 3-pointers per game. Woodson added Illinois transfer Luke Goode this offseason, who’s similar to Kopp in some ways as a 6-foot-7 sharpshooting wing. 

“The way [Goode] can space the floor is incredible, and he can really shoot the ball,” Galloway said. “So we’re very excited to have that and him be a part of it.”

Woodson envisions even more attempts for Goode than Kopp. The former Illini is a career 38.8% 3-point shooter whose 157 attempts last season top both of Kopp’s seasons at Indiana.

“We didn’t run a whole lot for Miller. Goode, we will, you know, because the makeup of our team is totally different,” Woodson said. “We were Trayce Jackson driven at that particular time early on, even though we ran more pick and rolls than we did post the ball. You guys probably don’t realize that, but we did. The last three years, we ran more pick and rolls. But you gotta have shooters around pick and rolls for it to be really effective. So we’ll do combinations of sets, and then we’ll open the court up a little bit. That’s kind of how I want to play.”

Illinois wing Luke Goode (10) celebrates after scoring against Iowa State in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. / Winslow Townson-Imagn Images

The 3-pointers won’t just come from Goode, Rice, Carlyle and Galloway, though. Sophomore Mackenzie Mgbako has a case to be Indiana’s best 3-point shooter after a strong finish to his freshman season. The 6-foot-8 forward shot 37.8% from beyond the arc during Big Ten play, a significant improvement from his 23.6% 3-point shooting in nonconference play.

Gabe Cupps shot 35.9% from 3-point range as a freshman, and Anthony Leal shot a career-high 47.4% from long range last season. Galloway agrees with Rice and Woodson that Indiana has the roster to be a stronger 3-point shooting team this year.

“We’ve got guys that can create off the dribble, and that depth is huge for us,” Galloway said. “So we have the post presence as well, but those guys are capable passers and great passers out of the post. So being able to make spot-ups and take spot-ups and obviously off the dribble and being able to drive off the dribble and catch and shoot will be good for us. So I think we’re gonna take a lot more and make a lot more. So it’s good. The 3-ball is very important in this stage’s game.”

Woodson said Reneau has stepped outside the paint more during practices this offseason, too. He shot 33.3% from 3-point range on 45 attempts as a sophomore, and Woodson wants to see if he can make one each game on two or three attempts.

Indiana added Arizona transfer Oumar Ballo this offseason, who played 27.6 and 26 minutes per game over the last two seasons, respectively. Woodson isn’t sure yet how many minutes Ballo and Reneau will play together, but he said he may keep Ballo around his career average in minutes.

That opens the door to Woodson playing more small-ball lineups with Goode and Mgbako at the small forward and power forward positions. Add to the equation 6-foot-6 freshman Bryson Tucker, who can play multiple positions, and Woodson has plenty of lineup flexibility. 

Indiana rarely played small ball during Woodson’s first seasons. Lineups with Mgbako at power forward were featured just 11.5% of the time across Indiana’s final five games last year, and seven of its 10 most frequent lineups featured Reneau and Ware on the court together. Small ball was even less common in Woodson's first two seasons, with Reneau, Race Thompson and Jackson-Davis dominating the front court minutes.

But like Indiana’s ability to push the pace and shoot more threes with its retooled roster, Woodson sees an opportunity to play smaller lineups that could be more difficult for opponents to defend.

“We’re shooting a number of threes now. As I speak, you guys are probably happy about that, but you still gotta make them,” Woodson said. “... [Reneau] can still play in the hole some when we take Ballo out and play some five. And we can really go small with Mack and Goode playing together, because they’re our two best shooters right now in terms of shooting. But Gabe’s been shooting it well, and Myles and Kanaan have been scoring the ball well.”

McDonald's All American Bryson Tucker speaks during a press conference at JW Marriott in Houston. / Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

After a disappointing season last year, Woodson’s offseason roster overhaul has put Indiana in the preseason conversation as a top-15 team. He believes this is his most talented and deepest roster in four years at Indiana, one that should play an uptempo style with more potent outside shooting.

Now, Woodson’s tasked with putting it all together. 

“My problem now is, who’s gonna play?” Woodson said. “We got enough talent, you know, and it’s gonna be based on what you do. You gotta come in, when you get put in the game, you gotta play. You gotta produce.”

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