My Two Cents: 'Next Man Up' Mantra Being Put to the Test at Indiana

With Xavier Johnson and Race Thompson out for a while with injuries, Indiana needs to rely heavily on its depth now, and several guys need to step up, starting on Sunday against Northwestern. The ''next man up'' mantra is really going to be tested, especially up front.

Tom Brew | Jan 8, 2023

My Two Cents: 'Next Man Up' Mantra Being Put to the Test at Indiana /

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Indiana Hoosiers

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana point guard Xavier Johnson has played 129 college games in four-plus years and starting forward Race Thompson has played 114, including 76 starts in a row.

On Sunday, though, Johnson will be zipping around Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on his scooter, or maybe walking around with a boot on his foot after surgery last month. He's out for at least another month. And Thompson, who got hurt on Thursday night at Iowa, is out indefinitely with a knee injury. He'll be hobbling around on crutches when Indiana takes on Northwestern at Noon ET. (Here's how to watch the game: CLICK HERE)

Two starters down, right at the start of the resumption of the Big Ten season. That hurts, and it hurts bad.

Next man up.

It's a tired, old phrase, of course, and it's often overused. But it's also very true. Indiana needs others to step up — and quickly — with Thompson and Johnson down.

Johnson injured his foot early in the Kansas game on Dec. 17, and needed surgery a week later. He and freshman Jalen Hood-Schifino — both with serious point guard skills — were playing great together early in the season.

They played side-by-side in the first seven games, and Indiana won them all, including national TV showdowns at Xavier and home against preseason No. 1 North Carolina.

But in these next seven games, they have played all of six minutes together. Hood-Schifino missed three games with a back injury, unable to go against Rutgers, Nebraska and Arizona, and the Hoosiers lost two of three games without him.

He came back for the Dec. 17 game at Kansas, and the two started the game together but played only six minutes and nine seconds together. Johnson went down with a foot injury in the first half, and never returned. He's missed the last three games after surgery. His rehab is going well, Johnson said Thursday, and he's hoping to be back by February.

Hood-Schifino, a five-star recruit out of Montverde Academy in Florida, has played well in going it alone at the point. He had 21 against Iowa on Thursday, and made five three-pointers.

The stage, clearly, is not too big for him.

Indiana guards Trey Galloway (32) and Tamar Bates (53) need to step up for the Hoosiers with Xavier Johnson out after foot surgery. (USA TODAY Sports)

It's guys like Tamar Bates and Trey Galloway who have been tagged with the ''next man up role,'' though. Both have started at the two-guard, and both — Galloway especially — has to pick up the point guard minutes.

With Johnson out, those two really need to step up. They've had their moments, but have had some struggles, too. Bates was just 2-for-8 at Kansas after Johnson went out, and was just 3-for-9 in his first start at Iowa. He's scored 19 points twice this year (Nebraska, Kennesaw State), and had a career-high 22 against Jackson State.

He's been up and down a lot — too much, probably — and really needs to step up and be more of a scorer for this team. He's got to be a double-digit guy, and not by going 5-for-15. He needs to be more efficient on the offensive end.

That's how ''next man up'' works.

Galloway is in the same boat. He can pick up some of these point guard minutes, which is big, but he also needs to be more productive on the offensive end. Since Johnson went down, he has played 100 minutes and only taken 12 shots. He's 6-for-12, and 2-for-4 from three. He's only scored 21 points, and. that's simply not enough.

What we do know, too, is that Bates and Galloway are both capable of doing more. We saw Bates take over that Nebraska game, the Hoosiers' only Big Ten win so far. And we saw Galloway score 20 in the same game and have 11 huge points in the big win over North Carolina.

So it's there, and we just need to see more of it. And we also have to wonder if or when freshman C.J.Gunn or even Anthony Leal can step in at the perimeter spots and add something, too.

We've seen plenty with Johnson out for three-plus games now, but starting on Sunday, we'll see how the Hoosiers can fix the ''next man up'' void at the power forward position.

This has me concerned. Very concerned.

Indiana coach Mike Woodson (right) chats with freshman forward Malik Reneau. (USA TODAY Sports)

Indiana hasn't gotten up much up front lately outside of Trayce Jackson-Davis and Thompson, who had nine quick points in the Iowa game while the Hoosiers were pulling out to a big lead.

The biggest disappointment so far has been with freshman forward Malik Reneau, Hood-Schifin's teammate at Montverde, and Jordan Geronimo, the junior forward.

Reneau has been hard to figure. He scored double figures in four of his first five games in an Indiana uniform, but he's scored only 32 points in his last eight games, a 4.0 average per game after averaging 10.7 points per game in the first six.

He keeps getting into foul trouble, and he's been exposed a bit against top-rate opponents. Indiana coach Mike Woodson has mentioned often that Reneau, a 6-foot-9 left-handed forward just like Jackson-Davis, is still learning how hard he has to play at this level. It's a work in progress.

The problem, though, is that Indiana really needs him now. He only played six minutes on Thursday night, even with Thompson out. He had three quick fouls, and never took a shot. Woodson went with Geronimo at the four almost exclusively in the second half, playing 14 minutes. I'm not a big plus-minus guy, but he was a minus-16, the lowest for Indiana.

Geronimo really struggled trying to guard Iowa star Kris Murray. He had only scored two points in the first 12 minutes of the game — Race Thompson did a great job on him — but finished with 30, many against Geronimo.

I've said it often that Geronimo is a great athlete, but he's more of a vertical athlete with great jumping ability. He's not that great horizontally as a defensive player, and struggles to guard players who can attack the basket against him with the dribble.

He's going to need to be better, too. We know he can explode at times, especially on the offensive glass, but with Thompson out, he's going to need to do more offensively and be more of a stopper on the defensive end.

It's going to be interesting to see how Woodson uses them, starting on Sunday. Who starts? I would like to see Reneau start, and try to get some run while also staying out of foul trouble. He's a top recruit himself, and Indiana needs him to play at a high level these next two months. Geronimo, off the bench, might be better, adding a spark. That needs to happen on a more consistent level, too.

There's always the thought that Indiana could go small, too, and slide Miller Kopp to the four and start both Bates and Galloway. We'll find out in a few hours, of course, and we'll let you know what's going on right away,

We're going to learn a lot about the Hoosiers on Sunday. They are 8-0 at home this season, but Northwestern is playing well and has won both of their road games straight up, beat Georgetown and Michigan State.

Guys need to step up — and right now — or the Hoosiers are going to start digging themselves a big hole.

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