Who Compares? Top Three Ex-Indiana Players Who Produced Like Malik Reneau

Hoosiers On SI examines past Hoosiers whose stats or style were similar to current ones.

Indiana's Malik Reneau (5) works on Michigan State's Malik Hall (25) during the first half of the Indiana versus Michigan State men's basketball game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Sunday, March 10, 2024. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald Times / USA TODAY NETWORK

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Regardless of the sport, something you often hear when players are discussed is who their “comp” is?

“Comp,” as in, who are they comparable to from earlier teams?

It’s a natural thought process, “that player looks like so-and-so,’’ and one that long-time Indiana fans no doubt apply to current players when they see them.

Here at Hoosiers on Sports Illustrated, we thought it would be interesting to look at the data and see which former Indiana players best compare to today’s players.

This isn't intended to find an exact replica of a current Indiana player. It's hard to compare eras. Someone with the exact same body type and skill set as, say, Malik Reneau, would be used differently in 1960 or 1990.

Rather, it's just an exercise in finding former Indiana players who are either similar in role or similar statistically, but most of all, who had a similar impact on their teams with statistical basis to back it up.

Rules for comparisons are listed below. We start today with Malik Reneau.

Overview

Reneau had a fascinating sophomore campaign. For the second straight season, the 6-foot-9, 233-pound Miami native played alongside a dominant center.

During Reneau’s freshman campaign, it was Trayce Jackson-Davis. In 2024, it was Kel’el Ware, though Reneau was partnered with Ware quite a bit more than he was with Jackson-Davis as Reneau’s minutes doubled during his sophomore season.

Reneau started all 33 of Indiana’s games. He just missed out on being top scorer with 15.4 points to Ware’s 15.9, but Reneau actually took more shots (355-321) than Ware did.

Reneau became a dependable post presence for the Hoosiers. He is bulky enough to hold his own against bigger opposition, and he began to demonstrate signs of extending his shooting range with 1.4 3-point attempts per game.

Tale of the tape

Malik Reneau '24 traditional statistics: 15.4 points, 6 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 0.6 blocks per game. He converted 55.8% of his shots. He did not shoot enough 3-point shots to take his percentage into consideration. He is listed at 6-foot-9 and 233 pounds.

Malik Reneau '24 advanced statistics, as used by sports-reference.com: Reneau had 2.9 win shares and a 20.6 Player Efficiency Rating. He had a 27.9% usage percentage, a 20.4% assist percentage, an 11.9% total rebounding percentage and a 1.1 defensive box plus-minute rating.

Some of the advanced statistics are explained below. Comparable players are listed with the relevant year affixed to their name.

Honorable mention

In the pre-advanced stats era, Joby Wright ’70 had similar production to Reneau. In his sophomore season, Wright – a future pro in both the NBA and ABA, an Indiana assistant coach, and Division I head coach at Miami of Ohio and Wyoming – averaged 14.7 points and 8.4 rebounds.

Wright (6-8) is just one inch shorter than Reneau. He didn’t shoot as well as Reneau (47.1%), but rebounded at a higher clip.

Same goes for Tom Bolyard ’61. The eventual All-Big Ten player averaged 15.5 points, 9.1 rebounds and converted 42.5% of his shots in his sophomore campaign. Bolyard, however, was smaller at 6-4.

Cody Zeller ’13 matches up closely in traditional stats: 16.5 points, 8 rebounds, and very close to Reneau with a 56.8% shooting percentage, but the comparison falls apart when advanced stats, role and body type are applied.

Zeller was good for 7.3 win shares in 2013, a reflection of the fact he was the Hoosiers’ leading scorer. Zeller’s far superior 3.8 defensive box plus-minus rating also greatly out-paces Reneau. Zeller was listed as a forward but had a role more like a center, and he is a 7-footer, much taller than Reneau.

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3. Christian Watford ‘11

Jan 4, 2011; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Indiana Hoosiers forward Christian Watford (2) during the first half against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Williams Arena. Minnesota defeated Indiana 67-63. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports / Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

Indiana was still emerging from its NCAA-imposed wilderness period during the 2011 season – the Hoosiers finished with an 11-20 mark before they lifted off the following season. However, Watford showed signs of his potential in his sophomore campaign much as Reneau did.

Watford averaged 16 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 2011, not far off of Reneau. Where Reneau has an edge is in field goal percentage – Watford only shot 42.2% - but that’s a reflection of Watford stretching the floor much more than Reneau has with 3-point shooting. 

It’s advanced stats where the comparison comes into focus. Watford’s 3.5 win shares, 11.5% rebounding percentage and 29.6% usage rate are very close to Reneau.

Indiana played Derek Elston and Tom Pritchard in the post. Though Watford is taller than Reneau at 6-foot-9, the roles were similar as both played off of the assigned big man. They both weighed almost the same as well.

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2. Eric Anderson '90

Indiana's Eric Anderson snares a rebound in a Nov. 29, 1989 game against Miami of Ohio. The game occurred during Anderson's sophomore season with the Hoosiers. / Indiana University Arbutus

Anderson is a fascinating player – the first building block in Bob Knight’s last great team he compiled in the early 1990s, but not part of the famed 1989 freshman class that fueled those teams.

During Anderson’s sophomore season in 1990, those players were freshmen learning the ropes and the Hoosiers had a transition season with an 18-11 record.

Apart from Calbert Cheaney, who was great straight out of the box, Anderson was the next option on these Hoosiers, who lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to California.

There are no advanced stats available for Anderson, so traditional stats have to be relied upon. Anderson averaged 16.3 points and seven rebounds per game, very similar to Reneau’s sophomore output. Anderson also converted his shots at a 53.7% rate, just two percentage points lower than Reneau.

The only place the comparison falls short is in assists. Reneau dished out 2.7 assists per game as opposed to Anderson’s 0.8, but that’s largely due to Anderson being on the receiving end of passes from Jamal Meeks, Lyndon Jones and Greg Graham.

Size-wise, the pair are almost identical. Anderson was also 6-9, and he was listed at 230 pounds.

Where the difference occurs is in role. Reneau is a tweener who primarily plays the four, but who has attributes to play at either the three, or rarely, the five spot if necessary. Anderson is listed as a forward, but was often a center.

While Matt Nover, a true center, was a freshman on the 1990 Hoosiers, he did not start alongside Anderson until the following season. If not for role? Anderson is a very similar player to Reneau.

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1. Troy Williams '15

Mar 20, 2015; Omaha, NE, USA; Indiana Hoosiers forward Troy Williams (5) rebounds the ball against the Wichita State Shockers during the first half in the second round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at CenturyLink Center. Mandatory Credit: Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports / Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

The Reneau comp started with an early Tom Crean-coached season and it closes with a player from a later Crean season. Much like Reneau, Williams – a future NBA player – broke out during his sophomore season with a slightly larger role.

Williams averaged 15.7 points, 7.4 rebounds and two assists per game for Crean’s 20-14 team – nearly identical to Indiana’s 19-14 2024 campaign. Williams also converted at a similar rate as he drained 54% of his shots.

The advanced stats are close, too. Williams had 3.7 win shares, a 24.5% usage rate and is closest to Williams among listed forwards with a 14.7 assist rate. No forward who qualified as a comp can touch Reneau’s high assist rate.

Williams’ role wasn’t exactly the same, but he played off of both Noah Vonleh and Hanner Mosquera-Perea as a secondary option playing off the rim. At this stage of his career, Williams rarely shot 3-point shots. Much like Reneau to-date, his outside shot came to him later in his college days.

Williams was 6-7, a bit shorter than Reneau, and listed at 206 pounds, more wiry and less bulky than Reneau, but both had a similar impact for their teams.

Next: Trey Galloway.

Rules

Players will only be compared to those who played roughly the same position. There’s little point in comparing Malik Reneau to Yogi Ferrell, for example.

There’s some leeway granted to shooting guards, whether they also handled the ball or whether they were big and could play small forward. Same for power forwards, some of whom are stretch forwards, others man the post.

The next rule is important: players are only compared to those who were in the same class. Seniors-to-seniors, juniors-to-juniors, etc.

With redshirt seasons - and particularly as it relates to current players, COVID-19 amnesty seasons - some current seniors are compared to seniors who exhausted their eligibility during their careers. 

While most pre-2020 players had one true senior season, Xavier Johnson had three senior seasons thanks to his injury waiver granted for the 2023-24 season – a true man of the times.

Only players who played 25 minutes per game are eligible. Once you get below that threshold, the comps get very skewed.

Sports-reference.com was used because its data set goes back further (to 1948 for traditional statistics) than advanced statistical sites like kenpom.com or barttorvik.com. This allows for the widest possible historical comparison.

Criteria

Current Indiana players were compared to players of the past in three different categories – traditional statistics, advanced statistics and role.

One fundamental issue is that advanced statistics are only available starting in the mid-1990s – and that’s only the most basic ones. The full menu of advanced statistics we have today were only tracked starting in the 2009-10 season.

Even the full menu of traditional statistics weren’t accurately tracked until the 1980s.

Traditional counting stats and advanced stats create differences in comps. Traditional stats are subject to minutes played.

Players were considered a “comp” if they were within two points per game in scoring or within one win share in advanced statistics.

After that, the other statistics were used to form a close comparison. A good comp also needs to be roughly the same size, though that is difficult as players have steadily grown over time. Bill Garrett was a 6-foot-3 post player in the early 1950s, for example.

Advanced ratings explained

Win shares: An estimate of the number of wins contributed by a player via their offense and defense. The higher the number, the better.

Player Efficiency Rating: A rating created by John Hollinger in an attempt to quantify a player’s overall contribution. An average rating is 15.

Usage Percentage: An estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player when they’re on the floor.

Assist percentage: An estimate of the percentage of teammate field goals a player assisted on where they were on the floor.

Total rebounding percentage: An estimate of the available rebounds a player grabbed when they were on the floor.

Defensive box plus-minus: A box score estimate of the defensive points per 100 possessions a player contributed to above a league-average player. The higher the number, the better.

Related stories on Indiana basketball

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RENEAU AMONG BIG TEN HONOREES: Malik Reneau was one of three Hoosiers to earn All-Big Ten honors. CLICK HERE.

INDIANA OFFSEASON EVALUATION: A look at how Indiana stacks up headed into the 2024-25 season. CLICK HERE.