The 6-foot-1 junior point guard will redshirt this season in accordance with NCAA rules after transferring from Pittsburgh. He will spend the year rehabilitating his knee after undergoing microfracture surgery in May.
In terms of minutes played, Newkirk is the fourth-most experienced player on the Hoosiers’ roster. Only senior guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell, senior guard Nick Zeisloft and junior forward Troy Williams have logged more time on the court in college.
“Just being a leader,” Newkirk said earlier in September, when describing his role on the team. “Learning, teaching guys, because I’ve played college basketball for two years, so I kind of know a little bit. Just teaching guys little things that they need to know.”
But at the same time, the Raleigh, North Carolina, native needs to learn new offensive and defensive schemes. Regardless of past playing experience, there’s always a learning curve when transferring from one program — and conference — to another.
“I’m just always asking questions, anything I got a question about,” Newkirk said. “Trying to figure out ‘How do you do this?’ ‘How do you do that?’ That’s been big for me — just picking people’s brains, just learning new things, learning how the system’s run, just staying talkative.”
Sept. 23 was Newkirk’s one-month anniversary of moving to Bloomington. Even IU’s freshmen have spent more time in Cook Hall, practicing with the team’s veterans and learning from the Hoosiers’ coaching staff.
He now has to play catch up, but he has roughly 13 months until he suits up for the first time for IU.
As of mid-September, Newkirk hadn’t begun jogging, but he expects to be able to in the coming weeks.
“Since he’s sitting out a year, they ain’t going to rush it,” Newkirk’s father, Reggie, told the Indiana Daily Student after Newkirk announced he was transferring to IU. “They’re going to gradually put him back in the mix.”
In the mean time, he said he’s focusing on the little things. Without being able to run, the junior is focusing on improving his ball handling, fine-tuning his jump shot and working on his passing ability.
“I’ve just been working on the little things that have been weaknesses in my game in the past,” he said.
Once he returns to full strength, Newkirk desires to become a glorified practice player. He won’t see the floor this season, but he can challenge Ferrell, Zeisloft, sophomore guard James Blackmon Jr. and sophomore guard Robert Johnson in practice.
“I think, for me not being able to compete in games this year, it’s just making practice competitive,” Newkirk said. “Just bringing an extra edge to practice, always bringing the energy, being a leader and just making practice competitive. That’s my biggest thing.”
In last year’s ACC/Big Ten Challenge, Newkirk scored 16 points and recorded eight assists against the Hoosiers in Assembly Hall. Now he’ll get the chance to go against his former opponents-turned-teammates daily in practice.
Newkirk’s role this season is to add competitive depth in workouts and scrimmages while being a vocal leader from the sideline on game day. IU Coach Tom Crean wants the transfer to be talkative so that he can be involved in drills even though his knee prevents him from participating at full strength.
“He wants me to stay active, stay talking, getting touches,” Newkirk said. “So I’m just being a leader.”
Ferrell and Zeisloft are in their final year of eligibility, while Blackmon might have the opportunity to leave school early and enter the NBA draft next spring.
Newkirk has roughly six months left to learn from Ferrell, IU’s All-American caliber senior point guard, before the former Pittsburgh Panther takes command of the Hoosiers’ offense.
“He sees the floor well,” Newkirk said of Ferrell. “He’s always dribbling with his eyes up. He sees the next play very well so I think those are some of the things that I pick up, that I ask him about, get pointers on. Now that I’m sitting on the sideline, I’m constantly watching his game, learning the little things that he does to get past his man, see the next play. I’m just learning every day.”
