With IU men’s basketball losing seven players after last season’s Big Ten Championship, the newcomers on the team will play an even more important role this season.
Fifty percent of the roster is new, and some of them could see significant playing time early. IU Coach Tom Crean said depth is going to be critical for the team this season, especially when looking at the crucial playmakers the Hoosiers lost from last year.
Without players like Yogi Ferrell, who fluidly ran the offense for four years, and Troy Williams, who could make a game-changing play at the drop of a hat, these newcomers will have to build off the returners to understand what needs to be done to become successful.
“The most important thing they can do is absorb that work ethic and that temperament that you gotta have to get better and keep going even when you’re tired, and then those guys are going to come back in the gym and work later, or before and follow that lead,” Crean said. “Trying to get them connected to their teammates is the most important thing.”
The most important newcomer this season was part of the program last year but didn’t see the floor. Junior guard Josh Newkirk transferred from Pittsburgh and took a redshirt last season after having micro fracture surgery on his left knee.
Newkirk was able to return to full practice during the spring semester a year ago and has been getting acclimated to his teammates and playing with high intensity on defense. Crean has said a number of times in the offseason there might not be one point guard handling the ball; rather, a group of guys will play the role.
Newkirk is at the top of that list.
He’s not a premier scorer like Ferrell, who averaged just north of 17 points per game last year, but he doesn’t need to be. The 6-foot-1 guard can pass the ball efficiently, play tenacious defense and has a little bounce in his step when finishing at the rim.
Two other newcomers that will add depth at guard will be freshmen Devonte Green and Curtis Jones. Both averaged 20 points per game during their senior years at their respective high schools, and Crean said the duo is interchangeable with the skill sets they bring.
Although they’re new to the program, Green and Jones aren’t strangers to the mindset they need to bring to become successful at IU.
Jones played in high school at Huntington Prep with sophomore center Thomas Bryant and in the same AAU program as Johnson and Williams in Virginia.
Bryant played AAU with Green in New York before coming college and had high praise for the amount of work he’s put in limited time in Bloomington.
“What impressed me a lot about him is that he’s willing to work,” Bryant said. “He listens to a lot that we tell him to and goes out there and plays his heart out, and I respect that a lot about him. He’s gotten better in everything, when it comes to shooting, ball-handling, passing and defense. He’s improved each and every day.”
Green has shown glimpses of how good he could be by racking up double digits at Hoosier Hysteria and the first exhibition game against Hope College. The soft-spoken freshman confidently shoots from beyond the arc and drives downhill into the lane with authority while playing with a defense-first mindset.
A couple of x-factors that will come off the bench this season have to get healthy before they’re cemented into the rotation.
Transfer junior forward Freddie McSwain from Neosho County Community College is recovering from knee surgery, and freshman forward De’Ron Davis is coming off an Achilles injury.
It’s hard to say how McSwain will transition to the Division I level after he only played eight minutes in the preseason, but the big-bodied 6-foot-6 transfer definitely has the frame to be successful. Like the majority of the Hoosiers, McSwain has been tabbed as a defensive-minded player with high energy and could possibly be like Williams and make big plays for IU.
Davis, on the other hand, didn’t get to Bloomington until the end of the summer, and Crean said he’s behind in his progression right now. When the 6-foot-10 freshman gets healthy and up to speed, he’ll definitely be a presence in the backcourt with his length and size rotating off the bench with Bryant and other sophomore forwards OG Anunoby and Juwan Morgan.
These newcomers bring great depth to IU this year, and although there isn’t one guy that sticks out from the rest, Crean will look to these new guys to be a critical part of the team’s success during its quest for the sixth championship banner.
“We’ve got a long way to go with getting any type of depth, but those guys a long with Josh have got to wear a lot of hats for us, and showing confidence early on that they’ve improved is going to be really big,” Crean said.
