On a night IU honors past, it shows the present needs work in difficult win against FGCU
This was a night when IU basketball honored its past, and for one evening that will have to do. The present wasn’t terribly good — the Hoosiers held off Florida Gulf Coast, a mid-major missing its best player, 69-63 — and the future is a complete mystery. Where will this 2023-24 IU basketball team go for scoring, with Trayce Jackson-Davis and Jalen Hood-Schifino now rookies in the NBA? Will a shooter emerge?
Is this team any good at all?
Those answers will play out over the next several months, but Tuesday night at Assembly Hall the emotions were heavy with thoughts of yesterday. There was the death last week of longtime IU coach Bob Knight, whose visage is being shown on scoreboards in every IU athletic facility. And there was the honoring before tipoff of the 75th anniversary of Bill Garrett’s rookie season, when the big man from Shelbyville became the first Black player in IU and Big Ten history in 1948-49. Garrett, who died in 1974, was represented by family members at midcourt, with son Billy Garrett crying hardest.
How IU beat FGCU in opener: Kel'el Ware, Gabe Cupps step up
IU vs. FGCU player ratings: Some debuts much better than others in opener
Those were the undertones as the Hoosiers started their 124th season, and their first in forever without Jackson-Davis, and Assembly Hall had just a few minutes to enjoy itself. That was midway through the second half, after Florida Gulf Coast had taken a 48-42 lead with 10:43 left and the crowd was murmuring and IU coach Mike Woodson was fuming.
The Hoosiers emerged from Woodson’s timeout a different team, finally stringing together some made shots and finally playing smart defense against an FGCU team determined to shoot 3-pointers. IU went on a 14-0 run for a 56-48 lead, and with 1:28 left the margin was 65-55. The game was in hand and it was time to relax and reflect on the events of the past wee—
No, never mind. Because IU didn’t make another shot from the floor, missed half its free throws, struggled even to get the ball across the midcourt stripe, and allowed a Florida Gulf Coast team missing last season’s leading scorer — Isaiah Thompson (14.9 ppg), the Purdue transfer from Zionsville — to find open 3-pointers repeatedly.
After an 8-0 FGCU run over the next 53 seconds, Florida Gulf Coast’s Chase Johnston missed a 3-pointer for the tie with 17 seconds left, and the game was over.
Long night at Assembly Hall.
The first of many, would be my guess.
Kel'el Ware starred, Gabe Cupps won crowd
You want the good? Well, we mentioned it earlier. In the first paragraph, even: IU won. Outscored Florida Gulf Coast by six points at Assembly Hall. That’s good, right?
The box score will show what it shows, with four IU players scoring 13, 14, 15 and 16 points — in ascending order: Kel’el Ware, Xavier Johnson, Malik Reneau, Trey Galloway — but the eyeball test won't be such a friendly grader, certainly not when Woodson reviews film with his team.
“I’ve got a lot of work to do,” Woodson sighed afterward. “Put it that way.”
There were individual flashes, though. Ware, the versatile 7-foot sophomore transfer from Oregon, filled the box score with 13 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and three angry blocked shots. He spiked two balls like this was the U.S. Olympic volleyball tryouts or something, and sent his third rejection on an angry line into the third row behind the basket.
Reneau and Galloway were a combined 13-for-19, most from inside 8 feet, though Galloway did make one of his three 3-point attempts. Johnson had 14 points, the same guy he was when he first stepped onto campus as a transferring senior (seriously) from Pittsburgh three years ago. He’s still playing that combination of fast and too fast, still producing some of the silliest turnovers you’ll ever see from a sixth-year senior … or a first-year freshman, for that matter.
Speaking of first-year freshmen, 6-2, 175-pound point guard Gabe Cupps is going to be a good one for IU. He had just five points but took only two shots, both 3-pointers, hitting one. Also hit two foul shots. Also played the kind of irritating defense IU fans already love and opposing fan sections will automatically hate.
"I've followed this kid for a long time now,” Woodson said afterward of Cupps, the Ohio player of the year in 2022. “That's why he's in an Indiana uniform. He's a winner."
Mackenzie Mgbako's development will be key
The room for growth is obvious, and aren’t I just a fountain of positive thoughts.
I’m trying, OK?
Look, when the home team wins a game, the mood generally should be celebratory. But when that home team is IU, with five national championship banners, and the visitor is a team that didn’t exist until 2007, it’s hard to praise a six-point win, especially when the visiting team looked so much more cohesive — so much better-coached — than the Hoosiers.
You come here for the truth or what?
The Hoosiers have a roster that wins in the airport, strolling down concourses like an NBA outfit, and this team is said to have two potential first-round picks in the 2024 NBA draft. One is Ware, who is intriguing. The guy’s 7-feet tall and took as many 3-pointers Tuesday night (three) as Jackson-Davis took in four years here. Ware made one, and looked good doing it, and is a willing passer.
The other IU player said to be on the NBA’s immediate radar is 6-8 starting forward Mackenzie Mgbako (four points, three rebounds), who emerged once from behind a pin-down screen in the lane to bury a catch-and-shoot 19-footer. He also blocked a 15-foot jumper, which isn’t easy to do unless you’re 6-8 with a 6-10 wingspan and explosive first jump. Then it’s just something you do.
While Mgbako looks physically ready for the NBA right now — his beard is better than mine — he lost minutes to the 6-2 Cupps because, while Mgbako was making the occasional splash play, Cupps was consistently making winning plays.
Mgbako will get better, is my point. That’s one area of growth. Reneau, who played like a grown man last season as a freshman but had just one rebound in 30 minutes Tuesday, has never played alongside a true center like Ware. It’ll take time, but Reneau will figure out his spots near the rim.
That’s about it for growth. IU does not look terribly deep, or powered by the most sparkling of individual stars. For the Hoosiers to get back to the NCAA tournament, for IU to make the future look less like the present of Tuesday night and more like the pasts of Bob Knight and Bill Garrett — a past Mike Woodson knows well — well, it’s like he was saying:
He has some work to do. Put it that way.
Doyel on Knight: A day we knew would come, the reckoning of RKM's legacy
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IU basketball remembers Bob Knight and Bill Garrett, holds off FGCU
