Indiana Basketball: Five Takeaways From The 2018-19 Season

2. The Romeo Langford Era

Before I get started, I am writing this with the assumption that Langford will be off to the NBA and will have played just his freshman season at Indiana.

The McDonald’s All-American averaged 16.5 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game during his freshman campaign, not missing a game until the NIT came around.

Langford was touted as the ‘savior’ of Indiana basketball and someone who was going to come in and take the Hoosiers back to NCAA Tournament greatness. Obviously that didn’t happen and quite honestly it was way too much pressure and way too much to expect from an 18 year old kid.

One thing I’m still not sure about is if Indiana was totally right for Romeo. It never seemed like he really meshed with the rest of the player’s personalities on the floor. As a reserved personality, it was a bad combination with an already passive backcourt mate of Rob Phinisee, and with the scoring ability of Langford, you would love that type of player to have an ‘alpha’ mentality and be able to take over games when needed, and that’s just not what Langford did.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved watching him every minute he was on the floor, but I just kept wanting more from him – and that’s just because of how good he is and can be. 

On the other hand, part of it had to do with Archie Miller’s offense and the lack of freedom it gives players.

The weave at the top of the key is not necessarily ideal when you have a lottery pick in your starting backcourt.

All-in-all it was a good year from the New Albany guard, and am glad Indiana fans were able to see him in the cream and crimson for at least one season.