Indiana Basketball: Five Takeaways From The 2018-19 Season

5. Emerging Backcourt

For most of the entirety of this season, Indiana played with a two freshman backcourt.

And although Rob Phinisee played with more poise than a typical freshman does during their freshman campaign, he still had his struggles.

Touched on earlier, his play was drastically effected by the concussion at the end of December,

The 6-foot guard averaged 6.9 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 2.9 assists this season, but his play at the end of the season translated into 3.4 assists per game and just 1.1 turnovers over the last 13 games.

His increased level of play also proved to be one of the reasons for the late success for the Hoosiers.

Another part of the new backcourt duo for next year is Devonte Green.

In the last seven games of the season, Green had a 15.4 point per game average all while shooting 53.6 percent from the field and having a 2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

A rising senior, and although he is notorious for the occasional head scratching decisions, he brings a level of confidence needed from a star and starting guard of a team.

Sometimes the issue with the Langford/Phinisee backcourt, assertiveness is not an issue with Green. The ability to not only take, but also make big shots is exactly what they needed with an inconsistent offense, and Langford seemed to shy away from that at times.

Although his size and ball-handling ability may make him seem like a point guard, he has the scoring ability of a combo guard, and that is exactly what he is.

Not always consistent with his playmaking ability, playing him off the ball with Phinisee has allowed Green to take more shots and use his scoring ability to his advantage instead of worrying about getting others involved.

Overall, the positives we saw from the Phinisee – Green backcourt this last couple of weeks is a much better systematic fit in Archie Miller’s offense moving forward.