With less than a month away until Indiana basketball’s season opener, Devonte Green is getting some love from the national media.
It’s that time of year again when preseason watch lists slowly start to be unveiled and that means the college basketball season is almost here, thankfully. For the Indiana basketball program, it is a time of excitement and talk for a much improved season from a year ago, despite being nearly one or two games away from an NCAA Tournament berth.
One such list that was released was ’11 men’s college basketball players who need more love this season’ by NCAA.com analyst Andy Katz.
On that list, he included Indiana guard Devonte Green as someone who needs more respect by the public, and should show it this season.
He had this to say about the senior guard.
"“The Hoosiers are in rebuild mode a bit, but Green was and is the most dependable guard for Archie Miller. The Big Ten is loaded with elite guards this season and Green should be included on the list.”"
As the leading returning scorer for the Hoosiers, Green is definitely someone who is flying under-the-radar.
Last week the Big Ten came out with its preseason All-Big Ten selections, and Green was not a name listed. With names like Nojel Eastern and Joe Wieskamp included on the list, you can make the argument that Green could be grouped with that trio in the same category as a member of their respective program whose stats benefited from having better pieces around them. Now, all three will be players relied on as one of the top scorers for their team.
It’s been widely known how inconsistent Green has been in his IU career, but also how well he did down the stretch last season, all while being the go-to player on the roster.
While it was a small sample size, his 15.4 point per game average over the last month of the season gives Indiana fans hope that he can have that type of production for close to an entire season, and if so, lead Indiana back to the NCAA Tournament.
Green was a top-10 three-point shooter in the Big Ten a season ago and while that is a major part of his game, his all around playmaking ability and shot creation is something that will be under the microscope this year.
If he can duplicate his month-long performance at the end of last year to a full 35+ game season, there is no doubt he will see his name on the All-Conference list come season’s end, and be a name a lot of people are talking about nationally.