Indiana Basketball: 5 questions heading into 2019-20 season

2. Who Steps Up As Primary Second Scorer?

In order for Indiana to make the leap back to the NCAA Tournament, they will need some guys to step up.

Obviously a lot of the scoring will be attached to Devonte Green’s name, but it’s a bit of a question as to whom is a consistent secondary scorer after him.

As much as it would be a huge boost to the Hoosiers if that guy could be Justin Smith, with the way his career has gone, it’s a lot to ask for him to produce consistently at a high level, especially with the amount of bigs in the rotation.

Two guys I look at that will have that ability are Al Durham and Joey Brunk.

Brunk has proven thus far in the summer that he is ready to step into, not only a leadership role, but an increased role offensively. With De’Ron Davis dealing with injuries throughout his career, Brunk has seemingly taken over the starting center position and will look to keep that throughout the season.

As for Durham, I fully expect a breakout season from the junior guard. Though Archie Miller talked about the importance of him being an additional ball handler this season, Durham also needs to be an increased threat to score.

With Durham’s shooting ability, at 35 percent from three last year, he needs to be a guy who can be that wing scorer to stretch the defense but to keep them honest with him as well.

As someone who had just three games with double-digit shot attempts last season with Romeo Langford in the lineup, he matched that total in the NIT when Langford was out. The results? He averaged 13.7 points a game the final three games and became a threat from all over the floor.

Outside of those two, there just needs to be a consistency with roles and when they are needed to step up, they do.