Indiana Basketball: 5 takeaways from regular season

3. Guard play remains lackluster

I think every Indiana fan out there has had more headaches this season when it comes to the backcourt than ever before.

The trio of Al Durham, Rob Phinisee, and Devonte Green had many highs, but also many lows.

Before the season started, Archie Miller made it a point to emphasize that Durham would be taking on more of a ball-handling role this year. Because Devonte Green was needed as more of a scorer with this roster, and Phinisee as the only true ball handler, there was a need for an extra security blanket.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Durham, while steady at times, showed he can’t be relied on heavily as a main ball handler from game-to-game. Durham, while having a career-high 17.9 assist percentage this season, has a turnover rate of 18.7 percent. Compare that to Phinisee’s 27 percent assist rate and 20 percent turnover rate and you can see why Durham is not meant for that role.

For the majority of the season, Phinisee has been a very steady piece of the puzzle for the Hoosiers and has shown great growth and development. Despite that, he can’t be expected to play 40 minutes a game. That’s where depth is needed and just something that Indiana doesn’t have.

Devonte Green has been more of the same for Indiana; inconsistent. Great at times and terrible at others, he has failed to take that next step that many thought he could take. With 11 single-digit scoring games, seven of them have been outings of four points or less. On the flip side, Green has had a 30-point game against Florida State, 27-point outing against Iowa, and six other games of at least 16 points.

Next year needs to be different for Indiana if the program wants to take that next step, and getting Khristian Lander to reclassify to the 2020 class would do wonders for Archie Miller and Co.