Bold Prediction: Kanaan Carlyle will be the 2024-2025 B1G 6th Man of the Year

Indiana has not housed a Big Ten 6th Man of the Year since Max Bielfeldt earned the honor back in 2015-2016. Our crystal ball is telling us that is about to change following the addition of incoming sophomore scoring connoisseur Kanaan Carlyle.

After Purdue's Mason Gillis brought home the hardware last season, IU is officially due in this department. While there are certainly an assortment of qualified options on the Hoosiers depth chart whom could feasibly make a run at this acknowledgment, Carlyle seems like the most logical of the bunch to win the race.

While his overall level of efficiency fluctuated from game-to-game throughout his freshman season at Stanford, that is to be expected of a player getting acclimated to the landscape of college hoops. In his 23 games (16 starts), the product of Atlanta strung together nightly averages of 25.6 MPG, 11.5 PPG, 2.7 RPG and 2.7 APG (compared to an iffy 2.9 TOPG) on streaky shooting splits of 38.6% FG/32.0% 3/77.6% FT. His battle with consistency was ongoing, but those are numbers that cannot be scoffed at.

Owning a slender 6'3", 185 pound frame, Carlyle has the body of a point guard but fits more snuggly into the shooting guard column. Regardless, he is relentless when it comes to getting to hit spots with the ball in his hands, and has the shooting stroke and unrelenting energy to continue enhancing his abilities off the ball as well. With so many other talented guys on this team who will need the ball in their hands, Carlyle will need to adapt his game a bit for the greater good of the team.

Not only do we expect him to sacrifice his individual intentions on both ends of the floor, but we anticipate that he will thrive with this team. As previously noted, this is a squad stacked with heavy hitters. Mackenzie Mgbako and Malik Reneau should be the focal points offensively, but Myles Rice, Trey Galloway, Oumar Ballo, and even Bryson Tucker are all going to need some on-ball touches in order to fully maximize their potential. Those are a lot of mouths to feed, but thankfully there is a master chef in charge of keeping everyone properly fed.

Within the overall structure of this deeply bright roster, look for Kanaan Carlyle to outshine a large chunk of those previously noted names as he continues to build his repertoire and name. And count on him distinguishing himself from all of the other talented bench players in the Big Ten.

Keep going, Kanaan!