Mike Woodson thinks he finally has an IU team capable of playing how he coached in NBA

BORDEN – Mike Woodson isn’t done with bully ball. But he’s got more on his mind this summer.

More depth. More skill. More diversity. More, in Woodson’s mind, like what he had in New York.

Speaking Wednesday during his annual appearance at what’s now an NIL benefit at Huber’s Orchard and Winery in southern Indiana, Woodson talked at length with reporters about his remade roster. The Hoosiers open summer workouts in the coming days, with the balance of Woodson’s team expected back in Bloomington and (for the most part) on the floor.

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It will be there Woodson begins to sort out questions of roles and rotations, and putting together the pieces of a team that welcomes as many new scholarship players for next season as it returns from the last one. IU’s fourth-year coach will have a deepened guard rotation to polish, and two bigs to weave together with the return of Malik Reneau and the arrival of Arizona transfer Oumar Ballo.

“I’m going to try to play two bigs,” Woodson said, “just to test it.”

Woodson has larger ambitions on his mind though. Running back last year’s frontcourt rotations isn’t the limit of his thinking.

Ballo is one of the country’s best centers, as good six feet and in — at either end of the floor — as any player in the country. And Woodson said Wednesday he believes Bellarmine transfer forward Langdon Hatton can open his range up as far as the 3-point line in time.

But Woodson also has the healthiest stable of wings he’s enjoyed in his four years in Bloomington, with the retention of Big Ten co-freshman of the year Mackenzie Mgbako and the arrival of five-star freshman Bryson Tucker and Illinois transfer Luke Goode.

Mgbako finished last season greatly improved at both ends of the floor. He scored in double figures in all but two games from the start of February onward and shot 37.8% from 3-point range in league play. After making two or more 3s in just four of IU’s first 13 games in his freshman season, Mgbako managed the feat 13 times in the Hoosiers’ final 20.

Goode’s bonafides are long established. A dangerous 3-point shooter, Goode averaged 38.8% from distance across three seasons in Champaign, and shot slightly better than that last season in 157 attempts, far and away his highest single-season volume in college.

A McDonald’s All American, Tucker brings midrange skill to the rotation, and with time should become an equally reliable 3-point shooter as well. He might also be the most dynamic of the three.

Together, they give Woodson the kind of depth and flexibility he’s not necessarily enjoyed to this point in his Indiana tenure. The Hoosiers might begin games with two bigs, but they’ve certainly got the personnel to flip to smaller lineups that stretch opponents from multiple directions and well beyond the 3-point line.

“Just like I played in New York,” Woodson said, referring to his time with the Knicks. “I just haven’t been able to get there, and I think we can this year.”

Indiana won’t necessarily need to marry itself to one way of playing or the other. Flexibility and versatility will be welcome additions to the box of tools Woodson works with each night.

All of which requires some ironing out first, making these summer months important. Trey Galloway remains sidelined by post-operative knee rehabilitation, but the rest of IU’s roster should soon be together on campus and on the floor, their coach beginning to knit them into something resembling a Big Ten contender.

“These eight weeks, man, of summer play, will kind of shape where we are as a ball club,” Woodson said, “and give me some kind of indication going into next season.”

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.

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