Indiana Basketball: 5 keys for a successful 2019-20 season

Shooting needs to improve across the board

3-point shooting is paramount to success in the modern age of basketball. While there are some teams that succeed without quality snipers, those squads are rare and often exhibit top-of-the-line defenses. Indiana’s defense was certainly stout last season, but it was not enough to make up for their poor offensive spacing and lack of scoring efficiency. Over the course of last season, the Hoosiers shot 31.2% from beyond the arc. This mark ranked just 311th (out of 353) in the country and the team was not exactly lighting it fly at volume either; IU ranked 299th in 3-point attempt rate as well.

Looking ahead to this coming season, that philosophy and success rate will probably need to change. The Hoosiers will not have dynamic go-to self-creating scorers like Morgan and Langford to give the ball to this season and their offense will need to be much more balanced as a result. This means that Indiana will likely seek out more 3-point attempts and their consistent shooters will need to be at their best. Green (41.0%) and Durham (34.8%) are certainly two of those players but the team has to be hoping for an improvement from Rob Phinisee (31.0%) as well.

Additionally, the Hoosiers will need to be much better at the free-throw line. They shot just 65.5% (328th) from the stripe last season and there aren’t many signs for optimism with their returning group. Indiana does not return a single player who shot better than 75% from the line last season and TJD finished as a 54.7% (64-for-117) free-throw shooter on the EYBL circuit last summer. The team will need to make massive internal strides in that regard before starting this coming season.