One of the more interesting developments to follow early in the 2024-25 IU basketball season will be how head coach Mike Woodson utilizes Oumar Ballo and Malik Reneau.
Forwards Mackenzie Mgbako and Luke Goode have both said this fall they anticipate being utilized at times in a stretch-four role, and Reneau has said he has been playing some center. Woodson has corroborated all of that to some extent.
And so really it is the extent of those roles that becomes a central question as the Hoosiers are now just a couple weeks away from their exhibition opener at Tennessee on Oct. 27.
Of course Mgbako and Goode at power forward, and Reneau at the five, all suggest less time on the floor together for Ballo and Reneau.
So just how many minutes will the dominant post duo be on the court at the same time?
If Woodson has specifics in mind, he isn’t ready to reveal anything yet.
“Don’t know,” Woodson said at Big Ten Media Day last week. “Only time will tell.”
To this point in their careers, neither Ballo nor Reneau have played massive minutes. As a starter the last two seasons for Arizona, Ballo averaged 26.7 minutes per game. And as a starter for IU a year ago, Reneau played 28.7.
Will Ballo’s minutes go up to level of Woodson’s last two centers, Kel’el Ware (32.2 minutes a year ago) and Trayce Jackson-Davis (34.5 in 2023-24)?
I asked Woodson about the minutes Ballo averaged at Arizona the last two years, and he seemed to provide a clue into how he might approach the frontcourt rotation.
“That’s plenty,” Woodson said of Ballo’s minutes. “He doesn’t have to play thirty minutes, not on this team. The fact that he’s played only 25 minutes, hey, we might keep him at that number.”
If Woodson does ultimately keep Ballo in that 25 minute range, he believes he’ll have the support of the Arizona transfer 7-footer.
“I don’t think Ballo has ever complained about one thing since he’s been with us,” Woodson said. “He just wants to win.”
After his team finished 351st nationally in three-point attempt rate last season, Woodson said Indiana has been shooting a lot more threes as a team this summer and fall, while noting “you still gotta make ’em.”
Reneau has been playing more of a perimeter oriented role at practice, something he could do irrespective of whether he was in the four or five spot as IU transitions to a more up-tempo, five-out scheme. His minutes at the four seem likely to hinge in part on how well he can defend outside the arc, and whether he can be counted on to make an occasional triple.
But with Goode and Mgbako likely Indiana’s best three-point shooters, making more threes this year likely means finding more ways to get that duo on the floor, even together at times.
One trend in college basketball has been platooning talented big men like Ballo and Reneau.
Purdue’s Matt Painter did that with Trevion Williams and Zach Edey in 2021-22, and the Boilermakers finished the season with the nations No. 2 most efficient offense according to KenPom.
And while it wasn’t quite as much of a pure platoon as Purdue’s, UConn won back-to-back national titles with Adama Sanogo and Donovan Clingan in 2022-23, and then Clingan and Samson Johnson last season.
Those examples seem like some fairly compelling data points for Indiana, now that they have so many talented guards and wings to work into their rotation.
A move in that direction by Indiana could mitigate concerns about either Ballo or Reneau getting tired or in foul trouble. Woodson just might get his best from both, and have a dominant post player in the offense for all 40 minutes, surrounded by playmakers and shooters.
Another interesting thing to keep an eye on is whether Indiana will tweak their approach to defense in the paint. In fact, how much time Reneau can play the five might just depend on that.
Trayce Jackson-Davis became an elite shot blocker under Mike Woodson as he went from a weakside anchor under Archie Miller to a rim protector over his final two seasons in Bloomington. And Kel’el Ware was very good in that regard as well. Jackson-Davis posted a block rate of 9% as a senior, and Ware’s rate was 6.5% last season.
But Reneau’s block rates were only 2.2% and 1.9% the last two years, and Ballo’s 5% and 4.8%. So it seems like there will be a clear drop-off in rim protection if IU maintains the status quo schematically.
Woodson acknowledged last week at Big Ten Media Day Ballo isn’t on the same level as his predecessors as as shot blocker.
“He’ll block shots, but not at that level like they did,” Woodson said. “Ware was longer and Trayce was more explosive. He’s a big body that can plug the hole and he understands defensive concepts. So I’m pretty happy about that.”
Most outside observers believe Indiana is at or near the top of the Big Ten when it comes to talent on the roster.
But it’s how all of those pieces will come together to form a functioning team that remains intriguing.
And how much two-big buddy ball we’ll see this winter sits atop the list of questions.
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