Year 1 of Mike Woodson in charge of IU basketball: The good, bad and what's still unknown

BLOOMINGTON – While it felt undeniably stressful in patches, Mike Woodson’s first season in charge of his alma mater ought to be cast as a success.

Woodson’s team won 21 games, appeared in its first Big Ten tournament semifinal in nine years, ended a six-year absence from the NCAA tournament and stopped a nine-game losing streak to rival Purdue. Off the floor, Woodson built a staff that helped him land impact transfers and, in 2022, a top-five signing class nationally, also Indiana’s first in nine years.

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Not every step of the process was forward, nor the process entirely linear. But Woodson finished his first year in charge having given himself a solid platform from which to build. What went right and what went wrong? A look back:

The good

TOURNAMENT DROUGHT BROKEN: There was no more important outcome last season than Indiana making the field of 68. Winning a game there, even the play-in game, was a bonus. Getting there — and ending for good all possible questions about the mental block of having not gotten there for however many years — was the crucial bit.

DEFENSE FIRST: Even as he rode into the job on the back of considerable NBA credentials, and promising he would introduce into Indiana’s offense more modern concepts, Woodson promised defense would underpin everything his team accomplished from day one. He delivered on that in Year 1. On an adjusted basis, IU was as good efficiency-wise at that end of the floor last winter as it has been at nearly any point in the past 20 years. Only Tom Crean’s 2013 Big Ten title club was substantially better and, with respect to Trayce Jackson-Davis’ shot-blocking ability or Race Thompson’s rebounding, this team managed its best without the individual defensive talent 2013 enjoyed. In terms of statistical outcomes, this was Indiana’s biggest building block from Woodson’s first year.

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RECRUITING SUCCESS: The suggestion that they will struggle to recruit is the most common criticism of nearly any NBA-to-college coaching hire. That so much comes with college recruiting — from rules to relationships to the sheer amount of time required — coaches with professional backgrounds will struggle to cope, and therefore struggle to acquire talent. Yet in his first 13 months, Woodson landed three top-30 high school prospects from outside the state, something Archie Miller never managed once. Woodson kept the lone in-state player committed to IU in the fold, and made inroads in other areas of the country. He also pulled Xavier Johnson out of the portal, then tutored Johnson through one of the most-prolific single seasons in program history for a point guard in terms of assists. IU already has two strong commitments in 2023. Woodson does not appear to have trouble recruiting.

CONFERENCE MILE MARKERS: By themselves they won’t win a thing. But there was meaning in some of Indiana’s Big Ten successes this season. Like snapping a nine-game losing streak to Purdue. Or defeating Michigan for the first time since 2016. Or making a run in a conference tournament that’s been a horror show for too much of the past 20 years. Again, in Year 1 you’re looking for building blocks, not completed structures. These were some.

The bad

SHOOTING WOES: Briefly, Indiana flirted with becoming a better 3-point shooting team this winter than it had been in the previous four (historically bad) seasons. But by the end of the season the Hoosiers were shooting just 33.3% from behind the arc, less than a percentage point better than their highest clip under Miller. In Big Ten games alone, only Wisconsin shot a worse 3-point percentage than the Hoosiers. Players recruited at least in part because of their accuracy from distance either struggled to get those shots or struggled to make them. The Big Ten dip hit some of those shooters hardest. By season’s end, only three Hoosiers were shooting better than 36% from range, and none as much as 40. There will be a hard ceiling on Indiana’s potential as long as this remains such a pronounced problem.

FREE THROWS: Twofold problem — Indiana’s still bad at shooting them, and it shot fewer of them. In 2020-21, IU attempted 626 free throws in just 27 games, 23.2 per game. Last season, the Hoosiers attempted 666 in 35 games, 19.0 per game. The Hoosiers still finished the season with a top-100 free-throw rate, per KenPom, but making 70% of their free throws, while substantially better than anything accomplished during Miller’s tenure, was still only good for 233rd nationally. Players so offensively challenged have to be more productive when the points are free.

LOSING STREAKS: For the sixth-straight season, Indiana endured a losing streak of at least four games in conference play. This might sound simplistic, but a program with ambitions of winning the Big Ten has to put that to bed. But this is not as simple as “stop losing so many games.” IU must learn how to break these funks before they consume seasons, as they far too often did in the five years before Woodson’s arrival, and very nearly did last winter.

NONCONFERENCE SCHEDULE: Indiana needs a stronger one. There appears to be an understanding of that within the program, with Kansas coming on the schedule to replace the Crossroads Classic for the next two years and a strong suggestion the Hoosiers could return to a marquee event at a neutral venue some time soon. But a weak nonconference schedule nearly kept the Hoosiers out of the NCAA tournament last year. That can’t happen again.

Jury’s out

WING DEFENSE: This was a weakness this winter. Even as Indiana put together arguably the Big Ten’s best overall defense, the Hoosiers struggled with big-bodied multilevel scorers such as Johnny Davis, Keegan Murray and Jaden Ivey. The ranks of such players were unnaturally high in the Big Ten last season, and they’ll be thinned by draft departures. Indiana has players who, with improvement, could fill this particular gap. Jordan Geronimo, Tamar Bates and Trey Galloway all come to mind.

OFFENSIVE VERSATILITY: Regardless of Woodson’s NBA bloodlines, a lack of shot makers was always going to define the limits of Indiana’s offense in 2021-22. As previously discussed, the Hoosiers need to become more consistent from behind the 3-point line. But there was still progress, particularly in a ball-screen offense central to Indiana’s late-season resurgence. The terms of this conversation will be defined by Jackson-Davis’ NBA decision, but Woodson could have even more talent at his disposal next season. It does not feel like a stretch to see tangible offensive progress in 2022-23, if not necessarily revolutionary growth.

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JACKSON-DAVIS: Ultimately, his decision will have the biggest impact on next season’s ambitions. Whatever his shortcomings, he is one of the best volume scorers in the league and one of the best big men in the country. Without him, Woodson will have to rethink what his best lineups are and how they’re deployed. With him, the Hoosiers can build around a player-of-the-year contender and, potentially, compete at the top end of the Big Ten.

This article has talked about what we learned last season. We will not know fully what to think of the next one until we have Jackson-Davis’ decision.

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.