BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- It's been an interesting week and a half to say the least for the Indiana point guard situation. Xavier Johnson returned to action on January 3rd in Nebraska and played an "awful 14 minutes" according to his coach. The sixth-year guard followed that up with a great performance against Ohio State, and it looked like the "X" factor was ready to lead his team once again. And then? The Rutgers game happened.
Not only did Xavier Johnson put together another poor road performance (two points and five turnovers), he was ejected from the game for a flagrant 2 foul, showing a lack of leadership once again.
Fast forward to Friday's home game with Minnesota, and Johnson found himself on the bench to start the game.
"For any team, leadership is important," Mike Woodson said on the pre-game radio show. "Not just my team. You gotta have it, and I'm searching for it. I can't be the one that's always trying to lead you. You've gotta get players to hold each other accountable and lead, and that's been a battle so far."
The reality is, Mike Woodson put a lot of eggs in the Xavier Johnson basket for this year's team. Though he's been a force at both ends of the floor at times in his career, he's also battled a lot of injuries, gone through prolonged slumps, and has had his fair share of on and off-court issues. How did Johnson respond to the benching on Friday night? That depends on who you ask.
At times, Johnson looked frustrated and disinterested. He finished with two points, one assist, and two turnovers in 17 minutes of action. He had a few nice plays down the stretch, but didn't appear to be the biggest cheerleader during his time on the bench. The Hoosiers were a plus+19 with Gabe Cupps on the court, and a minus-13 with Johnson on the court, though that number probably relates more to the overall bench play than Johnson himself. After the game, Mike Woodson sounded a little indifferent when asked about Johnson and Cupps.
"I mean, I'm not going to comment on in-house stuff," Woodson said. His tone then shifted as he said: "I decided to go with Gabe, and Gabe came in and played extremely well. I thought the minutes X played were positive minutes to help us win." Not to put words in Woodson's mouth, but it sounded like Indiana's coach thought the point guards played okay, but he's clearly expecting more- both in production, and leadership.
Some fans will be tempted to think Indiana is better off with freshman Gabe Cupps starting. If Johnson's leadership and production don't improve, they may be correct. As I've previously written, however, I think this team desperately needs the good version of Xavier Johnson for them to get where they want to go.
As for Gabe Cupps, the freshman guard has mostly been a facilitator this season and has struggled with his shot. His season-high for shot attempts is six, and he's only done that once. On Friday night, Cupps went 0-for-5 and was visibly frustrated on each and every miss on the evening. He's shooting around 35% for the year after coming in with high expectations on the shooting front. Cupps has been contributing in other ways, and it could only be a matter of time and experience before he finds his shot.
Both point guards bring something different to this Hoosier team, and both are needed moving forward. To win on the road, or to knock off some of the highly ranked opponents in the coming games, the Hoosiers need production from this position. The two combined for two points in the win over Minnesota, but on most nights, that clearly won't lead to victories. As a team, Indiana has taken much better care of the ball in Bloomington, which has been a positive and a negative (road games) that is also related to the point guard play as a whole. In the last two road games, Indiana has turned the ball over 37 times. In the last two home games, they've only turned it over 14 times.
The Hoosiers are off to a nice 4-2 start in conference play, but the schedule officially shifts from this point on. Indiana will host Purdue on Tuesday, followed by two tough road games against Wisconsin and Illinois. If they're going to be an NCAA Tournament team this season, the point guard situation will need to work itself out, and quickly.
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