7/29/2020 basketball Edit

IU turning to strong leadership and chemistry during uncertain summer

Alec Lasley • TheHoosier

Senior Writer

It has been an offseason with no playbook or experience to rely on, yet Indiana basketball is looking at one of the more cohesive rosters in recent years. While players have been brought back in different phases, now with everyone back on campus, staying together for multiple reasons has been a key for all of IU's roster.

"We just stick around each other and I think that has really helped us a lot honestly," Trayce Jackson-Davis said on a Zoom call on Tuesday. "Just being together and getting to know each other especially the freshmen coming in and I feel like our team has really incorporated them and welcomed them in with open arms and that is going to help us during the year in building that team chemistry."

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Part of building that team chemistry is being able to have multiple forms of leadership on the floor and in the locker room. Having a comfortable space that players know they are not only welcome but wanted is important. At times in the past that hasn't been the case, but with the core group of upperclassmen, it is.

"I feel like Race has stepped up tremendously this year and become more of an outspoken leader," Al Durham said. "He's really taken them [freshmen] under his wing and is teaching them on how we do things. Joey has always been a great leader and I feel like I have taken a part in that as well."

While it has been a group effort thus far, Al Durham realizes that with his experience in playing major minutes in all three years thus far, his ability to teach is what he's focusing on in times where the coaches aren't always around.

"I mean we have four freshmen that came in and they are young just getting on campus. I've been trying to teach them the ropes, how to workout, teach them the bits and pieces of the offense and defense, get them a head start on how we prepare," Durham said. "I am trying to keep them away from that freshmen wall as much as I can.

"I've been trying to teach them those little intangibles that coach put in me my freshman year... I have been trying to keep their head high and give them as much confidence as I can... get to know them and get to know the player they are."

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WATCH: Archie Miller and IU players update the summer

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For Joey Brunk, while he isn't necessarily a true senior in IU's program, having five years on a college campus comes with a lot of experience and lessons.

"There are a lot of different adjustments being at a new place, even though I had been in school for three years. I feel like I have a better understanding of what we want to accomplish and give my input based on what I've seen and been through," Brunk said. "That's kinda my job as a senior leader is to take my experiences and help pass those off to our freshmen and everyone on the team and help speed things along and help us be the best team we can be."

Despite just being at IU his one season thus far, Brunk is someone that holds all of the characteristics you want out of a leader and is someone a guy like Trayce Jackson-Davis will lean on in his development.

"I think the biggest one is probably Joey," Jackson-Davis added. "I think Joey is going to be the most vocal leader this year. Just the way he attacks every day, the way he's on people, not in a bad way, just wants them to be the best they can. He's going to be a big leader."

Though Brunk and Durham have been looked at from an outsider's perspective as the two nominated leaders of this team, when the question was asked to both players, who has stepped up this offseason, without hesitation the name that came out was Race Thompson.

"I feel like the one that has shocked the most of us is Race," Durham said. "Race has done a great job with that, and Race has really stepped his game up and stepped his communication up tremendously.”

As a guy who has struggled with injuries, and even redshirting his freshman season, Thompson brings with him a load of experience on and off of the floor. Some of that leadership took place earlier this summer when taking part in the peaceful protests in Minneapolis following the George Floyd death, just 15 minutes from Thompson's house. That increased level of maturity and development has helped Thompson be another voice in the locker room.

“I think it just has to do with being around, being comfortable with everybody, knowing that everybody trusts me, knowing that my coaches trust me,” Thompson added. “Knowing all that stuff just makes it easier for me to have a voice for the younger guys because I’m going into my fourth year here, so I know stuff. I can help people out... It’s really just easy because I already know, so it’s just teaching the younger guys, teaching everybody because I feel like I know what’s going on.”

No matter what happens the rest of this summer, or even the year ahead, one thing is for certain; this team is going to attack everything together and Archie Miller is going to be right there with them.

"I will say I am really really excited about the group we have... the maturity level of this group," Miller said. "It’s the best level of leadership we’ve had."