BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Less than two months ago in the bowels of a building he’s all too familiar with, Mike Woodson, speaking about Mackenzie Mgbako, was quite colorful with his language.
“He’s a young player, man,” Woodson began after a win over Louisville in Madison Square Garden. “All you guys expect him to be this great player right now because he’s got this five-star tag on him, and I think that’s bullshit.”
Woodson reasoned it would take time for the youthful wing to understand the college game and how he could best be proficient at this level. In so many words, Woodson knew Mgbako would be “fine.”
Mgbako’s initial response would be a career-high 18 points six days later in victory over Harvard in Indianapolis. For the first time in his collegiate career, flashes of brilliance sustained for a complete game. The former Roselle Catholic five-star appeared to be turning a corner, developing outing by outing, with Hoosier faithful clamoring for more.
The 11 games and multiple weeks since afforded many lessons worth learning for Mgbako. It culminated in front of a raucous home crowd that, time and time again, turns this Indiana (12-5, 4-2) team into a force nearly incapable of submission. Mgbako’s 19 points headlines IU’s most well-rounded victory it has experienced so far, featuring a prominent footnote of his best game in candy stripes.
“I thought he was aggressive right from the start,” Woodson said Friday night. “He got some early looks that he made. I ran a couple plays for him that he was able to knock shots down, and the way they double-team, it opened him up on the backside, as well, to get shots.”
Mgbako’s first take and make of the evening came via off-ball screen action intending to get a free look from distance. Rattling home the look with no hesitation, the initial tone of his night on the offensive side of the ball was set.
What happened next exposed situations in which Mgbako’s offensive growth becomes most evident. While confidence didn’t waver throughout his first 17 games as a Hoosier, his production did to begin the season. Prior to the Harvard game to close out November, he’d eclipsed double figures scoring-wise just once, doing so with six made free throws on an otherwise forgetful 3-for-9 shooting night. Playing the percentages, opponents weren’t threatened as much on his looks from outside. The clip at which those shots were burning defenses simply wasn’t there.
Since then, Mgbako’s scoring has been in the double digits 10 out of the 12 following games. As his shot starts to fall, defenders are forced to play him tighter. Earlier versions of his attack would result in passes off to teammates or forcing an ill-advised look from the field.
In Indiana’s romping of Minnesota, Mgbako instead went to his counter as he put the ball on the floor and attacked the rim multiple times, showcasing his offensive skill set now ranges far beyond being just a spot-up shooter.
His sizable frame, as Minnesota head coach Ben Johnson alluded to postgame, already makes him a tough cover when utilized on the wing as Indiana so often does. But as an evolving three-level scorer, the stress he’s starting to put on opposing defenses is immense and mounting when coupled with some of the already-established options in the Hoosier scoring arsenal.
“He puts you in a bind because you’re so worried about Ware and Reneau that he could kind of be a lost guy at times, but he can make you pay at the same time,” Johnson said. “That’s really a big frontline, when you throw him in there, that’s got versatility.”
Now with the ability to put the ball on the floor to open up avenues to the lane or create offense for others, his game’s floor elevates. No longer does he have to only hunt jumpers and continually work to free himself off-ball. Offense doesn’t have to come to him if he can make it himself.
“Even in practice I always encourage Mac just to go to the rim,” sophomore center Kel’el Ware said Friday, “get fouled, try to create anything that can get us a bucket, even in game. So he works on it in practice and it translates to the game and just being more aggressive.”
Under the microscope of titles that will stick with him for his career – five-star, McDonald’s All-American and others – the quick maturity of Mgbako behind the scenes has started to pay off in the public eye. Indiana’s pivotal rookie transitioning into a defense-terrorizing playmaker for himself and others is the vision many had for him since his arrival to Bloomington.
But despite a seldom few cases, it generally isn’t a seamless process for players at his level to adjust so quickly from high school and AAU ball to high-major play.
“...[I]t’s not easy to walk into college basketball and be great,” Woodson said. “If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. But he’s put the work in.
“All we can do as coaches is continue to teach and push to try to get as much out of them as we can and continue this journey.”
Those pushes have resulted in Mgbako’s game becoming more evident of the types of performances Woodson alluded to being on the way in New York – that it was not a matter of if, but when.
But in trouncing league foe Minnesota, he was more than just “fine.”
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