Mike Woodson, Jackson-Davis reasons for excitement in college basketball
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College basketball has returned... and this time with fans. After a 2020-21 season left arenas empty for the majority of the season, the 2021-22 season ushers in a newfound excitement.
For Indiana, there are multiple reasons for excitement. The return of All-American Trayce Jackson-Davis and the beginning of the Mike Woodson era headline the Hoosiers' season storylines.
CBS Sports and College Hoops Today college basketball analyst Jon Rothstein put out his list of '68 reasons to look forward to the 21-22 college basketball season' and those two Indiana storylines made the cut.
"An AP Preseason First-Team All-American, the 6-9 forward (Trayce Jackson-Davis) has an improved supporting cast thanks to the transfer portal and should have an excellent chance to lead the Hoosiers to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2016," Rothstein said.
Jackson-Davis returns to Indiana as the top returning scorer in the Big Ten (19.1 ppg) and looks to lead the Hoosiers back to the national conversation.
The All-American forward has been named first-team 2021-22 Preseason All-American by the Associated Press, noted analyst Dick Vitale and ESPN.com, and by Athlon's Magazine and Second Team by the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook and The Sporting News. The Center Grove standout was also selected to the Karl Malone Watch List and NABC National Player of the Year watch list.
A big reason for his return was Mike Woodson.
The first-year head coach at Indiana made Jackson-Davis his top priority when he took the job in Bloomington and wasted no time on making an impact.
“When the coaches got fired, my mindset was honestly, I didn’t know who they were going to bring in,” Jackson-Davis said this summer. “I was going to wait anyways, but I was almost dead set on entering the draft and hiring an agent... He came in and he told us he doesn’t want to rebuild. He wants to win right away. And he told me I’m a big piece to that. After hearing that and hearing an NBA coach tell you that, it just really was a simple decision to come back and play for him, honestly.”
"The thing that he really told me is the things that I did not want to hear. He told me what I needed to work on. He showed me clips of me playing. He showed me my missed shots, what I should have done in this situation, where I needed to take shots. That’s all my dad talks about. He talks about the things I need to improve on. He never talks about what I’m good at. That right there was already showing me he wants what’s best for me. After he did that, I was sold on him.”
Right away Woodson made a big splash in improving a depleted roster with the majority in the transfer portal.
His ability to recruit showed all summer and his ability to bring national buzz back to Indiana is something Rothstein is excited for.
"Supporters of this program wanted one of their own to lead a rebuild," Rothstein said. "They got just that with (Mike) Woodson, who starred at guard for the Hoosiers under Bob Knight roughly 40 years ago. Indiana should be in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten."
Indiana's season begins on Tuesday at home against Eastern Michigan.
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