BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Wednesday evening, Langdon Hatton claimed Indiana basketball's penultimate scholarship by committing to Mike Woodson and the Hoosiers.
With 12 of Indiana's 13 scholarship spots taken following Hatton's commitment, the Hoosiers' roster has likely taken its final form ahead of the 2024-25 season.
With the success the Hoosiers have had in the transfer portal this summer, Indiana's transfer class ranks amongst the nation's best, early expectations are as high as they've been in Woodson's tenure as the Hoosiers' head coach.
Are those lofty expectations warranted? Or do Hoosier fans need to come back down to Earth?
Let's compare the roster Woodson has compiled entering his fourth season at the helm of the Hoosiers with those from his first three seasons at Indiana.
*Disclaimer*
Below is a series of tables that feature the four rosters that Woodson has pieced together during his time as the head coach at Indiana.
Every chart has each member of the team under scholarship listed alongside a handful of that player's per game averages from the year prior to the season listed on the specifc table. For example, the statistics seen in Indiana's 2022-23 roster table are all from the 2021-22 season.
Points per game, rebounds per game, assists per game, 3-point misses and makes, as well as what 'star' of a recruit that player was are listed for each player.
These tables help illustrate the amount of proven collegiate production that Woodson was working with heading into each of his years throughout his time at Indiana.
Indiana's 2021-22 roster
***All of these stats are from the 2020-21 season***
Recall all the way back to Trayce Jackson-Davis' junior season with the Hoosiers, also Woodson's first year as Indiana's head coach. Indiana had just gone under .500 in Archie Miller's final season -- the first time IU finished with a sub .500 record since the early Tom Crean days.
In the summer he took over, Woodson managed to keep the roster relatively intact following the firing of Miller.
Aljami Durham, Armaan Franklin and Jerome Hunter transferred elsewhere, but Woodson was able to convince Jackson-Davis, Race Thompson, Rob Phinese, Jordan Geronimo and Khristian Lander all to return.
Woodson hit the transfer portal to bring in the likes of Xavier Johnson, Parker Stewart, Miller Kopp and Michael Durr. Four-star Tamar Bates and three-star Logan Duncomb made up the Hoosiers' incoming freshman class, as Woodson put together a team with a number of talented and experienced pieces around a budding star in Jackson-Davis.
Led by Jackson-Davis, Woodson's first go at things with the Hoosiers saw Indiana make it to the Big Ten Tournament Semifinals -- where IU was knocked out on a Jordan Bohannon game-winning 30-footer.
Woodson also got Indiana back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2015-16 season. After bouncing Wyoming in a play-in game, Indiana lost handily to 5-seeded Saint Mary's in the tournament's first round.
Indiana's 2022-23 roster
***All of these stats are from the 2021-22 season***
Entering his second season with the Hoosiers, Woodson was able to convince Jackson-Davis that one more year in college would greatly benefit the Greenwood, Indiana native (he was right).
The Hoosiers were fresh off an NCAA Tournament appearance and there was a lot more certainty around the program compared to the summer prior.
Stewart and Durr both transferred out of Indiana after just one season each in Bloomington. Phinese and Lander also left via the transfer portal in the offseason leading up to the 2022-23 season.
The offseason additions of two five-star recruits -- Jalen Hood-Schifino and Malik Reneau -- as well as fellow incoming freshmen CJ Gunn and Kaleb Banks, gave Woodson a team littered with talent and experience entering the season.
Throughout the year, Jackson-Davis took the next step to becoming an All-American. Because of that, Indiana took the next step as a team too.
In his second year as the Hoosiers' head coach, Woodson led Indiana to a second consecutive NCAA Tournament bid, this time as a No. 4 seed. Indiana dispatched 13-seeded Kent State in the first round before falling to eventual Final Four participant the 5-seeded Miami Hurricanes in round two.
Indiana's 2023-24 roster
***All of these stats are from the 2022-23 season***
As the Hoosiers embarked on the offseason ahead of the 2023-24 season, Woodson faced a new challenge. The 2023-24 campaign would be his first year coaching at Indiana without Jackson-Davis leading the way.
In addition to Jackson-Davis, Indiana lost Hood-Schifino to the NBA Draft, Bates, Geronimo and Duncomb to the transfer portal, and Thompson and Kopp both ran out of eligibility.
Woodson replaced Hood-Schifino with a top-10 recruit in Mackenzie Mgbako. Indiana's incoming freshman class also featured two four-star recruits in Gabe Cupps and Jakai Newton.
In the transfer portal, the Hoosiers landed one of the top players available in center Kel'el Ware in an effort to make up some of the production lost from Jackson-Davis' departure to the NBA. Anthony Walker and Payton Sparks joined Ware in making their way to Bloomington via the transfer portal, rounding out the Hoosiers' 2023-24 roster.
Indiana struggled mightily throughout the year. Going 1-6 against the trio of Northwestern, Nebraska and Penn State had some Hoosier fans calling for Woodson's firing late in the season.
Nonetheless, Indiana closed the year winning five of its last six games. Woodson was also reportedly given the full support and backing of the athletic department for at least one more year with the Hoosiers.
Indiana's 2024-25 roster
***All of these stats are from the 2023-24 season***
Following a disappointing third season at Indiana, Woodson, while he isn't likely on the hot seat to begin the year, can ill-afford another season of taking steps backwards.
More so than any other offseason during his time with the Hoosiers, Indiana's roster has undergone a lot of change this summer.
Ware departed for the NBA Draft, Johnson and Walker ran out of eligibility and Gunn, Banks and Sparks all hit the transfer portal. Following Ware's official declaration for the 2024 NBA Draft on March 26, Indiana had just six players on scholarship for the upcoming season with a vacant 2024 recruiting class.
Woodson and his staff had their work cut out for them in retooling Indiana's roster this offseason, yet by all accounts they've passed with flying colors.
Myles Rice, Kanaan Carlyle, Luke Goode, Oumar Ballo and Langdon Hatton make up one of the top incoming transfer classes in the country. The addition of top-20 recruit, Bryson Tucker, gives Woodson a retooled roster that possesses talent, proven production and youth.
Is this the year Woodson finally takes Indiana to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament? If it doesn't happen this season, it may never happen for Woodson at his alma mater.
So, does Woodson actually have his best team during his time at IU this season?
Woodson is entering his fourth season as Indiana's head coach with more proven collegiate production than in any of his previous three campaigns with the Hoosiers.
No team Woodson has coached at Indiana has come into a season with as much proven scoring punch as the team he's assembled this offseason. That's evidenced by this year's roster having the highest combined scoring average of any team Woodson's had at IU, based on the year prior's stats.
The same can be said about this year's team in regards to rebounding, playmaking, 3-point shooting and recruiting ratings.
Yes, those are all just counting stats, and recruiting ratings are as subjective. However, the sentiment is still there. Despite there being no surefire All-American on the 2024-25 roster, this is Woodson's best team -- on paper -- that he's had throughout his four-year coaching stint at Indiana.
So, to circle back to those questions that were posed at the top of the story, the expectations for this year's Hoosier squad are absolutely warranted.
The expectation for this team should not only be to get back to the NCAA Tournament, but the expectation should be to win a handful of games in the tournament as well.
The combination of talent, proven collegiate production and depth that this Indiana team has entering the 2024-25 season, is a first for Woodson during his time back in Bloomington coaching Indiana.
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