As point guard Rob Phinisee enters his second year in Bloomington and head coach Archie Miller stresses communication moving into his third year, more responsibility is falling on the shoulders of the sophomore point guard after the departures of Juwan Morgan and Romeo Langford.
Year: Sophomore
Hometown: Lafayette, IN
Height/Weight: 6-foot-1, 182 lbs.
Position: Point guard
2018-19 stats: 6.8 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 2.9 apg, 27.3 mpg, 32 games (29 starts)
2018-19 advanced stats: 45.2 total shooting percentage, 19.3 assist percentage, 1.8 win shares
One of the improvements Indiana head coach Archie Miller is hoping to make moving into his third year in Bloomington is having increased communication on both sides of the court. The head coach said he has put his players into positions that require them to speak with each other in an exaggerated manner that will hopefully translate to the floor.
The beacon of those efforts is sophomore point guard Rob Phinisee, who will be handling the majority of the minutes at the point guard spot, though he will be splitting some reps with junior guard Al Durham and senior guard Devonte Green.
“Robert plays a big role,” Miller said during Indiana’s media day in Bloomington. “I think you saw a team last year at times when Rob was playing effectively, was healthy. He's a gamer. But with that gamer, as you get another year older, there are no surprises anymore. You're expected to do it. I think he knows, as he looks at me, what I expect of him.”
What Miler expects of him, on the mere surface, is to be “the quarterback” of the team on offense and defense. Phinisee was one of the best on-ball defenders at point guard in the Big Ten during his freshman season, and that aspect of his game was clearly his best at different points of the year, sometimes taking on his man in ISO to fend off an entire possession. His defensive win share – how many games were won because of his defense – was 1.4, which was third to Juwan Morgan (2.3) and Romeo Langford (1.6).
That translates offensively as well, which is the side of the floor Phinisee tended to struggle on. With a 36-percent field goal rating, a three-point percentage of 31, a 0.5 offensive win share and a 10.9 player efficiency rating, Phinisee was the least efficient starter on offense, in terms of scoring. But the point guard had the second-best assist percentage (19.3) to Devonte Green (23.1), so he, as most on the team did, left most of the scoring to Morgan and Langford.
There is no Morgan or Langford anymore, and the team needs new leaders to take hold. Phinisee said he’s been working on that part of the game.
“Just being a leader, really,” Phinisee said. “Being a leader with the teammates. I think that’ll take us a long way.”
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