Don't miss out on any of our exclusive football, basketball and recruiting coverage. Sign up with TheHoosier.com here.

When Khristian Lander announced he would attend Indiana University in February of 2020, it was one of the biggest recruiting wins in recent Indiana history.

The Evansville-Reitz product was a unanimous five-star recruit and was the number one point guard in the class of 2021 at the time of his decision. Lander was set to come in and run the team as a freshman and create a dynamic duo with Trayce Jackson-Davis.

Due to various factors, those visions didn't pan out as expected. Amidst the threat of COVID-19 taking away his senior season, Lander was reclassified to the class of 2020 and joined the IU roster as a 17-year-old. He became one of the youngest players in the entire country and some suffered growing pains.

Lander showed flashes of high-level shot-making and ball-handling but was very sporadic as a freshman (as you would expect from any should-be high schooler playing Big Ten basketball). Those flashes were also shown in the 2021-2022 season, but a lack of playing time ultimately led Lander to enter the transfer portal.

On April 27th, Lander announced his commitment to Western Kentucky. Let's reflect on his time at Indiana and what lies ahead for the former five-star.

Lander found himself in a lesser role under new coach Mike Woodson from the beginning of the season. The additions of Xavier Johnson and Parker Stewart added veteran depth to the backcourt and made it a challenge to give the former five-star playing time. For all his talent, Lander was -- and is -- still very raw, especially on the defensive end.

Lander appeared in just 13 games -- half as many as the 26 he played in his first season. He averaged only 8.8 minutes per game and scored 2.9 points per game along with 0.8 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game.

Uncoincidentally, Lander's best game of the season was against Louisiana, where he scored nine points, grabbed six rebounds, and dished out six assists. His talent has always been on the offensive end, and he showed that talent in spades that evening.

Defense was the cause of Lander's limited playing time throughout the year. Woodson emphasized a no-nonsense approach to defensive personnel all season. If you couldn't be trusted to guard, you wouldn't play, no matter how good the results seemed on the other end of the floor.

Defensive analytics aren't the most reliable advanced statistic, but they paint a broad picture of a player's performance when guarding the opposition. Lander ranked in the bottom 1% of Division I players across all defensive analytics per Synergy Sports. He was the single worst defender of jump shots in the country on 17 possessions, allowing an unreal 1.882 points per possession to offensive players.

An inability to guard ultimately cost Lander his playing time amidst a roster with a clearly defined defensive identity. The critical blow to the defense when Lander was on the court was vastly outweighed by his occasionally promising offensive outputs. He received only 24 minutes against Big Ten opponents.

Even though it didn't work out at Indiana, Lander has a good chance at being a terrific college player. Western Kentucky will be a place where he can work on improving his glaring weakness on defense while showing off his gifts on offense.

It's important to recognize that just because it didn't quite work out at Indiana, Lander's year one was rife with turmoil. Most of his minutes came as the team spiraled late in the year, and Archie Miller looked for any sort of spark. That is a large load to carry as a 17-year-old.

He then had to adjust to a completely different style of basketball under Woodson. The win-now expectations gave him no room to let Lander experiment and make mistakes, but he should have that freedom with his new team.

A change of scenery should allow Lander to grow and nurture his undeniable talents. Don't be surprised if Lander is posting averages of 15+ points and 6+ assists per game within a few years. That five-star talent is still in there, it just needs to be grown in the proper environment. It's just a shame that it couldn't have happened in Bloomington.

----

• Talk about it inside The Hoops Forum or The Football Forum

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Follow us on Twitter: @IndianaRivals

• Like us on Facebook.