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Tamar Bates came into this summer as someone who was expected to use the offseason to get better in a few key areas that would translate to the floor next season in a big way.
Whether it is Bates being nominated as a potential breakout candidate on multiple national outlets, or even from his own teammates, everyone is expecting a big year from Bates as a sophomore.
Since the season has ended, Bates has become a father after the birth of his daughter Leilani Nicole Bates. Where he was already focused, that moment has taken his focus and motivation to an entirely different level.
With improvements made this offseason, it's now about finding his role in the Indiana offense and defense. Part of it is relying on the experience of the veterans on the team to help him find it, while the rest is on him to prove he is worth a certain role.
"We obviously have our vets and the guys who have been here for a long time and who I'm following and taking stuff from, because nothing really beats experience," Bates said last week. "I was just talking with our GAs, and you know, we were talking about just how Andrew Wiggins, like how his career and just his role has been like put under a brighter light now because he's -- he had a big role on a winning team. He (our GAs) was just asking me, how can you have a role like that to impact the winning team."
Bates had an up-and-down freshman season averaging 3.9 points, 1.3 rebounds and shooting 33.8 percent overall and 29.8 percent from three. His best scoring games were against high-major opponents, three of four double-digit outings coming against power-five teams.
While there were some good moments, Bates has taken a lot of the inconsistency he saw from himself as a learning experience and trying to build on that, now that he has a year under his belt.
"I mean, I feel like the only thing that could really prepare you for college basketball is college basketball. The same goes for you go to the NBA and the next level," Bates said. "So, I feel like just going through that storm, that just obviously just a stronger basketball player but I came out stronger mentally because I know it's not -- everything is not going to go my way personally this year or the team's way, like how we kind of script it to so just going through that and figuring out, okay, that's where I'm going to get my shots from and this is how things are going to go."
Part of the inconsistency last year could be contributed to working through some of the kinks of playing for a first year college head coach as well. While that isn't a huge reason for the ups-and-downs, Bates' confidence is much higher as summer workouts ended this year knowing exactly what is needed.
"I would say what's different now, we are all like on the same page in terms of what Coach Woodson wants. Last year was everybody's first year of being under that staff. We were all learning and it was like a constant learning process the whole year," Bates said. "Now we have the basic and fundamental concepts and the things we want to do on both ends of the floor, we had and we brought back a lot of the guys who already learned and got it instilled in them, I feel like, you know, it's been easy to bring along the four freshmen in terms of teaching them what we do and how things go and how we going to play defensively, offensively. I feel like the biggest thing, like I said was just we now all have a year under our belt together. Last year was a lot of learning going on.
"So, it was definitely -- it wasn't as much uncertainty coming into summer because nobody really knew what was going to happen in terms of the team and how we would play when we all got here last summer."
While the Indiana front court will grab the headlines, the backcourt of Indiana returns a lot of talent from last year as well as adding to it. Players like Xavier Johnson, Jalen Hood-Schifino, Trey Galloway, Anthony Leal and CJ Gunn will all be vying for consistent minutes and looking to play specific roles.
That goes for Bates, too. What that is, that's up to him.
"I feel like, you know, just doing what I do. Like not getting outside of myself," Bates said. "Like I said, you know, I can be really good offensively and be good defensively."
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