Shooting % will have to increase dramatically, or a couple of these players won't be scoring in double digits, not enough shots to go around, Who backs up Ballo? Can IU get anything from their bench? Who is going to score from deep? Is IU going to play defense? Rebounding, IU has been very average? Free Throws, can Ballo make 50%, can the team make over 70%? Will the weak non-conference get IU ready for the BT or is it just a confidence booster for Woody? Turnovers, does IU have a true point guard?
-IU will slide Reneau over to the center position when Ballo is out. And then Hatton will back both of them up for short stints.
-Yes, they'll have Tucker, Goode, and Galloway or Carlyle on their bench. Much better blend of talent and proven experience than Purdue has on their bench...as an example.
-Mgbako will be one of the better perimeter shooters in the conference. Goode is a good shooter. And then Rice and Carlyle are both gonna be decent shooters, I'm sure.
-I assume they intend on playing defense, yes. Ballo will help with that, Rice is a good defender, Mgbako made huge strides last year as the season wore on, Galloway will be defending his natural position more and is really good when doing so, Cupps won't need to play as much, so when he gets his minutes, he'll be an elite level on ball defender. I like our defense better than Purdue's, as an example.
-Ballo is a beast on the boards, he'll help our rebounding. Other than that, we should be fairly long and athletic, I doubt this will be a weakness.
-Who knows on free throws? Mgbako and Reneau should get a lot of them. Rice and Carlyle hopefully generate some free throw opportunities, they're both solid.
-Non conference schedules preparing for the B10 are vastly over rated. Not many teams outside the B10 play prison ball like Purdue and MSU and Illinois and Wisconsin and Rutgers...so there's really no "preparing for B10 play". Its more about preparing for the NCAAs. For that, they play in Bahamas, that'll be a good team building experience and will help them with multi day travel. Other than that, I just hope they head in to B10 play healthy.
-Rice is going to be one of the better PGs in the conference, if not the best PG in the conference. So...yeah...we've got a PG.