The Hoosiers need scoring from their star wing to get where they want to go this season.
Part of what makes Indiana a dangerous team to defend, on paper, is how spread out its scoring ability should be.
Indiana’s starting lineup contains four players who can score in the 20s if the conditions are right. It’s not all dependent on one player, if one gets hot you can stay competitive. But if two start cooking? You probably feel pretty good.
Which is why Mackenzie Mgbako’s inability to reliably score the ball lately looms so large for this team.
Mgbako was the offensive engine powering Indiana’s second half turnaround at The Palestra in the opening days of January. He put on a scoring clinic, found his spots and made Penn State pay.
In the four games since he’s put up a grant total of 16 points and gone 0-15 from 3-point range. Not great.
This is a problem for a few reasons. On the team level, Indiana needs a scoring Mgbako to remain competitive on the offense end because he hasn’t offered much as a defender in two years.
On the individual level, this is pretty bad for Mgbako’s NBA draft stock. He came to Bloomington with stated intentions of being a one-and-done last year. He elected to stay for his sophomore season to boost his status as a prospect.
He looked absolutely fantastic in the opening three games of the year, scoring 31, 18 and 17 points. Even when the team faltered in The Bahamas he still put up 8, 13 and 25. A lot of the defensive issues remained, but if he was scoring like that it wasn’t as prominent.
Well now he isn’t. And now it is.
The NBA will always have room for guys with size who can shoot. But those guys have also gotta be able to defend so they have a purpose on the court when said shot isn’t falling, which happens to everyone now and then.
That’s not Mgbako right now. He doesn’t look like a much different defender from the guy who had to be subbed out in tight late game situations during the first half of his freshman season.
Which is odd for a few reasons. Mgbako doesn’t have elite athleticism but what he does have is great positional size. There aren’t a ton of 6’9” wings running around college basketball, so he should have a size advantage over most of his matchups. And he does. It just hasn’t really mattered.
Offensively, Mgbako isn’t just a shooter. Again, he’s a big dude at 6’9” at the wing. If the shot isn’t there he has the size and strength to drive past his man and get at the rim. He just hasn’t been doing a ton of that recently.
Even if he doesn’t get a clean look he can force contact down there and get to the free throw line for some points, where he’s been pretty solid.
Indiana actually ran a play in the closing seconds against Ohio State that looked designed for this exact advantage. The ball went to the top of the key off the pick-and-roll from Myles Rice and when the shot wasn’t open a driving lane to the rim was with Ballo sealing in the paint.
Only Mgbako wasn’t the one getting the ball. It was Luke Goode, who was on fire that game but doesn’t have the same size advantage Mgbako does. Mgbako wasn’t even on the floor. There was time left on the clock no matter what and, therefore, defense to be played.
So, let me ask you this. When Mgbako isn’t providing floor spacing or even reliable scoring of any sort on the floor, what does he offer? Not much aside from reliable free throw shooting.
Mike Woodson has frequently had Mgbako’s back. When he was struggling in his first few games last season, Woodson responded to media inquiries by emphasizing that he was a freshman learning like everyone else. When he was asked about this very cold streak, he said it’s on him to help Mgbako get going again.
Indiana probably can’t bench Mgbako because, well, who starts over him? Bryson Tucker could, but he’s currently injured and doesn’t provide the shooting threat on paper that Mgbako does.
So, what are the Hoosiers to do?
It’s probably too late to expect a sudden turn from Mgbako on the defensive end of the floor, this is probably just what the staff has to work with for the time being. But he’s shown what kind of offensive player he can be.
Indiana can’t abandon him and I do not expect them to. I think he’ll keep shooting until they start falling again, which is all you can really hope and ask for at this point. Just make sure they’re good shots and if they aren’t, create a better one or pass out of it.
Mgbako, as stated above, has used his size in the past. If he can do that a bit more and get to scoring with it, maybe that helps out with his confidence when Ballo’s battling in the post and sends the ball his way off of a double team.
That offensive talent is still there, it’d be foolish to not keep trying to use it.