Thrown into the Fire
When we tried to preview Gabe Cupps last offseason, we had no idea how much we’d be seeing of him. With nobody behind Xavier Johnson at the point guard position, we knew he’d see some minutes, but expected them to be sparing.
Then Indiana’s season went off the rails a bit. Johnson went down with an injury, then struggled to stay in the starting lineup when healthy.
That meant 22 starts for Cupps as a freshman, at least 22 more than anyone at this blog would have projected at the beginning of last year. He appeared in all of Indiana’s 33 games. averaging 21.6 minutes on the floor for context.
Despite that playing time, it’s a bit of a challenge to make sense of Cupps’ first season by looking at the statistics alone. 2.6 points and 1.2 assists per game for all the time he saw does not sound impressive.
The biggest issue that Cupps faced as a freshman was the fact that he very much had the body of a college freshman that was not ready for significant minutes at a high major. This isn’t his fault or something to be worried about going forward, it just is what it is.
On offense, Cupps lacked the burst to beat his guy and get the defense rotating, which led to Trey Galloway taking over as the de facto point guard. Defensively, he had a hard time sticking with older guys who could turn the corner or power past him up top.
On the other hand, Cupps was fantastic at the things that were in his control. He refused to get sped up by opposing defenses and never had more than two turnovers in a game. As a freshman playing in all 33 games, he only had seven games with more than one turnover. 12 times he had zero turnovers in a game.
Cupps also hit a couple of huge jump shots for Indiana that demonstrated that he wasn’t afraid of the moment. Against Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament, for example, he hit a 3-pointer in the second half that allowed Indiana to regain control and avoid blowing a halftime lead.
As a whole, it probably wasn’t the season that Cupps wanted for himself or his team. Some players are just not fully developed at 18 though, and as long as Cupps continues to progress, he’s demonstrated the intangibles that would make him the exact kind of guard you want running your offense.
Assuming he takes more of jump physically this year, I’d like to see him get more aggressive and hunt his shot more. With reps and confidence, I could see him making more big shots for Indiana during his career.