Just once, in his four-year college career, has Luke Goode been this excited about his team.
The Illinois transfer and Fort Wayne native joined IU basketball via the transfer portal last spring, after spending three years making a name for himself as one of the Big Ten’s most consistent and dangerous 3-point shooters. Last season was Goode’s best, as he averaged career highs in points (5.7) and rebounds (3.6) per game, all while shooting close to 39% from behind the arc on 157 attempts.
That team would eventually finish second in the Big Ten, win the conference tournament and reach the Elite Eight. He’s traded Champaign for Bloomington, but Goode feels the same sense of anticipation heading into this season.
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“This is the best I feel about a team going into the season so far,” Goode said at team media day last month. “It’s right there with last year’s (Illinois) team. We’ve got everything we need — great bigs, great guards, great wings. Heading into the season, everybody on the team and in the program is excited.”
IU fans will feel the same excitement, thanks to the transfer window that ultimately landed Goode in Bloomington.
After a frustrating, inconsistent season last winter, IU coach Mike Woodson set about remaking his roster via the portal last spring. After adding McDonald’s All American freshman wing Bryson Tucker, Woodson dipped into the transfer market for proven high-major talent from coast to coast.
From the Pac-12 he added an all-conference center (Oumar Ballo), an explosive scoring guard (Kanaan Carlyle) and the reigning conference freshman of the year (point guard Myles Rice).
But Woodson wanted more than just a reload. After poor 3-point shooting and stagnant offense undercut his team’s realistic hopes of an NCAA tournament berth in 2024, Indiana’s fourth-year coach wanted to reimagine what his roster might be able to do
Ballo’s arrival, coupled to Malik Reneau’s growth, meant bully ball will still have a place in Woodson’s rotations. But a greater emphasis on guard depth and versatility opened the door to a more modern way of playing. One emphasizing spacing and shooting in ways last year’s Hoosiers — whether because of roster construction decisions or injuries — just never could.
For that, Woodson needed dynamic ball handlers like Rice and Carlyle, and he needed to retain Big Ten co-freshman of the year Mackenzie Mgbako.
He also needed more shooting depth, ideally from a player who could fill multiple positions and even hold his own closer to the basket. He needed a player like Goode.
“I’ve played the four before,” Goode said. “Mack (Mgbako) is capable of playing the four, 6-8 and a strong guy. Having me and Mack on the floor at the same time, especially in a lineup like that, with Malik — who’s also a capable scorer and has come a really long way this summer with his shot — everybody wants to talk about how I’m going to come in and knock down shots, and that’s what we need, but you need shooters for space.
When you have dynamic guards, you can’t double team them off the screen. You can’t double team Ballo in the post anymore. It’s going to open up the floor.”
Woodson will dream of the kind of offensive efficiency Goode helped achieve at Illinois last season. The Illini finished third nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency, per Ken Pomeroy, and in Big Ten games alone they were more efficient with the basketball than any other team in the conference save Purdue.
But Goode sees more than just additional shooters fueling his comparison of the two programs. Chiefly, in fact, he pinpointed guard play as what’s made this Indiana team now feel a little bit like that Illinois team then.
Brad Underwood’s team was anchored last year by bigger, more physically robust guards like Marcus Domask and Terrence Shannon. The Hoosiers won’t go 6-6, 6-6, 6-6 in their backcourt the way Illinois did. Instead, Goode said, they will put the ball in the hands of players with speed and dynamism that will be difficult to control.
“Those guys were bigger,” Goode said, “but these guys are super dynamic.”
That starts with Rice, the fourth-year sophomore who won Pac-12 freshman-of-the-year honors last season. And thanks to IU’s West Coast portal raids, it branches out.
“Since the day Myles got here, I knew he was going to be a special player,” said Goode, who scouted Rice’s Washington State team during NCAA tournament prep last year. “Actually scouted him in the tournament, so I was very familiar with his game, and it’s exactly what you saw last year, and at a higher level.
“Kanaan as well, I wasn’t as familiar with him, but he’s a great player, super dynamic, really good with the ball in his hands.”
In those hands, Woodson will entrust the running of his offense. But it will need players like Goode to really drive it forward.
Already Woodson talks excitedly about assembling a team capable of leaning into smaller, more dynamic lineups. That means Goode or Mgbako spending more time at the four, with either Ballo or Reneau at the five, rather than both the floor together. It means sometimes trading size for space, and countering whatever’s lost defensively or on the glass with cutting edge at the other end of the floor.
The idea isn’t to flip the switch entirely from last year to this one. It’s to achieve greater versatility, and build a team capable of winning games multiple ways. A team difficult to game plan against because it can shed its skin when necessary to counter that game plan with something entirely different.
Luke Goode was brought to Bloomington with this goal in mind. He knew Indiana well before he arrived, having spent three years competing with these Hoosiers. Now, among them, he sees tremendous promise.
I’ve seen all these guys now, that I’ve competed against, to see what they bring,” Goode said. “I think we’ve got the makings to be great this year.”