Portal Kombat: How Mike Woodson and staff reimagined IU roster after a frustrating winter

BLOOMINGTON – Mike Woodson’s excellent work in the spring portal window should slow down now, with his team’s biggest needs met and the Hoosiers down to just two open scholarships for next season.

A fast and furious April brings four new Hoosiers into the fold out of that portal, plus a five-star freshman McDonald’s All American. After a frustrating March spent outside the NCAA tournament looking in, Woodson appears to be arming himself with the tools necessary to put Indiana back in the field of 68 in 2025.

Insider: Why Myles Rice is the key piece of Mike Woodson's transfer haul

With his roster taking on firmer shape, IndyStar looks at the pieces Woodson already fit into place around his six returners, what each new Hoosier will bring to the table and what work remains.

Players listed by position, back to front.

Myles Rice, point guard, Washington State

The reigning Pac-12 freshman of the year, Rice’s value runs deeper than simply bringing Indiana good point guard play.

In particular, Rice earned a considerable reputation in ball-screen and pick-and-roll sets during his one letter season in Pullman. That’s a welcome skill set for Mike Woodson, whose offenses during his time in Bloomington have always been at their best when they’ve embraced a ball screen-heavy focus.

Rice has as many as three seasons of eligibility left, after redshirting his first season at Wazzu and sitting out his second while he battled Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He arrives as a piece Woodson can build around not just now, but moving forward.

Kanaan Carlyle, combo guard, Stanford

There might not be a player in the current class with a more open-ended remit than Carlyle, who did a little bit of everything for Stanford last season as a freshman.

A regular starter across the latter half of the winter, Carlyle at various points was asked to create for himself, create for others, knock down shots as a catch-and-shoot player and run his team’s offense almost like a point guard.

Given personnel both returning and inbound to Bloomington, its unlikely Indiana will make such a broad ask of Carlyle this winter. But knowing he has the tools to fill any number of roles provides the Hoosiers flexibility. Particularly if he can improve first on his 32% mark from behind the 3-point line, he will be a key addition from day one.

Luke Goode, wing, Illinois

Indiana’s latest portal add, Goode transfers in from Illinois and in the process gets closer to his Fort Wayne home, and a family with deep IU roots.

Where he’s from isn’t the only thing helping him fit quickly in — across 76 games at Illinois, Goode averaged close to 39% from behind the 3-point line. Across three seasons in Champaign, the Homestead grad made himself into one of the most reliable and consistent shooters in the Big Ten.

Now, he brings both the resume and the experience to Bloomington. Goode proved himself a capable rebounder at Illinois as well, suggesting not just his experience but also his toughness and nous should translate easily across the conference. He helps address a clear and present need for floor spacing from day one on campus.

Bryson Tucker, wing, Arlington (Va.) Bishop O’Connell

The fury of the spring portal window seems to have made Tucker’s commitment fade to the background for Indiana. It should not.

A five-star forward from Bishop O’Connell in the prestigious Washington Catholic Athletic Conference, Tucker brings McDonald’s All American pedigree and a readymade jumper. By reputation, he might be better in the midrange right now than from behind the 3-point line, giving Tucker an immediate point of improvement.

But Jalen Hood-Schifino’s one-year IU career served as a reminder a strong midrange game is a useful weapon. And Tucker gives Indiana more than just change of pace. At 6-6 with true wing skills, Tucker gives Woodson the ability to shift to smaller, more versatile lineups whether from the start or once he goes to his bench.

With Oumar Ballo the only true big added in this portal cycle, Indiana looks likely to run with Mackenzie Mgbako at the four more often than it did a season ago. That works because of players like Goode and Tucker.

Oumar Ballo, center, Arizona

Beyond perhaps Zach Edey, no player in America has been so consistently dominant at the rim, at the high-major level, across the past two seasons.

Ballo is a center’s center. Listed at 7-foot, 260 pounds, he’s finished better 65% of his 2s across the two years. And in that time, he’s finished Pac-12 play top 10 in the league in both offensive and defensive rebound rate.

Ballo won’t play the five the way Kel’el Ware did, certainly. He’s never attempted a 3-pointer across four years in college.

He won’t even necessarily play it like Trayce Jackson-Davis — although it wouldn’t be shocking to see Ballo take a jump in rim-protecting numbers similar to the one Jackson-Davis showed when he started working under Woodson three years ago.

What he lacks in offensive versatility, though, Ballo makes up for in reliability. He can almost single-handedly fix last year’s rebounding issues, and he has both the physicality and the proven skill set to dominate smaller post players. The two-time Pac-12 champion isn’t coming to Bloomington just to wind down his career. He’s a winner Indiana will hope keeps the habit in his final year in college.

IU basketball potential 2024-25 rotation

PG: Rice/Galloway/Cupps

SG: Galloway/Carlyle/Leal/Newton

SF: Mgbako/Tucker/Goode

PF: Reneau/Mgbako/Goode

C: Ballo/Reneau/?

IU basketball remaining transfer portal needs

There aren’t many.

A reliable backup 4/5 provides insurance against foul trouble and injuries, with Monmouth transfer forward Nikita Konstantynovskyi loosely linked.

Given their already enviable backcourt depth, the Hoosiers don’t necessary need another guard. But you can never have enough shooting, and with multiple players ending last season at various stages of recovery from knee problems, the extra body might not hurt. This could also be a spot IU keeps open into the summer, just to see if anything unexpected — like a reclassification — develops, though links to Clemson guard (and Newburgh native) Alex Hemenway intensified over the weekend.

It's worth saying, with the portal window closing for entrants at midnight May 1, the pool of players from which Indiana can recruit will become finite soon. And given the number of high-profile additions made this spring means Woodson doesn’t have a ton of minutes left to hand out, these last two spots will need to be targeted toward players comfortable with smaller roles.

Of course, the Hoosiers can also be selective. With so many glaring needs met, additions from here qualify as finishing touches, rather than major pieces.

Thoughts on overall IU basketball roster picture

When last season ended, donor energy indicated Woodson would have added NIL resources to take into the spring transfer window. To his credit (and his staff’s), Indiana’s fourth-year coach paired those resources to hard work and good work, moving swiftly to identify and locked down targets like Rice and Carlyle.

And when opportunities arose, like Tucker’s recruitment, Ballo’s interest or Goode’s decision to portal, Indiana moved swiftly.

Woodson will be the first to declare last season below par for Indiana. But it also wasn’t a disaster — if it was learned from. All this remains on paper until Woodson gets his roster together this summer and starts fitting pieces into place. But Woodson’s given himself the players to wash last season’s bad taste out of his mouth. Now, he must make the parts into a whole.

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How Indiana basketball roster fits with new transfer portal additions