Forward OG Anunoby returns to Indiana basketball with high expectations for his sophomore season.
Heading into last season’s Indiana versus Kentucky second round NCAA Tournament game, there was tons of hype for a multitude of reasons. It was a match-up of two of the best backcourts in the country, with the big names being Yogi Ferrell, Tyler Ulis and Jamal Murray.
So naturally, nobody really noticed when OG Anunoby took the floor.
Anunoby, a freshman from Missouri, was unranked on Rivals’ top 150 recruiting list for last season.
He had averaged just five points, two rebounds and about 14 minutes per game in his freshman campaign. But with the season on the line, it was Anunoby who hounded Murray, a 40 percent three-point shooter, into a 1-for-9 performance from deep.
In the first half, he was blocking Murray’s shots in sparkling fashion when he wasn’t even guarding him! (GIF via sportingnews.com)
And in the second half, it was Anunoby who had a steal and a block on back-to-back possessions, helping Indiana extend their lead to nine points with just over one minute left to play.
He would finish the game with seven points, two steals, and three blocks, and officially transition from an unranked recruit, to being named the best NBA prospect in the Big Ten by DraftExpress. They also have him getting selected 16th overall in their latest 2017 mock draft.
The potential is extremely easy to see, even if the two above clips were the only basketball you’ve ever seen Anunoby play.
In both instances, Murray thinks he has a clear look at the basket, and not only is Anunoby athletic enough to come out of nowhere to contest both shots, but he blocks both of them. According to hoop-math.com, Indiana blocked just one percent of the opposing team’s three-point shots last season, yet Anunoby did it twice in one game!
Excluding Tim Priller, who played just 17 minutes all season, Anunoby led the Hoosiers in defensive rating. He could realistically be the best perimeter defender in college basketball this season, and he reportedly asked Tom Crean if he could defend point guards this year.
Imagine how much fun it would be for everyone to see the 6’8″ Anunoby suffocate the 6’3″ Melo Trimble in a Big Ten game later this year (fun for everyone except for Maryland and Trimble, of course).
His offense might come in to question with his bigger role this season, though he shot well from almost everywhere on the floor last year. He shot almost 45 percent from three in very limited attempts (29) though his sub-50 percent percentage from the free throw line and poor release on his jump shot, lead me to believe that that high percentage might not be sustainable.
Going to the rim is where he really succeeds and the good news is he appears to know that since most of his shots came from there (63.8 percent of them, to be exact). His athleticism helped him finish 65 percent of his shots at the rim. And he dunks. A lot.
Truthfully, I think some of Anunoby’s expectations need to come down a bit. I do think he should be a lottery pick in the NBA Draft next summer, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to win Big Ten Player of the Year this year or anything.
His offensive rating last year was second to last among Indiana’s regular rotation players. Lucky for him, behind him was the man he will be replacing in the starting lineup: Troy Williams.
Besides, offense is never the problem for Tom Crean’s teams. Defense is. So in that sense Anunoby will be extremely valuable to them. Unless he proves he is capable of shooting 40+ percent from distance in a much larger number of attempts, I don’t see him being a huge scorer. Nothing more than 12 points per game, and even that may be too much.
In last year’s Indiana versus Michigan State game in East Lansing, Denzel Valentine finished with 30 points and 13 assists. Indiana lost 88-69. Now that Tom Crean knows what he has in Anunoby, expect him to be chasing guys like Valentine around all game. Also, expect it to be a lot of fun.
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