Indiana’s backcourt rotation has started to take shape.
It isn’t even May yet and Indiana’s backcourt rotation has begun to take some serious shape thanks to Darian DeVries’ efforts in the transfer portal.
Indiana has added a four guards in Troy’s Tayton Conerway, Sam Houston State’s Lamar Wilkerson, DePaul’s Conor Enright and North Florida’s Jasai Miles. Each bring their own set of strengths that compliment one another.
As of right now, depending on what kind of lineup DeVries plans to play, it’s fair to slot in Conerway and Wilkerson as Indiana’s starters at point guard and shooting guard. Enright has the versatility to come off the bench for either, but would likely do so Conerway given his abilities as a distributor.
Conerway leads the way at the point, having averaged 14.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game in the Sun Belt this past season en route to a conference player of the year nod.
He’s the tip of the spear defensively, using his length and size to disrupt opposing ballhandlers. His steal rate of 5.6 last season ranked in at third in all of NCAA Division-I men’s basketball, per KenPom. That wasn’t a one-off either, he had the same rate of 5.6 in 2023-24.
Offensively, he’s limited somewhat as a shooter but does plenty of other things well. His assist rate, 36.8, ranked 20th nationally this past season. With guys like Tucker DeVries, Reed Bailey, Wilkerson and Miles around him, he’ll have plenty of options. If he’s not passing, he can get to the rim himself.
After Conerway is where things get interesting as far as the lineup goes.
It all comes down to who ends up seeing minutes at the five: Bailey or another player Indiana has yet to acquire. If Bailey is Indiana’s starting center, DeVries is Indiana’s power forward. If Bailey is the power forward, DeVries is the three.
No matter what, Indiana has plenty of good options.
If Bailey is Indiana’s five, a lineup which remains possible no matter what, then Indiana is rolling out some combination of Wilkerson and Miles at the two and three. It’d be a small lineup and sacrifice some defense, but Wilkerson is 6-5 and Miles is 6-6. Both have solid size all things considered.
If Bailey is Indiana’s four, then it’s Wilkerson at the two with Miles right behind him. Wilkerson is a starter no matter what for his offense and experience, which isn’t to say anything against Miles, just that one guy is a better shooter and has seen more basketball.
Miles would be an interesting option at the two or three. His rebounding numbers are tremendous and he’d do Indiana a lot of favors on the wing and his size could create matchup problems for opposing shooting guards.
Then there’s Enright, who’s an ideal bench distributor. He’s familiar with DeVries’ system from their time at Drake, which should help everyone else acclimate a bit more easily.
He averaged 7.5 points, 3.3 rebounds and 6.2 assists in 30.1 minutes per game as DePaul’s starting point guard this past season. He’s not a big time scorer but he can absolutely pass the ball, given his assist rate of 37.8. As a bench option, he could be more conservative with the ball and cut down on his turnover rate of 29.8. There’s other guys to pass and make plays, he doesn’t have to be The Man.
It all rounds out to a pretty solid group that DeVries will continue adding to as portal season draws to a close.