BLOOMINGTON, Indiana — Miller Kopp is the top perimeter shooter on the Indiana roster, and the starting small forward has made 45.1 percent of his three-point attempts this season. That percentage would rank 16th in the nation, barring one thing.
the thing? He doesn’t qualify for the national rankings because he didn’t shoot enough. The best shooter on the Indiana team doesn’t shoot enough.
Makes no sense, does it?
Saturday was a perfect example of just how little influence Kopp can have on the Hoosiers offense. Indiana defeated No. 18 Wisconsin 63-45, but Kopp, a fifth-grader who knows his way around a basketball court, played 26 minutes before he made his first shot and 28 minutes before he made one. His last line: 30 minutes played, with 1v2 shooting, a rebound and no assists.
And that’s it.
Indiana’s coaches Mike Woodson and Kopp met with local media Tuesday, and that was my first question for both of them. Why doesn’t Kopp get more shots? And why don’t they perform more actions or shield the ball to make it look better?
“The guys don’t let him down,” Woodson said of the opposing defenders guarding Kopp. “If he looks good, let’s just hope he can knock her down. To utilize him, I do a few plays for him here and there, but my focus isn’t just on Miller. Everyone has a role to play and when you have shots you have to be ready to take them down. For some reason he doesn’t get many shots because they don’t leave him. And I wouldn’t leave him either.
“If Trayce (Jackson-Davis) is playing doubles and the rotations to (Kopp) are a lot quicker depending on who we’re playing against, he can put down two or three dribbles and he’ll escape dribbles and get shots. That’s something he can do more if he gets the opportunity, but I’m just not here to create a lot of shots just for Miller. I mean I’m not here to do that. But I think our offense flows best when everyone touches the basketball and gets an opportunity to kick the ball.”
i will be honest That wasn’t the answer I expected. There’s a good reason Indiana plays head-out, because Trayce Jackson-Davis draws so much attention when the ball hits the post. He often plays doubles, but for the past few games, Kopp’s defender hasn’t helped.
It seems to me that a coach should take some actions to get some shots out of their best perimeter.
I’m in no way comparing Miller Kopp to Steve Alford, the school’s most prolific perimeter shooter, but if you have an eidetic memory like me, I can still see Steve in his No. 12 jersey, running through all sorts of screens to get candid shots mid-1980s.
Kopp, who also wears the No. 12, could benefit from that love. This is a different time, of course, and moving offenses involving off-the-ball screens are a thing of the past. Kopp said he and his coaches put a lot of time into finding out better options for him and the shots were coming.
Let’s hope so.
“I feel like I’m trying to do everything I can because at the end of the day the offense is all about Trayce and[Jalen Hood-Schifino]now with the ball sevens and stuff,” Kopp said. “There is nothing more I can do for me. I’m watching movies with the coaches all the time about where I can hopefully get more shots in terms of my distance or how I move or giving the guys more angles so I can get open views. I try to do everything I can to get open looks and shoot the ball because that’s what I do best.
“If I get a shot 28 minutes into a game, if I get a look it goes up and I feel good about it. My role isn’t to come out and shoot 20 times a game. My job is to help my team win, accept what’s ahead and make the best of it.”
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Kopp doesn’t let a quiet night on the offensive affect the rest of his game. He remains committed and has done well defensively most of the year. He knows he has to play hard every minute and also be a vocal leader. There are five guys out there and he’s there to help all of them.
“You can lose yourself in the game, but being vocal and leading and talking about all possession, that’s how I stay in the game,” said Kopp. ‘I just focus on defense and I’m a team defender.’
Indiana coach Mike Woodson speaks to Xavier Johnson (0) and Miller Kopp (12) during a game. (Rich Janzaruk/USA TODAY Sports)
Kopp, averaging 8.5 points per game, is fifth on the team behind Jackson-Davis, Hood-Schifino, Xavier Johnson and Tamar Bates. He’s 50-to-99 from the field in 16 games and 32-to-71 from three. That’s just 4.4 three-point shots per game and just two hits per game.
That’s not nearly enough. Worse still, in January’s four Big Ten games so far, he’s only fired 10 total shots and only six three-pointers. The lack of production — and lack of good looks — has something to do with senior point guard Xavier Johnson not being on the lineup.
His absence has been felt since he broke his foot in Kansas on December 17, and it’s hit Kopp more than anyone. In the last six games of 2022, he was making 53 shots and an average of 8.9 shots per game.
That’s a lot more realistic than 2.5 shots per game, especially in the same number of minutes.
That’s a huge difference. Matching Johnson — and senior forward Race Thompson — is still a work in progress.
“We’re still in the adjustment phase, I can tell you that now,” said Kopp. “As a shooter, I rely on the point guard to find me. I miss X, I miss Race too. I felt that impact pretty quickly, just like a shooter. It’s something we’re still going through. Hopefully every day we’ll get closer and closer to where we need to be. There will be some bumps when you lose two captains. Its hard. It’s about figuring out how to maximize the guys we have right now.
Indiana lost its first three games of the new year, losing at Iowa and Penn State and at home to Northwestern. That’s why the win against No. 18 Wisconsin on Saturday was huge. Indiana had to turn it around, and they have to keep it going Thursday in Illinois, a team that’s playing as well as anyone in the conference.
“The most important thing for us was our sense of urgency,” Kopp said of the effort against Wisconsin. “We came into the game with our backs to the wall and we had to come out and defend. This is our business card. We had to set the tone and allow the rest. At the end of the day, it’s about the Jimmy’s and the Joe’s and not the X’s and the O’s.
“We all have it in us because we’ve done some competitive practice. We’re still training hard despite having a crazy stretch of games. It’s all gas, no brakes for us.”
Especially with two failures in the starting eleven, it is up to Kopp to play a bigger role in this offensive. You have to make him look good and when he gets them he has to take his shots. He’s right, he’ll never be a 20-shot guy on this team, but getting three or four threes a game with six or seven shots would be a huge lift.
Is Kopp a role player? Sure he is. But for the rest of this Big Ten season, Indiana needs to make that role bigger one way or another.
And it has to start immediately.
- HOOSIERS LOOKING FOR STREET WIN: Indiana basketball has not won a game outside of Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall since November 20. The Hoosiers are 0-3 in Big Ten road games and play Thursday in Illinois, winners of four straight games. CLICK HERE
- GAME STORY: INDIANA TAKES BACK BADGERS: Indiana looked lost during a recent three-game losing streak, but on Saturday they completely reversed the script, closing No. 18 Wisconsin 63-45 at Assembly Hall with a great defensive effort. CLICK HERE
- TOM BREW COLUMN: Tracye Jackson-Davis had another great day defeating Wisconsin and some Indiana fans need to appreciate it more. CLICK HERE
- GERONIMO STEP AGAINST WISCONSIN: Indiana forward Jordan Geronimo responded to coach Mike Woodson’s challenge with his best game of the season, a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double in the Hoosiers’ 63-45 win over Wisconsin on Saturday. CLICK HERE
- INDIANA SCHEDULE: The Indiana Hoosiers basketball schedule for the 2022-2023 season is complete. Here’s the full schedule with dates, game times and TV info, as well as links to the stories on the games already played. CLICK HERE
- JACKSON-DAVIS MOVES ON THE GOALS LIST: Trayce Jackson-Davis was already number 15 on Indiana’s all-time scoring chart before deciding to come back for his senior year. Now he’s on his way up the goalscoring chart again in 2022/23 and we’ll update the goalscoring chart after every game. CLICK HERE
