There is A Lot of noise around the Indiana men’s basketball program right now. Questions about the program will be addressed and answered in the coming months, but one looms large right now regardless of the outcome.
Whether or not Mike Woodson is still leading the program during the 2025-26 season, there’s a least one certainty: there’s no way of knowing who’s going to be playing center.
Which is odd for a few reasons.
Centers have enjoyed working under Woodson perhaps the most of any position for Indiana in four years. Trayce Jackson-Davis went from a great talent to one of the very best players in the country as a senior. Kel’el Ware arrived in Bloomington with falling draft stock and motor concerns and ended up being selected in the first round of this past NBA Draft by the Miami Heat.
Even Oumar Ballo, the Hoosiers’ incumbent starting center, is having a career year as Woodson has asked for more out of him as a passer than Tommy Lloyd did at Arizona. Granted a guy playing his fifth year is probably bound to be better than most other players.
So why exactly aren’t other centers lining up to play here? For this coach? In this offense?
For whatever reason, you’re completely free to speculate, they just aren’t. In four years, Woodson’s program has signed one player at the position out of high school: Logan Duncomb, who was recruited by Archie Miller and signed his letter of intent when the program was still Miller’s.
This is not for lack of trying. Indiana has had a few high profile targets in recent years like Derik Queen and Malachi Moreno. Both ended up elsewhere as Woodson has looked to the portal to fill that spot.
Indiana filled out its center rotation in 2023 with Ware and Payton Sparks, both portal additions. It did so again this past offseason with Ballo and Langdon Hatton.
If you read the signs it’s pretty clear the program would understandably rather avoid being in that position again this coming offseason. When Moreno, a longtime pursuit of the Hoosiers, committed to Kentucky and Mark Pope, Indiana sought out Eric Reibe, who ended up with UConn. Indiana then turned to Fridrik Leo Curtis, who has since committed to Arizona State.
I’d like to make a point here: This isn’t an issue for a starting caliber center. Indiana has found that pretty reliably now. The problem comes into play when you consider who’s in the game when that guy is on the bench.
It’s not all that hard for Mike Woodson to sell the idea of starting at center for the program. Come to Bloomington, be a featured part of the offense and improve as a player. It’s harder for every program, not just Indiana to pitch playing 10 or less minutes off the bench behind that guy, especially in the portal.
For that role Indiana has had the fortune of finding two players, Sparks and Hatton, who were in-state prospects who grew up dreaming of playing for Indiana. Those guys could be sold on the bench role for their dream school.
The problem with that is you cannot just depend on that guy existing. Indiana isn’t, hence the spirited pursuit of a high schooler in the class of 2025.
That approach has failed up to this point and, as of now, Indiana finds itself staring at a third consecutive offseason where it will have to replace the entirety of its rotation at center through the transfer portal.
Not ideal.
