Malik Reneau wants to take his game to the next level this season.
If 10 straight points down the stretch of a charity exhibition game Oct. 27 at Tennessee means anything, the Indiana forward might be about to do that and then some.
Reneau and the No. 17 Hoosiers open the most anticipated season in coach Mike Woodson’s four years on Wednesday night by hosting SIU Edwardsville in Bloomington, Ind.
Coming off a year in which he averaged 15.4 points and 6.0 rebounds per game, Reneau desires the chance to do more. The first chore is staying on the floor. He averaged just 28.7 minutes per game last season because he fouled out of seven games.
“It’s super important for me to stay on the floor,” he said. “It’s been emphasized about being able to play high minutes. If I’m not on the court, it’s hard for us to do a lot of things.”
The other thing Woodson wants to see Reneau do is take more shots, specifically from the 3-point line. He was 15 of 45 last season, an acceptable percentage, and Indiana didn’t get much production from distance.
“We are taking more 3s and getting up and down the floor,” Woodson said. “If he can pop and get that shot, I expect him to take it and feel good about taking it. If he gets in a situation where he’s ready to shoot the 3, he has to take it. We’ll live with it.”
Indiana returns every starter from last season’s team except NBA first-round pick Kel’el Ware. Woodson added arguably the top transfer class in the offseason with the big catch being former Arizona center Oumar Ballo, a 7-footer who was a first team All-Pac 12 pick the last two seasons.
After not even going to a postseason tournament last season, the Hoosiers not only expect to return to the NCAA field but make a run in March.
Meanwhile, the visiting Cougars are tabbed for a sixth-place finish in the Ohio Valley Conference. They lost four starters from a 17-win team that gave the program its second straight winning season for the first time in its Division I history.
But the one returning starter is a rarity in this era of college basketball — a fifth-year senior who has not transferred. Point guard Ray’Sean Taylor scored 15 points in Monday night’s 95-42 win over Division III Westminster (Mo.).
“He’s a competitive son of a gun, he fights his butt off and he’s all about the team,” sixth-year SIUE coach Brian Barone said of Taylor.
Guards Desmond Polk and Brian Taylor II are expected to make big jumps statistically, while forwards Ring Malith and Myles Thompson could be plug-and-play guys after helping Barton (Kan.) win the Division I National Junior College Athletic Association tournament in March.
Indiana has won both previous meetings between the programs, including an 83-60 verdict in December 2016.
