“They give us good firepower”: How Jaeden Mustaf and Bryce Lindsay complete the Indiana backcourt

Indiana entered this offseason needing to make major upgrades to its entire roster. While most focused on what Darian DeVries and the Hoosiers were going to do about the frontcourt, arguably the most important upgrade Indiana needed was in the backcourt.

Indiana lacked a lot of things in the first year of the Darian DeVries era, most notably when it came to pure, consistent playmaking in the backcourt.

The Indiana staff certainly recognized the need to improve the talent in the backcourt and went out and landed one of the best one-on-one playmakers in the entire country in Notre Dame transfer point guard Markus Burton. They also landed one of the highest-upside shooting guards in the transfer portal in Duke wing Darren Harris.

Yes, the additions of Burton and Harris help Indiana basketball tremendously in the backcourt, with the Hoosiers now having playmaking both on and off the ball. However, as we know in basketball, it takes more than just one or two players — especially in the backcourt — for a team to fully reach its ceiling.

When you look at the other players who make up this Indiana backcourt rotation, perhaps two of the more underrated additions for Darian DeVries and his staff were guards Jaeden Mustaf and Bryce Lindsay — players who bring both competitiveness and experience to the guard position.

“Yeah, I think number one thing is they’re both uber competitive,” said head coach Darian DeVries when speaking to the media on Wednesday night. “That’s the thing that I think stood out the most when we had a chance to talk to them.

“I think you’ll see it and they’re very confident but humble in what they do, but, you know, they’ve both been very productive. They have high aspirations for what they want to accomplish, and I know we’re really excited and they’re both different players in what they do. I think they give us some good firepower really on both ends of the floor.”

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Adding both Mustaf and Lindsay bring different skill sets to Indiana’s backcourt rotation. While Mustaf brings more of an attacking style off the dribble, Lindsay is the smooth sniper from behind the arc. Each has strengths in the backcourt, which gives Indiana one of the more versatile guard groups you will find in the Big Ten this season.

Mustaf was the first player Indiana officially landed out of the transfer portal this offseason. He averaged 8.3 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.6 assists as a freshman, followed by 10.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 2.4 assists as a sophomore in two seasons at Georgia Tech prior to coming to Bloomington.

It was clear from the start that Indiana basketball wanted a physical two-guard who could put the ball on the floor and compete on the defensive end — two of the top skills that Mustaf brings to Indiana. He will instantly come in and be one of those tough, high-motor attacking guards that nearly every team in the Big Ten has.

“I feel like, for me, it’s like my kind of basketball,” said Jaeden Mustaf at the Huber’s event. “I mean, I’ve been doing it for a while. So, I mean, of course, the Big Ten is probably right now the best league in the country.”

When Indiana basketball added Mustaf, Burton, and Harris, there was still a need for more perimeter scoring on the roster. That is where Villanova guard Bryce Lindsay came in, with Indiana sneakily landing one of the best pure wing shooters in the entire transfer portal.

Lindsay has had multiple stops during his college basketball career where he has proven to be a 37.7 percent three-point shooter while averaging 2.3 made threes per game. To put his shooting into even more perspective, 59.4 percent of his total made field goals and 65.4 percent of his career shot attempts have come from three-point range.

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Adding players with specific skill sets and strengths like Mustaf and Lindsay is all part of the bigger picture Darian DeVries is trying to build for this year’s Indiana team. Yes, the overall talent is much better than it was a season ago, but the style of play that DeVries wants to implement is not going to change much — if at all.

In the type of run-and-gun system that DeVries typically likes his teams to play, you need the right pieces to make it work. Indiana had the right intentions a season ago, but not the right players.

Jaeden Mustaf and Bryce Lindsay are two of the “right” pieces needed to make this thing come together next season. They are a big reason why Indiana’s main guard group is so versatile.

“I think you utilize, you know, maybe your components try to play to their strengths, but we’re still going to spread the floor and do all those things, but we just have more versatility in what we’re maybe able to do and focus on,” said Darian DeVries.

“So, you know, we’ll still be heavy on threes, but now we have more guys that can get paint touches, more guys that we can put into the post, so you can mix up the way you can attack defenses a lot more and gives you maybe just a chance to not only rely on threes, you know, on a lot of nights that caught up to us at times last year. So just the versatility overall and the way that we can score is going to be something we’re excited about.”

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