2024-25 IU basketball player profile: Bryson Tucker

  • Sep 30, 2024 10:07 am in

With the start of college basketball season approaching, we’ve moved from our look at other Big Ten programs to our player-by-player previews of the 2024-25 Indiana roster.

Today, our player profiles begin with freshman Bryson Tucker.

Bryson Tucker, the No. 19 player nationally in the final RSCI rankings for the class of 2024, had an unconventional journey to Indiana.

A 6-foot-7 wing from Bishop O’Connell High School in Maryland, Tucker appeared destined for the professional route out of high school. As late as January of this year, Tucker listed the NBA G-League Ignite and Kansas and Michigan State as his potential options beyond high school. Most believed Tucker, trained by his father Byron from a young age, was headed to G-League Ignite.

But when the NBA announced it was disbanding G-League Ignite in March, it opened the door for college programs to make a move with Tucker.

Just a few weeks after five-star Liam McNeeley parted ways with the program, the Hoosier staff moved quickly to get Tucker on campus. IU secured his commitment in late March. It was a surprising development because Indiana hadn’t been publicly on the radar with the five-star wing for months before he visited Bloomington. Indiana offered Tucker a scholarship in the spring of 2022, but he hasn’t visited until this spring.

The Bowie, Maryland native was the first domino in the reshaping of Indiana’s roster this offseason. Within weeks of Tucker’s commitment, the Hoosiers had also added Myles Rice, Oumar Ballo, Kanaan Carlyle, Luke Goode and Langdon Hatton.

“Right when I committed, Liam (McNeeley) just decommitted, so it was a lot going on,” Tucker said at Indiana’s media day. “When I saw all of those names coming out, I did some research on them and it was like ‘man, they’re definitely building a good team.'”

With IU’s strong transfer portal class and the return of Mackenzie Mgbako, the program will have the luxury of bringing a five-star McDonald’s All-American off the bench.

That’s not to say Tucker doesn’t have high expectations for himself. At media day, the 18-year-old said he wants to be the program’s third straight Big Ten freshman of the year.

That could be difficult to achieve given his likely role as a reserve, but Tucker has used the offseason weight room gains that should immediately put him in the rotation. He arrived on campus in June at 192 pounds and recently weighed in at 207, a 15-pound jump.

Tucker’s offensive strength is his ability to score from the midrange. His size makes him big enough to shoot over most wings and his efficient dribbling allows him to reach his spots effortlessly.

He has good shot mechanics, which should allow him to shoot a solid percentage from the perimeter. At media day, Tucker dismissed the discussion that his 3-point shot needs work.

“There’s nothing wrong with it,” he said. “People love to talk about it, but there’s never been anything wrong with it. In high school, I was known as a shooter.”

Tucker was also known as a strong defender in high school and that will need to continue to earn him consistent minutes for the Hoosiers.

At media day, he admitted that he’s still learning IU’s defensive principles.

“I just think, in college terms, I need to learn the defense that Indiana wants to put in,” Tucker said. “I’m a good defensive player, but they just want you in certain spots. So I just think I need to keep building on that.”

Bottom line: Tucker, who will be one of the youngest players in the Big Ten, should be a member of IU’s rotation immediately. He has aspirations to play at the highest level sooner rather than later and chose the Hoosiers in part because of the opportunity to play for a coach who has worked in the NBA in Mike Woodson. It’s an encouraging sign that Tucker has put on 15 pounds ahead of the season. Adjusting the physicality of the Big Ten is always a challenge for freshmen and the offseason work put in by Tucker should pay dividends when league play arrives.

Quotable: “Bryson has a chance to be impactful for our ballclub right away. He has a polished offensive game with the size and strength to get to his spots on the floor. His midrange game is very impressive, and he has the athleticism to get to and score efficiently at the rim.” – Woodson last spring after IU announced the signing of Tucker to a letter of intent.

Media day interviews with Tucker:

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