IMAGINING WHAT COULD’VE BEEN WITH LIAM MCNEELEY
WRITTEN + EDITED BY JORDYN BONTRAGER
When you take some time to reminisce, you will recall fond memories of the immaculate bounce back efforts that Mike Woodson and his coaching staff exuded following the seemingly-out-of-nowhere decommitment of prized incoming McDonald’s All-American swingman Liam McNeeley back in the Spring of 2024. The Hoosier shot callers responded swiftly in snagging fellow MCDAA diaper dandy Bryson Tucker shortly thereafter, a smooth wing who may not have reached his full potential this year but given time to groom should blossom into B-Town’s latest beast. They followed that up with a flurry of eye-catching transfer portal acquisitions in the form of Myles Rice, Oumar Ballo, Kanaan Carlyle, Luke Goode, Langdon Hatton and Dallas James.
But now that the dust has settled and we have seen how everything has played out thus far in the (nearly finished) SZN, it feels as though McNeeley’s cold feet was the unfortunate beginning of the end for this year’s Hoosiers.
The Montverde product foresaw greener pastures under the tutelage of mad professor x proven champion Dan Hurley, and the newbie has not disappointed in any way, shape, or form beneath his skipper’s guidance. While his team has mildly underperformed (18-9 overall x 10-6 conference x 4th in Big East) as it pertains to preseason projections, McNeeley has genuinely come into his own as the year has progressed. The team’s leading scorer (15.3 PPG on 40.7% FG | 34.3% 3FG | 86.1% FT), McNeeley recently flashed the ability to carry an entire team on his shoulders via the the big man on campus’s masterpiece 38-point outing in a wire-to-wire road victory over 24th-ranked Creighton.
There is no contesting the argument against his efficiency, but don’t all freshman need some time to effectively establish a sense of pure rhythm at the collegiate ranks? Plus, it is not as if the only thing he does on the court is put the ball in the bucket. He is among the more feisty wing rebounders across the entire nation, and has battled his way to the second spot on the team’s boarding charts (6.7 RPG). He is not mistaking anyone as a top shelf table setter, but he has undoubtedly flashed some steady secondary playmaking chops (2.4 APG vs. 1.9 TOPG) thus far in his Storrs tenure. And the youngster is by no means a lockdown defender, but his size (6’7” x 210 lbs) and gritty nature make him no cone on the less glamorous end.
Let us not forget that the cream and crimson were also in contention for the services of McNeeley’s high school teammate/fellow burger boy/potential B1G Freshman of the Year Derik Queen. If McNeeley were to have remained a Hoosier, would Queen have become the latest induction into Woody’s collection of big time big men instead of Oumar Ballo?
The answer to that question will forever be a mystery, but that will not stop us from envisioning what could have been one of Indiana’s all-time most talented teams (if not THE most talented):
PG | Myles Rice, Trey Galloway, Gabe Cupps
SG | Liam McNeeley, Anthony Leal, Kanaan Carlyle
SF | Mackenzie Mgbako, Bryson Tucker, Jakai Newton
PF | Malik Reneau, Luke Goode
C| Derik Queen/Oumar Ballo, Langdon Hatton, Dallas James