IU basketball player review: Rob Phinisee becoming Archie Miller's ideal point guard

BLOOMINGTON – Only Trayce Jackson-Davis is more important to Indiana’s next season than Rob Phinisee.

Steady to the point of unflappability since the day he arrived on campus, Phinisee has become Archie Miller’s Mr. Reliable.

Phinisee hasn’t always had the best luck with injuries, from the terrible timing of a concussion his freshman year to the suggestion he spent most of this season playing through an abdominal problem. IU will hope for better fortune next winter, because it’s not hard to see Phinisee becoming one of the best point guards in the Big Ten.

Season stats: 7.3 ppg, 3.4 apg, 2.5 rpg, 28.3% assist rate

The assist rate is what pops off the page first, because of how it ballooned.

Phinisee posted a respectable assist rate (19.3%) as a freshman, three full points higher than his turnover rate that same season. But as a sophomore, the former number took off, increasing by 9%.

The turnover rate grew as well, to 22.8%. But that number was slightly lower (22%) in conference play. And it was significantly lower (18.3%) against what Ken Pomeroy classifies as Tier A opponents.

Indeed, Phinisee did some of his best work in Big Ten play, handing out at least four assists in 10 of the 19 Big Ten games in which he appeared (he missed the opener at Wisconsin). He was at his facilitating best at the end of the season, with at least five assists in four of the Hoosiers’ last seven games, and more than two turnovers in a single game in that stretch just once.

In IU’s last three games, Phinisee’s assist-to-turnover ratio was 19-3.

Where can Phinisee improve? Staying healthy is a good first step. The concussion his freshman season cost him perhaps the most crucial weeks of the season and probably affected him into February. His abdominal injury never quite seemed to go away through 2019-20.

Phinisee’s 3-point shooting accuracy rose slightly, albeit on 18 fewer attempts, as Al Durham and Devonte Green shouldered more of that load. Phinisee made 33.3% of his 3s in 2019-20, compared to 31% the previous season. But only four of Phinisee’s 23 made 3s came unassisted. A pull-up 3-point shot makes the modern point guard infinitely more dangerous, if Phinisee can add one to his toolkit.

The same applies for a pull-up jumper, and improved finishing around the rim. Phinisee was a solid 55.2% shooting at the rim as a sophomore. Take another step forward there, say to Durham’s 61.8% number last year, then couple that with a little more threat off the pull-up, and Phinisee becomes a real headache.

Then there’s the intangibles question.

A significant portion of Phinisee’s impact over his first two seasons in college can be measured more by watching him than by poring over his stats. He’s a steadying presence, a clever point guard and a smart player.

College coaches across all sports are fond of trumpeting the leap a player takes from their freshman to their sophomore seasons. Quietly, behind-the-scenes people will tell you it’s the sophomore-to-junior transition that often matters most. The ideas of the sport no longer seem foreign or daunting. The realization that there’s less time left in their college career than already passed begins to sink in. Everything’s drawn into sharper focus. Attention to detail becomes heightened. Less is taken for granted.

Phinisee has played a year beyond his age over each of his first two seasons in college. If he makes that sort of leap again, he becomes the most important guard on this team next winter.

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.