2022-23 Indiana basketball player profile: Miller Kopp

With the beginning of school basketball season on the horizon, we’ve transitioned from our have a look at different Huge Ten applications to our player-by-player previews of the 2022-23 Indiana roster.

Immediately, our participant profiles proceed with a have a look at senior Miller Kopp.

Beforehand: Malik Reneau, CJ Gunn, Jalen Hood-Schifino, Kaleb Banks, Tamar Bates, Logan Duncomb, Anthony Leal, Trey Galloway, Jordan Geronimo, Trayce Jackson-Davis

Should you enter “Miller Kopp” into the Google search bar, you’ll possible come throughout his TikTok web page with over 40k followers and tens of millions of views.

From there you’ll uncover a smiling, humorous and retrospective persona. If you’d like something to provide the actual Miller Kopp, his TikTok account is likely to be one of the best place to get it.

After the Related Press preseason top-25 ballot was introduced on Oct. 17, Kopp posted a TikTok in Meeting Corridor.

“The AP, Related Press, got here out at this time and ranked the Indiana Hoosiers thirteenth within the nation,” a sweaty and post-workout Kopp mentioned. “Nicely I’m right here to say, we don’t care about that. So I simply wished to say we’re not consuming the cheese as a result of it’s poison. It’s faux.”

Kopp then panned the digital camera to the nationwide championship banners.

“So we’re simply doing what we do, staying within the health club and dealing to get one other a type of,” Kopp mentioned, then panned to the Huge Ten Championship banners. “And people.”

Earlier than final season, Kopp transferred to Indiana after three years at Northwestern.

With the Wildcats, Kopp led the group in factors scored in his sophomore 12 months, averaged 9.6 factors a sport and shot practically 40 % from on 3s. In his final two seasons in Evanston, the ahead made 98 3-pointers. However, final 12 months didn’t go that method for Kopp.

Whereas Kopp began and performed in all 35 video games throughout his first season in Bloomington, he spent more often than not discovering his position whereas solely averaging six factors in 25.2 minutes a sport.

At Northwestern, you’d discover Kopp extra ball-dominant and lively in transition. At Indiana, you’d usually discover Kopp on the baseline ready for the ball to return his method.

“I’m not a man who’s gonna be coming off pick-and-rolls and taking pictures pictures out of pick-and-roll,” Kopp mentioned at Indiana’s media day final month. “I positively can try this, however that’s not my position on this group. Now we have different guys who try this and try this at a excessive degree. For me, it’s to be opportunistic when the ball finds me and make a play and knock down pictures.”

Kopp summed his position up as this: make open pictures, defend and rebound.

However now, the Houston native returns to Indiana because the group’s highest quantity 3-point shooter and would possibly have to do some bit greater than make open pictures for the Hoosiers to achieve success.

Final season, Kopp shot 36.1 % on 108 3-pointers. Over half of his pictures have been from deep and Kopp made 9 extra 3-pointers than he did 2s whereas taking pictures 35.6 % from the sphere. These numbers represented a drop off from his time at Northwestern.

Lots of of Kopp’s 2021-22 season-highs got here in his 28-point efficiency in IU’s 112-110 2OT loss at Syracuse. Towards the Orange, Kopp unfold the ground fantastically whereas being aggressive in mid-range and attending to the free-throw line for seven makes an attempt. It’s additionally protected to say that working in opposition to a 2-3 zone helped him that night time.

Kopp was most profitable when he was aggressive and received to the foul line final season. Kopp shot a team-high 86.5 % from the stripe and if he can get downhill extra, that’s basically free factors for Indiana when he will get fouled.

Whereas Kopp may not have the athleticism to thrash by the lane, he can use his measurement to stretch the ground and shoot excessive of defenses. Kopp possible gained’t develop a back-to-the-basket faculty skillset, but when he can develop a constant floater and jumper, it’ll make him harder to protect.

Defensively, Kopp generally struggled on the perimeter guarding faster gamers, however he may maintain his personal down low along with his 6-foot-7 body.

“I positively really feel that my protection was one thing that I actually centered on final 12 months… I felt like I used to be an anchor on protection for the group by way of being a vocal chief,” Kopp mentioned. “This 12 months I need to take it one other step and enhance. I really feel like I received my physique in nice form to have the ability to try this and be capable of guard one by 4.”

Kopp’s humorous and witty persona briefly discovered its method onto the courtroom final season. It certainly finds its solution to the general public eye when he feels snug sufficient to be himself on his social media accounts. As Kopp enters his remaining faculty basketball season, it’s all about being snug in his position as a Hoosier.

Backside line: If Kopp can get again to taking pictures nearly 40 % from past the arc and averaging a pair extra factors per sport, it can do wonders for Indiana’s offense. The Northwestern switch might want to extra assertive for that to occur. Kopp will possible see as much as 25 minutes a sport once more this season, so he can’t be invisible like he was at factors final 12 months. Kopp might want to make his presence identified if the Hoosiers need to discover success — particularly if that success is from deep.

Quotable: “It was arduous to conceptualize that my position right here is completely different than what it was at Northwestern, you understand it’s not the identical. And having myself swallow that capsule, is what it’s. I perceive precisely now what my position is and methods to be a star in that. So final 12 months was kinda a niche between what I believed, what I anticipated and what was actuality. I felt like I had an excellent 12 months with what I used to be requested to do, what I wished to do and what I used to be in a position to do… I believed I improved so much by way of my protection and being a frontrunner. – Kopp at Indiana’s media day this fall.

Filed to: 2022-23 season preview, Miller Kopp