Indiana’s latest portal commitment, announcing his transfer to Indiana just a few hours after Aiden Sherrell did on April 15th, becoming the sixth player to commit to Darian DeVries this offseason. With a relatively quiet recruitment, his announcement flew under the radar, but he appears to be a guy that Indiana is lucky to have signed.
Lindsay comes to Indiana after one season at Villanova, where he transferred after James Madison – his second school after starting at Texas A&M. His first season at A&M will
probably count as a red shirt year if that’s still a thing by the time the season starts, as he only saw action in eight games.
Lindsay has developed since then though, starting 31 of 33 games for Villanova last season, the third leading scorer for the Wildcats at 12.3 points per game, to which he added 2.1 assists and 2.1 rebounds per contest. Last year, he proved himself as a high-major threat from deep, shooting 38.3% from 3-point range on a high volume.
He started as a shooting guard, but also served as the team’s back up point guard, seeing 19% of the team’s minutes there. I’d imagine he will have a similar role at Indiana, starting at the two spot and backing up Markus Burton at the point.
For a guy who can and will spend time running the offense, he’s also a guy who looks very comfortable off the ball, getting to his spots on the perimeter and letting the play come to him. He gets his shot off quickly when the defense is slow while being ready to punish guys who overcommit with a pump fake and drive to the rim.
When he drives, he’s mostly looking to score for himself, with an assist rate lower than Lamar Wilkerson’s last season, which should be a good compliment next to a guy like Burton. Indiana lacked playmaking in the backcourt last year, but now have two guys who can get themselves a bucket in the backcourt next to each other.
Because he’s mainly a scorer, his point guard skills are mostly put to use on the perimeter, where he’s comfortable using a pick or crossing somebody over to create a 3-pointer for himself. At 6’3”, he doesn’t have the height to shoot over guys, which he makes up for with his patience and ability to hunt quality shots.
With so much of his game relying on his perimeter shooting, he has a tendency to disappear from the stat sheet when the shots aren’t falling. Over a tough stretch of four games in Big East play, Lindsay managed just three points per game, making just three 3-pointers combined in those four games.
On the other hand, he ended that skid with a 15-point performance in an overtime win over Xavier and ended the season with a 25-point effort against Utah State on 6-11 from shooting in the NCAA Tournament. As a guy coming from Villanova, he’s played in big games against teams like UConn and St. John’s, so he should be ready for the big moments at Indiana.
His size might give him some trouble adjusting to Big Ten play, especially as a point guard, but overall his perimeter game should fit right into the kind of offense DeVries wants to run at Indiana. He’s the shooter with the most experience and makes on the roster, something I’d expect to continue next year and possibly beyond.
