Indiana basketball sophomore center Kel’el Ware is off to a great start this season and could arguably make the case as the Hoosiers’ top player at this point in time. This great start by Ware is starting to catch the eye of the national media when it comes to working out next year’s NBA draft.
In the latest 2024 NBA mock draft, Kel’el Ware was listed just outside of the lottery going No. 22 to the Houston Rockets.
The big man came to Indiana after spending his freshman season at Oregon where a bunch of criticism came his way. As a player that was projected to be a ‘one-and-done’, Ware was knocked for his motor among other traits that turned NBA teams off from him at that time. Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson has done a great job of getting Ware to unlock a high motor as well as utilizing his versatile skill set to the frontcourt of the Hoosiers.
“Just pushing him,” said Mike Woodson on Thursday. “I mean, again, I’m not knocking where he’s been, the coaches that coached him, but I coach a different way. You know, I mean, that’s not even knowing how the other coaches coach when they’re in practice. You have to come to practice with energy. You have to play hard. That was a knock on him. He is starting to figure that part of it out. So far this young season he’s been playing well for us.”
The paring of Ware and fellow sophomore big man Malik Reneau have been the rock of this Indiana basketball team this season. They have adopted the ‘buddy ball’ persona that we saw out of Trayce Jackson-Davis and Race Thompson the past few season and have taken it to a whole new level due to their versatility.
Ware is averaging a team-high 17.7 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. Reneau is second with 15.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game.
“It’s great. Malik saw a lot of that last year with Race (Thompson) and Trayce (Jackson-Davis) and he hasn’t forgotten it,” Woodson said of the Ware and Reneau connection. “The few minutes he played last year, he was on the tail end of some of that buddy ball with Trayce or even Race. He and the big fella (Ware), they’ve kind of connected now a little bit, which is kind of nice to see especially when teams play zone. You have to be able to make plays inside to be competitive.”
Ware will look to continue his stellar season as Indiana hosts Maryland on Friday to kick off Big Ten play.
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