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In an interview on this week’s Players Perspective podcast with Miller Kopp, Indiana sophomore guard Gabe Cupps reflected on his first season in Bloomington and how it was a learning experience.
The Hoosiers struggled, finished 19-14 and missed the NCAA tournament for the first time in three seasons under Mike Woodson.
Cupps, who won at a high level in high school, including a state championship, wasn’t used to the adversity Indiana experienced as a team last season.
“I’ve always been on winning, really good teams. It felt different,” he explained. “And I feel like learning took the top place at the podium last year. It was like, ‘you need to see what’s going on and you need to learn as much as you can so that you can prevent it from feeling like this again.’”
Due to injuries to Xavier Johnson, Cupps was forced to take on a more significant role than expected in his first season as a Hoosier.
The Centerville, Ohio native started 21 of Indiana’s 33 games as a freshman and averaged 2.6 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game.
While he had his share of bright spots, Cupps shared with Kopp that he wasn’t pleased with his performance in his first season.
“I obviously didn’t think I performed very well and didn’t help the team as best I could last year,” Cupps said. “Which every player, to an extent, is going to feel like that every year. You always think about the stuff that you could have done more.”
Cupps said he’s spent much time working to improve his shot this offseason. He’s been in the gym frequently with Isaac Green, Indiana’s video and player development analyst.
Known for his early morning workouts — which inspired his NIL clothing line, “The Breakfast Club,” Cupps has routinely been in the gym all summer.
Although the overall perimeter shooting numbers for Cupps were solid at 35.9 percent on 3-pointers, he shot just 36.4 percent overall and 61.5 percent from the free-throw line.
“Isaac (Green) before every work out asks me what my intention is for the day,” Cupps explained. “I have to say it every time. And usually it’s been ‘high, straight and up’ for my shot. I think just focusing on those things on my jump shot specifically has helped me a ton. Like not worrying about makes and misses as much. I know if I do those three things, I’m going to maximize the chance I have to be successful when it comes to shooting.”
In addition to the shooting work, Cupps is hopeful of entering his sophomore season as a more confident player.
He explained to Kopp that “playing and communicating with confidence” has been the primary objective of his offseason work.
“I feel like my workouts this summer have been good, been intentional,” Cupps said. “I feel like I’m starting to see progress.”
With just over a month remaining until the official start of practice in September and less than three months until the regular season, Cupps is eager to show off his improvement this winter in Bloomington.
“I feel like I’ve just been like chomping at the bit ever since last season,” he told Kopp. “That’ll get a competitor going, a season that you feel like you didn’t do very well personally, you didn’t do very well as a team, like that’ll get somebody going who really cares about the game, cares about what they’re doing.”
Filed to: Gabe Cupps
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