BLOOMINGTON — Malik Reneau entered the lane to cut off Marian Christian Harvey’s guard, forcing him to fire an unbalanced shot to the side of the glass that never came close to hitting the edge. Reneau stood in front of the glass, snatched a rebound from Marian. Jackson Ames, then turned around and saw no one in front of him.
Reneau had IU’s two point guards, Xavier Johnson and Jalen Hood-Schifino, to his right for a kickout pass, but the 6-foot-9-inch, 235-pound rookie was confident in his own handling. It slid past the timeline with the ball on a rope, seeming no less coordination than one would expect from a guard. No Marian defender bothered Reneau until Taeshon Cherry found him on the left elbow of the 3-point line. Reneau may feel that Cherry is not in his hands. element, especially when he stretched his right arm forward, so Reneau hit him with a hesitant movement to the left and passed him, stopped when Cherry hit the edge to check to draw a foul and ended with a touch without a whistle for a curtain from coast to coast.
Insider: Insider: IU’s Jalen Hood-Schifino, Malik Reneau ‘brilliantly’ on display
This is what modernity looks like for the greats of the NBA and high school basketball, and Reneau has been embracing it for years knowing that if he intends to go pro, and does, his abundant arsenal of task moves may not. be enough. .
The back-to-basket game still counts, of course. Powerful forwards and especially centers have yet to prove that they can surround their defenders, make hooks, layups and rebounds. But the players who break up and end up winning the NBA. Jobs and large paychecks are the ones that can show perimeter skills and work away from the edge. They can go up much more price if they can connect a 3-point pick-and-pop, take care of the ball on the perimeter or on the open floor in transition, or stay ahead of a point guard in a pick-and-roll. change.
Reneau begins his IU career ready for this reality, which is why he was such a sought-after recruit and helped Montverde Academy in Florida win two GEICO National High School Championships. The No. 29 rookie in the elegance of 2022 according to 247Sports . com’s composite ratings will likely begin his first season at IU coming off the bench Trayce Jackson-Davis, however, his indoor and away games are complex enough that he is one of the Hoosiers’ first big men on the bench. While the IU All-American preseason injured his hand in Saturday’s exhibition opener, Reneau started and recorded a double-double with 14 problems and 11 rebounds.
“I learned to expand the game,” Reneau said, “and I had to expand as well. “
At IU, he landed in a position that happens to have each and every one of the goals of letting him grow, pushing him to stay taking dangers and taking him out of zones of convenience. After all, Reneau went from coast to coast without passing the ball. to a point guard because coach Mike Woodson told him he had the freedom to do so.
“We’re allowing him to communicate with Race (Thompson) and Trayce because I think that’s how the game develops,” Woodson said. “I did it in Atlanta and I did it in New York as a coach. If the boys had the skills, you put them in that position. If they bounce the ball and can make wise plays with the basketball while throwing it to the ground, then you allow them to do so. He has shown that he can do it. But it still has a long way to go.
But it has already come a long way, especially in the last 4 years. You may not be the highest-impact freshman on your own team with point guard Jalen Hood-Schifino online to get started right away, however, you may also still be one of the top freshmen in the Big Ten.
“I’m sure at some point it’s going to be the All-Big Ten first team and all that,” Thompson said. “He’s a talented freshman. “
Reneau’s story begins in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, an old metal city about forty-five minutes west of Philadelphia with a basketball hit. Richard Hamilton played in Coatesville and Sports Illustrated came to the city in 1997 to report on his men’s team tryout.
Reneau’s mother, Melanie, and then Melanie Smith, didn’t embrace the game until she was in high school, but she looked for a game and a coach in Coatesville told her they could use her on the women’s team.
“I just told him he had to find something to do and one of the coaches said, ‘Well, you’re old enough to play basketball, come and train,'” he said. “I stayed faithful. I liked the competition. It was anything about it. I felt smart when I was on the field and enjoyed the competition. “
Smith was between 5 and 11 years old at the time, but he might jump enough to touch the edge, allowing him to play bigger than Array. Just a few years after seeing the game for the first time, it’s smart enough to draw attention to small local colleges. He first directed at the Philadelphia College of Textiles, then Cheyney University in the Delaware County suburb of Philadelphia, the oldest HBCU in the country.
After college, she went back to looking for a next step and saw a Peace Corps TV commercial that reminded her of the one she had seen as a child.
“When I was younger, I would lie on the floor watching TV with my mother,” Melanie said. “The announcement came with President Carter at the time. I like, ‘Oh, Mom, this is all I’d like to do. ‘”She said, ‘Oh, you’re too young, don’t worry about it. ‘Then I just graduated from college. She in the kitchen. I in the living room watching TV and the Peace Corps announcement started again. I said, “Mom, I pretended to be! I’m signing up. “
Melanie was looking to move to Africa, but hoped to work in physical education and there were no opportunities there. The Peace Corps needed physical education in Belize. Melanie had never heard of Belize, but she studied and went to Central America.
Melanie traveled to towns across the country and helped teachers there implement the U. S. Presidential Physical Fitness Test. To teach team sports and organize tournaments. They also operated an adult networking center to teach them about sports.
One of her friends, a member of the Belize Sports Council, and Patrick stopped every day at their office, which is located in the same building where Melanie worked. Sports together. Patrick has a 6-3 record with broad shoulders, so, like Melanie, he had a good post-match and was part of a team that traveled through other Central American countries such as Honduras and Guatemala to play.
After two and a half years, Melanie said, Belize repositioned the government and was not guaranteed a task in the future. She makes the decision to return to the United States and asks Patrick to accompany her. He was not willing to leave a tropical climate, so instead of returning to Coatesville, they settled in Florida near Miami and married. Patrick worked in structure and then in security. Melanie stayed in physical school and was hired as a recreation manager for the city of Hallandale Beach. It meant that his two sons had a position to play and develop.
Melanie ran after-school sports systems in everything from soccer and baseball to soccer and basketball, and coached her sons Malik and Rashid in each of them, and on weekends she and Patrick took them fishing. There was a time when the Reneau’s belief Malik’s long career might be in baseball, but the city’s recreational program never took off.
“He’s tall and strong,” Melanie said. At his age, he is the tallest kid in the field. At his most sensible, he is left-handed, so they were looking to turn him into a pitcher. He hit home runs. left and right. Everyone was enthusiastic about him. If we had discovered a larger facility, he might have kept it. “
Basketball stagnated, partly because of his mother’s training and partly because once he showed talent, they looked for other coaches to maximize his talent. Around the third year, coach and coach Carlyle Lewis, known locally as Coach Slim, recruited Reneau. to play on the AAU circuit with the Florida Rams. Lewis continues to coach him now, and Reneau is a very different player than he had when he started.
“He’s been pretty smartly sized,” Lewis said. “But he was a bit of a clumsy kid. He wore glasses and was a shooter, a slow shooter. he started shooting outside. You can tell that his mother had tried to teach him and gave him tips and advice, but she sought to surround him with other people who knew the game. “
Lewis began coaching basketball in high school when Reneau reached fifth grade, so he may no longer coach the Florida Rams, but he can still play Reneau individually. As Reneau grew, more and more teams were looking to him to play the job. . Lewis worked with him on his shift moves, but made sure he kept operational convenience on the perimeter.
“He’s become an internal strength as he continued to grow with the progression of all the coaches who were with him,” Lewis said. “But I reminded him, ‘You were a shooter when I met you and now ‘You’re a left-wing bandit,’ because he would do everything with his left hand and intimidate people. But my conversations were about expanding his game, like, hey, you can’t just be around the basket. -shoot. Before replacing his points, he had to hit 8 in a row. He never forgot his livelihood, scoring internally, but we looked to make sure he scored in every way. “
The point was reached by Reneau when he went to Chris Paul’s CP3 camp in North Carolina. He attended between his freshman year and second year with a completely different understanding of what would be required of him if he was looking to play in school and succeed. Professional basketball.
Reneau used to be the most important player on each and every field he was on, but in camp he discovered much bigger players and also much more talented. He learned that he had to raise the bar in a meaningful way.
“When he saw those kids’ play point and got home, he became a machine,” Melanie said. “He started going to the gym. He started running. He got up at five in the morning to go into practice. He just knew that if he didn’t improve his game, he wouldn’t compete. These kids were dipping the ball and things we hadn’t noticed kids doing in Miami. “
Reneau was committed and watched as school and NBA games opened the court and saw fewer and fewer wonderful men operating with their backs to the basket, especially at the professional level, so he continued to stick to Lewis’ teachings and his game in kind.
Reneau’s harsh paintings paid off and he became the boy who ruled Miami high school basketball. He studied at Mater Academy in Hialeah Gardens and recently became one of the most dominant players in South Florida. As a sophomore, he averaged 20. 5 problems and about 10 rebounds consistent with the game, helping Mater to a 25-5 record and a spot in the Class 6A regional finals. Even though he ruled the position, his coaches there gave him more opportunities to achieve consistent frames within the subway, adding consistent with him. Bringing the ball back to the floor when he caught defensive rebounds.
Reneau’s goal of testing and winning a state championship at Mater, but after betting against him, Montverde pitched him to be part of its burgeoning national powerhouse between his time and the junior seasons. It is not guaranteed to play with the most productive newbies. in the zone against Jalen Duren, Dariq Whitehead and Caleb Houstan on the roster, but he would have the opportunity to be informed and be part of one of the most productive groups in the country.
So it took a little risk and it was worth it. He came off the bench as a junior behind Duren and Whitehead, but still made an impact as a reserve with a pair of double-digit performances at GEICO 2021. National Tournament, helping the Eagles earn their first national name since 2018.
The following year, Reneau became the Eagles’ starting center. Although Whitehead, Hood-Schifino, Kwame Evans and others were most prominent for much of the normal season, they gave Reneau the ball at the national tournament post and that overwhelming, even for the most productive preschoolers in the country. He had 19 problems and 8 rebounds in a win over Arizona’s Compass Academy, 10 and five in a semifinal victory over IMG Academy and 14 and 12 in a win over Link to give the Eagles their moment consecutive national title.
“He accepted a role,” Lewis said. He had moments where he struggled, but I said, “It’s like you said when you arrived. Do whatever it takes for the team to win. “He said, “You’re right, you’re right. ” He went from the guy to one of the men, one of the foot soldiers who took on a role. That vital.
Reneau first dedicated himself to Florida, but opened his draft when coach Mike White left the program for Georgia, then temporarily followed Hood-Schifino’s recommendation to make a layover and then dedicate himself to Indiana. With the Hoosiers, he will have to take on a role and he won’t be The Man right away. But the rest of his teammates can see it happen soon.
Jackson-Davis is entering his fourth year at IU after spending most of his spring trying to make his case to NBA scouts before a COVID-19 bout gave him a chance to play in the NBA Draft Scouting Combine. During his 3 seasons, he played against the All-Americans and lottery picks and some of the wonderful men in the school game.
But he admits that when Reneau arrived on campus, even he struggled to figure out how to stop it. Reneau can simply post internally or drag big men outdoors and it is not easy to prevent him from shooting.
“Malik came here and he was 6 to 8 years old and he was already a Big Ten,” Jackson-Davis said. “He pulled the ball, he had a very intelligent handling, a very strict handling. In the first week or so, he killed everyone. We couldn’t stop it. “
The veterans have adapted, they’ve figured out some of Reneau’s favorite moves and how to take them off and at least make him a little uncomfortable so he can’t do what he needs to do in training, but it’s still not easy to slow him down. He forces them to keep him on the perimeter more than any teammate they’ve ever had, and even when he hits the post, he can comfortably connect his shot the same way Jackson-Davis has done in his career.
“What makes it literally hard to stay is that it’s not rushed,” Thompson said. “It’s coming, you can’t speed it up. You will play at your own speed no matter what. the right hand and the left hand. It’s like discreet and fast. You wouldn’t think it’s that fast, yet it’s pretty fast and it’s very strong. “
With Thompson and Jackson-Davis at the helm, Reneau will have to be versatile. You will have to spell any of the players on the front and center and you will also have to play alongside any of the players. By the time he joins IU, he will be placed playing in the middle with junior Jordan Geronimo at four, but he can also play all four, while Logan Duncomb now plays all five. Games will force him to do so and he will have to replace his offensive and defensive roles in kind.
Reneau said he found it less difficult to locate himself on offense, where he had as much in his arsenal, than on defense, when he was still looking to manage a confusing defensive design and protect various types of frames.
“As far as skill goes, I feel like I can compete with anyone,” Reneau said. “It’s not the skill when you get here. It’s intellectual and understanding what Coach Woodson wants to tell us to do. He tried to catch up with the seniors defensively and offensive plays and things like that. “
To that end, Reneau isn’t as complex as Jackson-Davis was in his freshman year. It arguably has more offensive polish, but less raw athleticism and might not have the same ceiling as a shot blocker. But he has a sure lateral speed to keep the guards in front of him on the perimeter, and he has proven his ability to develop.
“I think his offensive game is there,” Jackson-Davis said. I’m just looking to help you have informed tendencies, informed defensive patterns, put you in the right place. , it’s going to be good. “