Overview: Rivers is a 6-5, 210-pound senior guard out of Winter Park High School in Florida. He averaged 6 points per game last season and led the Hoosiers with 106 assists, starting 28 games. He was second on the team in blocks (18), behind only Christian Watford (19). His 4.3 rebounds per game were also second to only Watford (6.0). Rivers transferred to IU from Georgetown after the 2007-08 season. His father, Doc, is the head coach of the NBA's Boston Celtics.
Best case: Rivers ditches the "high risk" from his description as a player and only gives the Hoosiers great rewards. He develops a usable mid-range shot to complement his driving ability, and he becomes the Hoosiers' sixth man of the year. His decision-making greatly increases on the offensive end, and he trims down on his turnover total from 2009 (86). On the defensive end, he continues and improves on his rebounding, and rather than swatting balls out of bounds, he blocks shots to himself and creates fast break opportunities.
Worst case: Rivers flips that, and is a higher risk than coach Tom Crean can play with. He dribbles off his leg while driving, throws the ball right to defenders and struggles finding a go-to shot. He continues to block shots, but by hitting them as hard as he can out of play, giving opponents a second shot opportunity. Rivers doesn't take his bench role well, and he deteriorates as a leader.
Outlook: Crean has spoken a lot in the offseason about developing a defensive mindset and finding on-floor leadership - both areas Rivers will have to take a lead role. He's the team's only senior and its most consistent defender from last season, and it's obviously now or never for his skills as a basketball player to be fully polished. The Hoosiers can't afford to have their oldest player make the most freshmen mistakes with the ball, but rather drastically cut down on his turnovers. He's always shown flashes of impressive athletic ability around the net, but he'll need to improve on consistency if he will make a major splash in a deep guard pool.
