Aiden Sherrell is walking into Indiana with the kind of opportunity that can change a player’s season in a hurry. The junior forward is set to be one of the key pieces in a rebuilt Hoosiers frontcourt, and with IU’s first exhibition coming Wednesday, July 15, against Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, he’s already talking like someone ready for a bigger stage.
Indiana’s new roster is loaded with turnover after a spring built around the transfer portal: seven portal additions, four freshmen and one returnee in Trent Sisley. Sherrell stands out in that group because he brings both production and experience from a high-level program. The 6-foot-11, 255-pound forward arrives from Alabama, where the Crimson Tide won 53 games over the past two seasons and reached the Elite Eight in the 2025 NCAA tournament.
Sherrell’s jump last season was real. After averaging 3.4 points and 2.8 rebounds as a freshman, the 2024 McDonald’s All-American started all 34 games he played for Alabama as a sophomore and put up 11.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.2 blocked shots and 1.1 assists in 23.9 minutes per game. Now Indiana expects even more, with Sherrell projected to help anchor the front line alongside SMU transfer Samet Yigitoglu.
What makes Sherrell especially interesting is that he’s not just a paint-bound big. He’s already knocked down 41 3-pointers over his first two college seasons, and he said he’s been shooting the ball well from both the perimeter and midrange in recent practices.
“I can do pretty much everything,” he said on Tuesday following IU’s practice at Cook Hall. “I’m very versatile.
I can play inside, play outside. I can guard multiple positions.
I’m just a guy who goes out there and does whatever it takes to win.”
Indiana plans to use that versatility by starting Sherrell next to the 7-foot-2 Yigitoglu, a pairing that gives the Hoosiers much more size than they had last season. Sherrell said that setup should let him show more of his game, including time at the four.
“I think that definitely helps me showcase my game a lot more and just show what I have,” Sherrell said of the opportunity to play minutes at the four.
The fit should get even cleaner with Notre Dame transfer Markus Burton handling the ball. Sherrell said Burton’s reads in ball-screen action can open up looks for him on the perimeter and create chances at the rim as a lob target.
“It’s great playing with Markus,” Sherrell said. When me and him are clicking, it’s super hard to stop.
Markus is a great teammate. He does so much.
“I feel like both of us are doing an important job on building chemistry with each other. He’s a great teammate, so he’s going to make sure we have great chemistry.”
Sherrell also made it clear that Indiana’s pitch was about opportunity and growth. He said the Hoosiers sold him on a role with “a lot more impact on the game,” and that second-year coach Darian DeVries kept the conversation centered on basketball.
“He’s super, super serious. Really basketball oriented,” Sherrell explained.
“When he talked to me about coming here, it was all basketball. It was all focused on basketball.
That’s something that I appreciated. He’s trying to make me better on the court and as a young man.”
Sherrell committed to Indiana on Wednesday, April 15, after drawing interest from plenty of schools once he entered the transfer portal. In the end, he said the Hoosiers felt like the right place to keep pushing forward.
“Ultimately, I came to this decision because I feel like this is a great place for me,” he said. “I was looking for a spot that was going to help me be the best player I could be on and off the court. I was looking for a spot that was going to push me to play outside of my comfort zone and just continue to build me as a player and help me reach my goals at the end of the day.”
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The trip also included a look at Indiana commit Chase Branham, giving the Hoosiers a live check on a player already in the fold while the rest of the board keeps coming into focus. With DeVries and his assistants expected to keep moving from event to event through the evaluation period, the bigger question is how many of those in-person sightings turn into real traction once the summer circuit settles down. [Read more 🡒]