Indiana men’s basketball entered this season carrying a simple question: could it finally check the boxes it missed a year ago?
That was the burden hanging over the Hoosiers after an 18-14 finish, a 9-11 Big Ten record, a 10th-place conference showing and a third straight miss of the NCAA Tournament. Last March, in the aftermath of a Big Ten Tournament loss to Northwestern, then-senior forward Sam Alexis didn’t sugarcoat the season that had just ended.
“We probably wasn't the best team, the most talented team, the biggest team, the fastest team,” Alexis said in the locker room March 11.
At the time, it sounded like a blunt assessment. Looking back, it reads like a roadmap of everything Indiana tried to fix.
The first issue was talent, and the numbers from the roster told a pretty clear story. Of the nine players head coach Darian DeVries used for real minutes, only three arrived with a recruiting rating.
That means zero stars for the group as a whole. Former Indiana guard Khristian Lander had five.
There was another way to judge the roster, too: experience level and where those players came from. Every player on the team was new to Indiana. Eight of the nine had multiple years to develop before transferring to a power conference program, but only three actually took that path - Tucker DeVries, Conor Enright and Alexis.
The best players tend to live in the best leagues, and last year’s Indiana team did not come close to bucking that trend.
Size was the next problem, and it was hard to miss. The tallest player in the rotation was 6-foot-10 Bailey, who averaged 3.4 rebounds per game.
Indiana finished 13th in the Big Ten in total rebounds and 17th in offensive rebounds. That lack of bulk showed up every night.
So DeVries went to work on that front. Indiana brought in 7-foot-2 junior center Samet Yigitoglu, 7-foot junior forward Aiden Sherrell and German 7-foot freshman center Clemens Sokolov as a developmental piece. The message was obvious.
“We just have more girth, more size, more physicality on the interior,” DeVries said Oct. 8 at Big Ten Basketball Media Days. “From the three, four and five we get very long, very big, very fast.”
That change showed up immediately in Indiana’s exhibition win over Butler University on Sunday. The Hoosiers controlled the glass, beating the Bulldogs 53-33 on the boards - nine more rebounds than Indiana managed in any game last season. Yigitoglu scored 12 points in the paint, and Sherrell added 10 points and nine rebounds.
It was only an exhibition, but it still offered a glimpse of the shape DeVries wants this team to take.
Then there’s speed, and that part has its own answer in senior guard Markus Burton. Jaeden Mustaf put it plainly on Sept. 29.
“He’s so quick and he knows how to get to his spots,” Mustaf said of Burton.
Burton, the former Atlantic Coast Conference scoring leader, has a burst that lets him slip past defenders and a stop-start game that can freeze shot blockers. Against Butler, he scored 13 points in 15 minutes. DeVries’ view of his role is straightforward.
“Markus Burton scores,” DeVries said. “That’s the option he brings.”
That is the bigger story of Year 2 under DeVries: improvement. Year 1 didn’t go as planned, but Alexis already pointed to the direction the program needs to keep heading if it wants to become a consistent threat.
“We probably wasn't the best team, the most talented team, the biggest team, the fastest team,” Alexis said, and Indiana has spent the offseason trying to answer every part of that sentence.
It won’t happen all at once, and one exhibition result won’t make anyone a contender overnight. Plans can look tidy on paper and still need time to become real. But Indiana has at least started checking the boxes it lacked a season ago.
“Hopefully moving forward, Indiana can be one of the best teams in the country,” Alexis said in March.
By that standard, the Hoosiers are at least moving in the right direction.
In Other News...
Ryan Day Just Framed Indiana's Biggest Edge Against Ohio State
Ohio State coach Ryan Day spent part of his latest session with reporters laying out the challenge ahead in Bloomington, and in doing so he pointed straight at the areas that could matter most for Indiana. He said several injured starters may be back for the Buckeyes, though not all of them will be ready, and he stressed that games like this are often decided by who controls the line of scrimmage. From Indianas perspective, that is no small compliment.
Day also singled out the Hoosiers defensive front and passing game, a reminder that Ohio State is not treating this as just another stop on the schedule. He pointed to the difficulty of playing at Memorial Stadium and said the Buckeyes will need to stay locked in from start to finish, which only adds to the sense that Indiana has given them a matchup worth serious respect. [Read more 🡒]
Indianas Offense Showed Exactly Why This 6-0 Start Feels Different
Indianas 6-0 start has been impressive for plenty of reasons, but the win at Nebraska offered a clearer look at why this team feels different. In a tight road game, the offense found answers when it needed them most, with Josh Hoover managing the game cleanly and delivering 263 yards and two touchdowns without an interception. Up front, Carter Smith helped keep the pocket steady, and the unit as a whole stayed remarkably composed, drawing only one penalty from center Austin Leibfried.
Nick Marsh supplied the kind of late-game burst that can turn a good start into something more, finishing with six catches for 187 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns. Indiana has won in different ways already this season, but this one carried a little more weight because it came away from home, in a close finish, and with the offense showing it can stay patient, protect the quarterback and still strike quickly when the moment opens up. [Read more 🡒]
Indiana Defense Proved Something Important In Win Over Nebraska
Indianas win over Nebraska looked nothing like the shootout many expected, and that made it stand out all the more. In a game between teams that had both been averaging more than 40 points per outing, the Hoosiers won 20-17 by leaning into defense, something that has become a genuine point of pride as the season has worn on.
Pro Football Focus grades backed up what the scoreboard already suggested, with Mario Landino, Tobi Osunsanmi and Preston Zachman drawing strong marks for work in the run game, pass rush and coverage. Indiana also asked a lot of outside linebackers Rolijah Hardy and Isaiah Jones, who logged plenty of snaps and were tested often through the air, another sign of how hard Nebraska had to work just to move the ball against this group. [Read more 🡒]