Indiana men’s basketball opens the 2026-27 season Monday night against Eastern Illinois, and the matchup is less about the final score than the first real look at what Darian DeVries has built in year two.
Eastern Illinois comes in 360th in KenPom’s national rankings, which makes this exactly the kind of game that belongs on Big Ten Plus. Indiana, meanwhile, is trying to sort through another roster that looks almost completely new for the third straight year.
That means the early part of the season is about more than winning comfortably. It’s about figuring out who fits, which combinations work, and where the new pieces land.
The biggest thing to keep an eye on is what happens inside. DeVries’ first Big Ten team had issues in just about every area around the rim.
Rebounding was shaky on both ends, the offense had too many shots sent back, and the defense didn’t provide much resistance at the basket. That should look different now with Aiden Sherrell and Samet Ygitoglu in the mix.
Sherrell arrived from Alabama, Ygitoglu from SMU, and both are expected to be central to what Indiana wants to do. Against Eastern Illinois, they should have a chance to look even more imposing.
The playbook probably stays pretty basic, but it will still be worth watching how often Indiana finishes possessions with paint touches instead of the 3-point-heavy approach it leaned on a year ago.
Darren Harris is another name worth tracking. He remains one of the most intriguing players on the roster because there’s still so much to learn about him.
At Duke, he never averaged more than ten minutes a game in a season, largely because of the NBA-caliber players ahead of him. But when he got real run, he flashed the shooting that made him a high four-star recruit.
Against Notre Dame, he scored 16 points and went 2-5 from 3-point range. Against Army, he hit 5-7 from deep and finished with 15 points.
One game against Eastern Illinois won’t settle anything, but Harris’ role, his minutes, and the lineup around him should offer a useful clue about what DeVries and his staff have seen from him in practice.
Then there’s the chemistry question. Last year’s group had plenty of players adjusting to high-major basketball and trying to prove they belonged.
This year’s roster is different. Most of these guys were already major pieces where they came from, and several were high-usage players.
That can make the adjustment a little more complicated. Jaeden Mustaf and Markus Burton are both used to offenses running through them, and neither is accustomed to having this much talent around them to share the load.
That’s why this team may need a little more time to click than some recent Indiana groups. The talent level is clearly higher, but Monday will be the first chance to see how much work still needs to be done before it all starts to mesh.
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The early stretch also comes with a couple of games that should tell Indiana plenty about where it stands against high-end competition. Arkansas and Kentucky loom as the most demanding nonconference tests, with Arkansas bringing in a talented freshman class and Kentucky offering the kind of interior size that will challenge the Hoosiers right away. If Indiana is going to make the kind of push it wants, those matchups may end up shaping the conversation before Big Ten play really settles in. [Read more 🡒]