Indiana has added another big piece to its 2027 class, with German center Felix Kiehlneker signing his letter of intent to play for IU basketball, the program announced Friday.
Indiana lists Kiehlneker at 7-foot-1, giving head coach Darian DeVries another long, skilled frontcourt option as he keeps building a roster around size and versatility.
“Felix adds another really big player for our future that is extremely efficient scoring the ball,” DeVries said in a release. “He can operate on the perimeter in our pick-and-roll or dribble-handoff game as well as scoring inside and being a factor on the glass at both ends.
Felix is a great young man who wants to become the best player he can be. His personality and work ethic are going to be great fits in our program and we are excited that he is a Hoosier.”
Kiehlneker joins 5-star Darius Wabbington and 4-star Chase Branham in what ESPN and 247Sports both rank as a national top-10 class.
The 7-1, 230-pound center from Neu-Ulm, Germany, has spent three years with Orange Academy Ulm in the German pro leagues. Through seven games this season with Orange Academy Ulm in German ProA, he has averaged 7.5 points and 5.5 rebounds while shooting 81.8% from the floor and 64.3% at the free throw line.
His international résumé includes 4.0 points and 4.3 rebounds per game in seven FIBA U18 Eurobasket games for Germany in 2026, plus 6.0 rebounds and 7.7 rebounds per outing for a U18 German team that won the 2026 Albert Schweitzer Tournament. In the 2025-26 season, he also averaged 4.1 points and 3.3 rebounds in 10.8 minutes per game with Orange Academy Ulm in German ProB.
Kiehlneker is the son of Michael Schlipf and Julia Kiehlneker, has one brother, Moritz, and was born on Feb. 23, 2008.
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For Indiana, the matchup figures to be decided in the trenches as much as anywhere else. The Hoosiers have built a strong defensive line, and that puts extra pressure on USCs running game and its own defensive front seven to hold up on the road. If the Trojans are going to keep pace, they may need those developing pieces to contribute quickly while the injury picture continues to hang over the week. [Read more 🡒]
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Urban Meyer Just Reignited Indianas CFP Respect Debate
The latest College Football Playoff rankings gave Indiana a jolt even without the Hoosiers taking the field in Week 10, and Urban Meyer wasted little time turning that into a broader discussion about where they really belong. The FOX analyst and former coach pointed to Indianas slide from No. 4 to No. 9, using it as a springboard to question whether the committee had overvalued the Hoosiers in the first place, especially given the quality of their wins and the strength of schedule they have faced.
Meyers comments land at a time when the playoff picture is tightening around the Big Ten and Big 12, with Notre Dame and UCLA also climbing in the latest rankings. For Indiana, the issue is no longer just where it sits in the poll, but whether its early respect was earned or simply a product of a committee that is still sorting out how to weigh unbeaten records against the week-to-week reality of who teams have actually beaten. [Read more 🡒]
