Indiana’s three-game exhibition run didn’t produce any hard conclusions, and it shouldn’t. Preseason basketball always comes with a warning label. But after a 79-74 win over Western Kentucky on Sunday night capped a 3-0 slate, there’s a clear theme worth watching: this IU team is built differently under Darian DeVries in his second season.
The biggest shift shows up on the glass. Indiana’s offensive rebounding numbers have jumped in a way that stands out even against last year’s best efforts.
The Hoosiers grabbed 40 percent of their misses against Butler, then pushed that figure to 49 percent against North Carolina. Both marks would have topped Indiana’s best offensive rebounding games from last season, which came in at 37.5 percent against Chicago State and Maryland.
The number dipped to 33 percent against Western Kentucky, but that still would have ranked fifth-best on last year’s team. Even more telling, IU rebounded just 26 percent of its misses in the first half against the Hilltoppers before coming back with 40 percent in the second half, a surge that helped fuel the comeback with second-chance points.
Samet Yigitoglu was the standout on the offensive boards during the preseason, finishing with nine offensive rebounds. Aiden Sherrell, Sam Alexis and Jaeden Mustaf each pulled down seven.
That emphasis makes sense given how DeVries reshaped the roster through the transfer portal, leaning harder into size. It’s also showing up in the way Indiana is generating points.
The Hoosiers scored 25 second-chance points against Butler, 17 against North Carolina and 12 against Western Kentucky. Those aren’t just empty numbers; they reflect the kind of easy offense Indiana struggled to create a year ago.
There’s a similar trend on the defensive end. Indiana’s block percentage has also ticked up, though not at the same dramatic rate.
The Hoosiers’ 20 percent block rate against Western Kentucky would have been their second-best game last season. The 12.2 percent mark against North Carolina would have ranked third, and the 9.4 percent against Butler would have landed 10th.
The front line carried that work. Alexis finished with seven blocks, Yigitoglu added four and Sherrell chipped in two. Markus Burton, Vaughn Karvala, Prince-Alexander Moody and Trent Sisley also each recorded a block.
That matters because Indiana didn’t have much shot-blocking depth last season beyond Alexis, whose 6.2 percent block rate ranked 122nd nationally. Now the Hoosiers have added Yigitoglu, who posted a 5.5 percent block rate and ranked 155th nationally, and Sherrell, who brought an 8.5 percent mark and ranked 36th nationally. That gives Indiana three bigs with a real track record of protecting the rim.
Put it together, and the picture is fairly clear from the exhibition slate: Indiana is getting more chances near the rim, more second looks, and a frontcourt that can alter shots on the other end. The preseason caveat still applies, but these are the kinds of traits that can change the shape of an offense if they carry over.
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For Indiana, that makes the next step more interesting than the ranking itself. The Hoosiers are sitting in that familiar space where optimism and skepticism can coexist, with some polls keeping them just outside the top 25 while still treating them as a team on the tournament bubble rather than on the outside looking in. The debate now is less about whether Indiana is relevant again and more about how quickly this group can turn projection into something sturdier once the games start. [Read more 🡒]