Darian DeVries enters Year 2 at Indiana with the kind of pressure that comes with a blueblood missing the NCAA Tournament eight times in the last 10 years. The Hoosiers were close enough in mid-February last season to make the picture look promising, then a 1-6 finish slammed the door on March Madness. That’s the backdrop now: a fan base that’s desperate for a breakthrough, and a coach trying to turn a roster reset into a real step forward.
The encouraging part for Indiana is that the talent level looks better on paper. DeVries reshaped the roster with several transfer portal additions, and the incoming freshman class has already drawn attention.
But getting back to the tournament will take more than names on a roster sheet. It will come down to whether three specific areas get cleaned up fast.
The first issue is chemistry, and it has to show up right away. College basketball lives in the transfer portal and NIL era now, but some teams handle constant turnover better than others.
Indiana is trying to do it again with a group built mostly from newcomers. Trent Sisley is the only returning player from last season’s team, which means there will be a lot of unfamiliar faces in Cream and Crimson.
DeVries dealt with a roster that had no returning players at all a year ago, and the adjustment showed in the team’s inability to settle into any kind of rhythm.
That challenge gets tougher when the schedule starts to tighten. Indiana has manageable non-conference games on the slate, but early meetings with Kentucky, Syracuse, Arkansas, and Missouri mean there won’t be much time to ease into things. The Hoosiers need to click quickly if they want the season to stay on track.
The second piece is getting DeVries’ offense to look like his offense. At Drake, and for a short stretch at West Virginia, his teams played fast, moved the ball, pushed in transition, and looked to create efficient three-point looks early in the possession.
Indiana didn’t consistently show that last season. The Hoosiers often looked stuck in place, easy to defend, and short on pace.
They did launch plenty of threes, ranking fourth in the Big Ten with 28.3 attempts per game, but the shots didn’t fall often enough. Indiana finished ninth in the league in three-point percentage at 34.7%, and that lack of efficiency kept the offense from taking off.
The scoring also leaned too heavily on Lamar Wilkerson, who led the Hoosiers with 20.9 points per game and ranked second in the Big Ten. Tucker DeVries was the only other player to average double figures at 13.7 points per game.
That kind of imbalance made life harder than it needed to be. If Indiana is going to get back to the NCAA Tournament, the scoring has to spread out.
Then there’s rebounding, which was a real problem last season and can’t be again. Indiana ranked 13th in the Big Ten with 32.4 rebounds per game, and the work on the offensive glass was even worse.
The Hoosiers finished last in the conference with just 8.2 offensive rebounds per game. That’s a hard number to survive with, especially in a league where possessions matter.
This year’s frontcourt should give Indiana a better chance to change that. Aiden Sherrell, a 6-foot-11 transfer from Alabama, brings a frame and rebounding ability that could matter immediately.
Samet Yigitoglu, a 7-foot-2 center from SMU, gives the Hoosiers the kind of true interior presence they were missing. Trent Sisley should help on the glass as well, and newcomers Trevor Manhertz and Vaughn Karvala also figure into the equation.
If Indiana is going to make the jump in 2026, rebounding on both ends has to become a priority, not a problem.
In Other News...
Indianas Roster Outlook Just Changed After Surprise Eligibility Ruling
A federal court ruling out of Colorado has added a fresh layer of uncertainty to roster planning across college sports, and Indiana is no exception. Judge Charlotte Sweeney granted a class-wide preliminary injunction that requires the NCAA to treat all athletes from the high school class of 2022 as eligible for the 2026-27 collegiate sports year, a move that reaches well beyond one program and forces schools to reassess how they approach the next cycle of roster building.
For the Hoosiers, the timing matters because the ruling opens the door to a new transfer portal window for affected athletes from Aug. 3-10, creating another variable for coaches and players already navigating an ever-shifting eligibility landscape. NCAA president Charlie Baker and the Big Ten and Southeastern Conferences have already voiced support for the Protect College Sports Act in response, a sign that the legal and legislative back-and-forth around college eligibility is far from settled. [Read more 🡒]
Indiana Fans Already Have A New Rotation Debate To Watch
The FISU America Games in Peru gave Indiana fans an early look at several players who could factor into the Hoosiers 2026-27 rotation, and it offered a useful snapshot of what that group might become. Team USA brought home the gold, but the more relevant takeaway for Indiana was how a handful of future contributors looked against international competition, with some players flashing clear upside while others showed areas that will need smoothing out before Big Ten play arrives.
Markus Burton had stretches that underscored both his talent and the challenge of turning it into consistent production, as efficiency and turnovers stood out in less encouraging ways. On the other side of the ledger, freshmen such as Prince-Alexander Moody made a strong impression on both ends of the floor, giving Indiana plenty to think about as the next rotation debate starts to take shape well before that season actually begins. [Read more 🡒]