Indiana men’s basketball got exactly the kind of start it wanted in Lima: a runaway win, a huge cushion early and a chance to let the younger pieces breathe.
The United States team opened the FISU America Games with a 115-36 win over host Peru, jumping out to a 12-0 run and never giving the game back. Indiana was up 59-22 at halftime, then blew the doors off the third quarter with a 31-6 edge. By the time the rotation deepened in the final two quarters, the lead had already become untouchable.
The broadcast didn’t exactly make the experience easier to follow. Most of the first half was unavailable because the YouTube livestream showed weightlifting and handball, and the second half came with a steady lag every few seconds. But the scoreboard told the story just fine.
Two themes stood out from Indiana’s opener.
The first was size. That was a problem for the Hoosiers last season, when former senior forward Reed Bailey was the tallest player on the roster to see consistent minutes, and he measured 6-foot-10. Darian DeVries has clearly tried to address that issue this offseason by adding University of Alabama transfer forward Aiden Sherrell and Southern Methodist University transfer center Samet Yigitoglu, who is 7-foot-2.
Yigitoglu, though, is not eligible for the FISU America Games because of his Turkish heritage. Incoming 7-foot freshman forward Clemens Sokolov also wasn’t with the team because he is still in Germany. That left Sherrell to handle the interior work, and he did plenty of it.
The junior led Indiana with 19 points and looked like the biggest presence on the floor throughout the game. Peru’s tallest players appeared to be around 6-foot-8, and Sherrell seemed to have a clear edge in the paint.
He also brings more than just post size. In Indiana’s exhibition against Canada on July 16, Sherrell went 2 for 5 from 3-point range, and last season at Alabama he shot 33.8% on 2.4 attempts per game.
Ben Winkler, a 6-foot-10 sophomore forward and walk-on transfer from California State Fullerton, also gave Indiana useful minutes late. He played in eight games for the Titans last season and finished with three points, but he was active on both ends in the third and fourth quarters.
The other big takeaway was how ready the freshmen looked.
Guard Prince-Alexander Moody and forwards Vaugh Karvala and Trevor Manhertz were ranked as the 34th-best 2026 recruiting class by Rivals and ninth in the Big Ten. Through two exhibition games, they already look like players Darian DeVries can trust.
Against Peru, Moody scored 18 points, Karvala had 13 and Manhertz added 12. Those four players - Sherrell, Moody, Karvala and Manhertz - were Indiana’s top scorers, and three of them were freshmen.
The trio made its mark in different ways. Karvala had back-to-back putback baskets in the fourth quarter, including one finished with a dunk. Manhertz showed off his shooting and passing, knocking down a 3-pointer from the left wing a couple of steps behind the line and later slipping a sharp pocket pass to Winkler for a shooting foul.
Moody did much of his work in the first half, which wasn’t fully visible on the stream, but he still flashed plenty. He found Trent Sisley cutting to the basket to end the third quarter and later set up Winkler for his only field goal of the game.
That kind of game time matters. Practice against high-major teammates can only take a freshman so far, and Indiana’s schedule will demand more once the season starts.
The Hoosiers have nonconference games against Kentucky, Arkansas and Syracuse before Big Ten play begins, and those early tests can expose young players fast. For this group, the Peru trip offered a chance to get real reps before the results start counting.
Indiana is in Group B with Peru and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Group A includes Chile, Colombia, Argentina and Brazil. The FISU America Games feature 15 sports over 13 days and are held every two years for collegiate athletes from North and South America.
In Other News...
Indiana Is Suddenly Chasing A Very Intriguing 2028 Frontcourt Target
Indianas recruiting board for the 2028 class already has an early name worth watching in Hudson Hatch, a 6-foot-10 center from Christ School in North Carolina. The Hoosiers recently joined the chase with a scholarship offer, and for a player who is still unranked, that alone says plenty about the kind of upside Indiana sees in him.
Hatch has drawn attention because his game doesnt look like the usual young big mans package. He can stretch the floor with his jumper, score in the post and is willing to move the ball when defenses collapse, which gives him a versatile foundation to build on. The bigger question now is how much his body and athletic tools can grow over the next two high school seasons, because that will go a long way toward determining just how high his ceiling really is. [Read more 🡒]
Curt Cignetti Just Pulled Off Another Recruiting Stunner For Indiana
Curt Cignetti keeps changing what feels possible for Indiana football on the recruiting trail. After landing 5-star wide receiver Monshun Sales, the Hoosiers added another major piece in 4-star quarterback Lukas Prock, a highly regarded 2028 prospect who had Notre Dame among his finalists before choosing Bloomington.
For a program that has spent years fighting for attention in the Midwest talent market, the back-to-back wins matter as much for perception as for the roster. Beating Notre Dame for blue-chip talent is the sort of development that can reshape how recruits view Indiana, and it has given Cignetti a level of momentum the Hoosiers rarely get to enjoy this early in a cycle. [Read more 🡒]
Curt Cignetti Has Indiana In Position To Shape Three Big Ten Jobs
Curt Cignettis new deal through the 2033 season has Indiana in a far different place than it has occupied for most of the Big Ten era, with the Hoosiers suddenly holding real leverage in matchups that once felt like routine conference games. The ripple effect reaches beyond Bloomington, because Rutgers, USC and Northwestern all have head coaches whose standing can shift quickly when results turn, and Indiana is lined up to be part of that conversation.
Northwestern is first, coming to Memorial Stadium for the Big Ten opener on Friday, Sept. 25, and the Hoosiers already handled the Wildcats 41-24 a year ago. Rutgers follows in Indianas first road game on Oct. 3, while USC visits on Nov. 14 in a game that could carry College Football Playoff implications as well as coaching fallout. For Greg Schiano, Lincoln Riley and David Braun, the margin for error is thin, and Indiana now has a say in how thin it gets. [Read more 🡒]