Samet Yigitoglu already knows what it looks like to start in the middle for an NCAA tournament team. Now the 7-foot-2 transfer center is settling into a different role at Indiana, and Tuesday’s media session made it clear the Hoosiers have plans for him that go beyond what he did at SMU.
Yigitoglu, who averaged 10.7 points, 7.9 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.3 blocked shots in 28.9 minutes per game for the Mustangs last season, committed to Indiana in April after entering the transfer portal. He was one of three Hoosiers who spoke to reporters following practice at Cook Hall.
At Indiana, the big man said he expects to be used differently than he was at SMU, especially with Aiden Sherrell on the floor beside him.
“Yes, yes, absolutely. In practice right now, the coaches are always trying to put me on the court with Aiden so we can play with two bigs on the court. Right now Aiden is just killing it, he’s shooting it.
“I’m just trying to make plays for others and to go get my own stuff in the paint.”
That pairing has already stood out to him in practice. Yigitoglu said Sherrell’s perimeter game changes the way defenses have to react.
“I mean, it’s great. You know, he’s a threat from the 3-pointers.
So it’s so easy to play with him because teams are, when we play during practice, the teams are just confused because he can hit a roll or he can even hit a pop. So he’s good at both.
It’s so easy to play with Aiden.”
Yigitoglu also said his passing is a strength he wants to lean into.
“I love shooting the ball, you know. I don’t want to, if someone’s open, I just don’t want to force it because passing is the best thing for me.”
His decision to come to Indiana, he said, came down to the program itself and the opportunity in front of him.
“Indiana is a great program and they have history. Everybody wants to be here.
Everybody wants to go to March Madness and play on the big stage. That made me come here and choose Indiana.”
He described his two seasons at SMU as important to his development, but also as a chapter he felt ready to leave behind.
“I mean, SMU taught me a lot of things about college basketball. You know, it was great two years out there, but I just had to move on from there because if you want to do big things, sometimes you got to change up something or just got to get to another level. And then Indiana was like that for me.”
What drew him to the Hoosiers, he said, was the fit and the way the staff explained his future.
“I mean, playing style and then, you know, they’re patient. They were so patient and they explained the whole story like what they want to do next year and how they want to develop me and how they want to get me better for the next level, which is the NBA.”
Yigitoglu’s first move to the United States came before his SMU stint, and he said the adjustment was a big one. Before arriving in Dallas, he had spent his previous two years in Istanbul.
“It was so good because, before I came to SMU, I spent my last two years in Istanbul. So it was so different than Istanbul because Istanbul is so compact, you know, it’s like a city.
And in Dallas, like, it is a city, but in America, they say, like, everything is big in Texas. When I landed, everything was so big.
I just couldn’t get used to it the first couple months. But after that, everything was so easy.”
He added that making the leap to the U.S. on his own brought its own challenges.
“I mean, it was a whole new story because, you know, you have to fly 12 hours to get here. So I didn’t know what I’m going to see, you know, and I came here by myself. So it was different for me to adjust.”
His family still has not made the trip yet.
“No, not yet. They need a visa for that and right now they’re trying to get it.”
As for Bloomington, Yigitoglu said his focus has mostly been on basketball so far, though his official visit left a strong impression.
“Right now it’s pretty, you know, pretty quiet. I mean we are just focusing on the court stuff.
But, you know, when I came here for the official visit, it was pretty good with the students and everybody. It was good, great, you know.
I mean, Bloomington is a great environment.”
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