The Big Ten sent nine teams to the NCAA Tournament last year. That left Indiana, which finished 10th in the league and 41st in the NET rankings, on the outside looking in.
Second-year coach Darian DeVries searched for a stronger, bigger, deeper group capable of moving Indiana to the right side of the bubble and beyond.
When Indiana hosts Eastern Illinois for both teams’ regular-season opener on Monday in Bloomington, Ind., DeVries’ top six players will be transfers with three freshmen and his only two scholarship returnees — fifth-year center Sam Alexis (8.8 ppg, 4.8 rpg) and sophomore power forward Trent Sisley (4.2 ppg, 2.8 rpg) — in reserve.
Judging by the Hoosiers’ sweep of their three exhibition games, which featured an 18-point home win over North Carolina, Indiana’s new crew appears poised to claim the school’s first NCAA bid since 2023.
DeVries started the same five newcomers in all three exhibition games: point guard Markus Burton (Notre Dame), wings Darren Harris (Duke) and Jaeden Mustaf (Georgia Tech), power forward Aiden Sherrell (Alabama) and 7-foot-2 Samet Yigitoglu (SMU).
Villanova transfer Bryce Lindsay came off the bench to lead the Hoosiers in scoring against North Carolina (26 points) and Western Kentucky (20 points). He canned 10 of 23 3-point attempts (.435) as the Hoosiers shot 32 of 91 (.352) overall from long range.
The Hoosiers also handily outrebounded Butler, North Carolina and Western Kentucky, though turnovers were an issue. IU registered 43 assists versus 39 turnovers.
“That’s been a massive emphasis for us in practice, of our guys taking care of the ball,” DeVries said. “We have to figure out a way to take care of the basketball better. Some of that’s just with better offense in general.”
The season opener serves as a homecoming for Eastern Illinois coach Marty Simmons, who scored 375 points for Bob Knight’s Hoosiers from 1983-85 before transferring to Evansville.
The Panthers return no starters, so backup guard Markus Blackwell (4.7 ppg) ranks as the top returning scorer from last year’s 13-20 squad. Simmons added three Div. II veterans, two NAIA alums, two junior-college transfers and four freshmen to his mix, which was picked to finish eighth in the nine-team Ohio Valley.
“We brought in 10 new guys, but we got size, we got versatility, we got a true point guard,” Simmons told Blue Ribbon. “We’ve got some guys who can score. I really like this team.”
When Eastern Illinois visited Indiana in November two years ago, the 17th-ranked Hoosiers claimed a 90-55 win — but the Panthers led 37-36 at the half.
