Coming off back-to-back 19-win seasons without an NCAA Tournament appearance, Indiana men’s basketball replaced former head coach Mike Woodson with Darian DeVries.
After nearly every player transferred, Indiana lost two additional players after their eligibility waivers were denied by the NCAA in July — guards Anthony Leal and Luke Goode. DeVries reloaded the depleted roster with 10 transfer portal additions and three freshmen. Indiana’s transfer class was ranked 10th nationally by 247Sports.
Devries’ Hoosiers are built to play modern basketball. Led by redshirt senior forward Tucker DeVries and fifth-year senior guard Lamar Wilkerson, Indiana’s offense will heavily feature the 3-point shot.
In his one year at West Virginia University, Darian DeVries’ squad went 19-13 (a 10-win improvement from 2023-24), joining Indiana among the first four teams out of the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Entering his first season at the helm of the Hoosiers, DeVries' .713 career win percentage against Division I opponents ranks sixth among active NCAA Division I head coaches with a minimum of 100 wins and first in the Big Ten.
However, the Hoosiers won’t begin the season at full strength.
DeVries expects to be without three players against Marian University on Friday — freshman guard Aleksa Ristic and junior guards Nick Dorn and Jason Drake. Ristic and Drake will likely be sidelined until at least a few weeks into the season, DeVries said Thursday.
About the Knights
Marian is led by second year head coach Pat Knight — son of legendary Indiana head coach Bob Knight. Pat Knight was met with raucous applause in his return to Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall last fall in a 2024 preseason matchup against the Hoosiers.
In year one with Marian, the Knights went 11-17. A 5-13 conference record left the Knights in ninth place in the Crossroads League. Entering the 2025-26 season, Marian was picked to finish fifth in the conference.
Key players returning to the Knights are redshirt sophomore guard Aidan Franks and junior guard Dylan Moles. Both were selected to the All-Crossroads League Preseason Team.
In 2024-25, Moles led the team in scoring with 14.8 points per game. He scored a career-high 31 points Dec. 2 against Judson University and topped 20 points in six different games. Moles shot a team high 51.6% from the field last season and knocked down 43% of his 3-point attempts.
In a strong freshman season, Franks was named Crossroads League Freshman of the Year, averaging 14.3 points per game on 46.6% shooting for the year. In his first full season, Franks was the second leading scorer for the Knights.
In last year’s exhibition, Indiana held Franks to just 2 points, while Moles had 12.
What to watch for
All three injured Hoosiers are guards, leaving Indiana without much depth at the position. As a result, DeVries might have to get creative with his lineups. However, the exhibition setting might not reveal too much about DeVries’ plans.
“These preseason games, it's going to be on the offensive end more about just us functioning some of our motion,” DeVries said Thursday. "We can also experiment with some lineups. We are a little shorthanded, so it's almost going to force us to look at some things like we’ve been doing in practice.”
While the 3-point shot is the primary weapon, how the Hoosiers jell on both ends of the floor will be critical to their early season success. Heading into the exhibition, DeVries has one goal at the top of his list:
“Play as hard as we can.”
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames and jamesdm@iu.edu) and Nathan Shriberg (@NShriberg and naashri@iu.edu) and columnist Kasey Watkins (@KaseyWatki8773 and kaslwatk@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana men’s basketball season.
