Indiana men’s basketball received one vote in The Associated Press’ preseason poll. It began the season 40th in the Ken Pomeroy college basketball ratings.
But after the Hoosiers earned a dominant 23-point victory Sunday over Marquette University inside the United Center in Chicago, they rose substantially in both.
Indiana received 45 votes in the AP poll released Monday, while it jumped to 21st in the KenPom rankings.
In the Hoosiers’ maiden contest against a power conference opponent under head coach Darian DeVries, they flipped the script from past seasons. Across Mike Woodson’s final two seasons, the Cream and Crimson were blown out several times by power opponents at neutral sites.
But not Sunday. Indiana instead blew out Marquette to improve to 2-0 and notched an early-season win over a program that made the NCAA Tournament the last four seasons.
In total, six Big Ten squads are ranked in the AP Poll:
- No. 2 Purdue
- No. 6 Michigan
- No. 14 Illinois
- No. 15 UCLA
- No. 17 Michigan State
- No. 24 Wisconsin
In KenPom, the Hoosiers rank behind four Big Ten teams — Illinois, Purdue, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Although it’s still early in the season and 29 regular-season games remain on Indiana’s schedule, DeVries’ squad showed a glimpse of what it could become throughout the season.
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.
