What’s going on, y’all? It’s officially the “off-season” for Oregon sports, so that means… Big Ten Basketball previews are back! And today, we’re going to be looking at the Indiana Hoosiers. The Hoosiers finished the ‘25-’26 season with a 18-14 record, finishing 10th in coach Darian DeVries’ inaugural season at IU. He will have essentially an entire new roster once again this season, after losing 12 players (5 graduated, 7 transfers). Among those graduating is Lamar Wilkerson, far and away their best player last season, averaging just shy of 21 points a game, on 46% shooting, and DeVries’ son Tucker, who was the Hoosiers 2nd leading scorer at just under 14 points per game.
Indiana hit the portal hard to replace their departing players, notably snagging the #6 Transfer Portal class in all of college basketball, according to 24/7 sports. Players to watch from that incoming group of transfers include Aiden Sherrell, a 6’11”, 255 lb. power forward who started 34 games for Alabama last season. Sherrell put up solid numbers for the Crimson Tide, averaging 11.1 points and 6.2 rebounds per game on 54% from the field, as well as being able to shoot the ball a little bit (33.8% from three, 71.3% from the line). I think, in what I’m assuming will be a slightly expanded role in Bloomington, Sherrell will step up and have a good year for the Hoosiers. I like his game a lot.
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They also grabbed Markus Burton, an undersized point guard from Notre Dame, at just 5’11”. But don’t let the size fool you, this dude can BALL. Burton was a three-year starter for the Fighting Irish and averaged 19.1 points per game on ~44% shooting, and just under two steals per game for his career at ND. He could do big things for this Hoosiers team, if he can stay healthy (played just 10 games in ‘25-’26).
The last player I want to touch on is Turkish-born, and SMU transfer, center Samet Yigitoglu. Yigitoglu is a behemoth of a man, at 7’2”, 265 lbs., who started 66 games for SMU over the last two seasons. He holds career averages of 10.4 points, on 58.3% from the floor, and 7.1 rebounds per game. The man is large, and will no doubt be able to disrupt things in the paint for the Hoosiers, but he desperately needs to improve his shooting ability, shooting just 53% from the foul line for his career.
In general, I like what the Hoosiers have done this off-season. Losing essentially your entire roster and having to rebuild on the fly is incredibly difficult, and I think they handled it just about as well as you could hope for. I think this team has the potential to be in the top third of the conference, but only if Burton can stay on the floor. He is the X-Factor, to me. This team will go as he goes.
The Ducks will play host to the Hoosiers this season, but at this time, it is not clear when that game will take place.
As always, ‘Sco Ducks.
