Indiana men’s basketball has not signed a center out of high school since Logan Duncomb committed to play for Archie Miller on April 7th, 2020. He appeared in 18 total games for Indiana over the course of two seasons, before transferring to Xavier, then Winthrop and finally Notre Dame.
In that time, Indiana has had five different centers start. Trayce Jackson-Davis rewrote Indiana history ahead of Duncomb on the depth chart, and Mike Woodson’s two replacements for him – Kel’el Ware and Oumar Ballo – both came from the portal. Last year, Darian DeVries started both Sam Alexis and Reed Bailey, never quite finding the presence inside Indiana has needed.
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Of course, the lack of coaching continuity is a factor here. While Woodson earned a reputation for working with bigs, it wasn’t clear that the centers from the high school ranks were all that interested in his Indiana. He seemed to have a preference for more experienced players, even if they hadn’t reached their potential at their prior stops.
The changes at head coach have meant different offensive styles as well as recruiting philosophies.
Woodson relied on his bigs to the point that it wouldn’t have made sense to play a freshman inside. In each of his four years, a center or power forward had the highest usage rate in his offense and led the team in scoring. He did this with rangey bigs (Ware), Big bigs (Ballo), and bouncy bigs (Jackson-Davis).
In part due to how the roster shook out, this was not how DeVries ran his offense. Last year’s team looked more modern in its pacing and 3-point volume, but didn’t feature its forwards in a way that would attract high school prospects.
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With Aiden Sherrell and Samet Yigitoglu in the fold, DeVries has the chance to put some quality big man basketball on tape as proof of concept. Besides making the tournament, this is arguably the most important thing he can accomplish in year two.
Each of the five Big Ten teams that made the Elite Eight last year had either a center or power forward in their top three most used players. The Hoosiers went 1-6 against those teams.
The silver lining for Indiana is that there are multiple ways to feature bigs in a modern offense. Some of them, like Rienk Mast (Nebraska) or Jaxson Kohler (Michigan State), fit the modern mold, capable of rebounding and rim protection, but also a threat from the perimeter on offense.
Others, like Trey Kaufman-Renn (Indiana recruiting miss) were more traditional back-to-the-basket players. No matter what kind of player they were, they were big factors for their teams.
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While Indiana has whiffed on high school bigs, other Big Ten programs have had success poaching them from Indiana’s backyard. Tom Izzo signed five-star Xavier Booker in 2022 and Matt Painter landed Isaiah Hill, another five star out of Indianapolis, last month. This is not a trend that should continue.
DeVries will have some flexibility this coming year, as Yigitoglu and Sherrell are much different players with different skillsets. He could play them together at the four and five, have one back the other up, or let the matchup dictate the lineup. Whatever he does, he needs to make sure they get touches that highlight their respective strengths.
Indiana hasn’t made an NCAA Tournament since Jackson-Davis, a power forward/center who committed to the Hoosiers out of high school, led the team to back-to-back appearances in 2022 and 2023. The team got good production out of portal centers, but the lack of continuity inside has had a negative effect on Indiana’s success as a team.
The Hoosiers have a top-30 guard on the way next year in Chase Branham, but unless DeVries can snag a center from the class of 2027 as a long-term answer at the position, Branham’s help might not be enough.
