As Indiana prepares for an exhibition against Marian on Friday, the Hoosiers enter the season hampered. On Thursday, Indiana coach Darian DeVries said guards Aleksa Ristic and Jason Drake will both be out “for a little while," including the start of the regular season on Nov. 5.
Without those two guards — who were both expected to have ball-handling responsibilities for Indiana — this team will have to adjust going into the season. Drake averaged 11.1 points and 3.1 assists per game at Drexel last season, and Ristic is a Serbian freshman who cracked Indiana’s rotation during the team’s foreign tour in Puerto Rico in August.
DeVries said that with those two injuries, along with injuries to Nick Dorn and Josh Harris, the Hoosiers’ main rotation will consist of only seven or eight players for the time being.
“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,” DeVries said. “I've liked some of the things we've been forced to look at, so maybe it opened our eyes to a couple different types of lineups we can utilize as the season starts to get into November and December.”
DeVries’ initial picture of this team is different from what he’ll get to see to begin this season. He has already had to use makeshift lineups and rotations ahead of his first regular-season game as Indiana’s coach. Injuries have already mounted for the Hoosiers, and it’s not clear when any of these players will be able to return.
In some ways, not having several players to start the year could help Indiana long-term. Indiana will have to figure things out while being undermanned, which could make it seem like a bonus once Drake and Ristic return from injury.
But at the same time, DeVries knows he’ll have to work everyone back in the lineup at some point. Figuring out an identity with so many moving parts won’t be easy.
“How quickly can they just get thrown in there and find their roles and be able to fit?” DeVries questioned. “So those are things that we don't know yet; because of injuries we're going to be a little bit limited on our depth right now.”
Indiana starts the season against Alabama A&M before playing Marquette in Chicago on Nov. 9. It appears the Hoosiers will be without several players for those games, but DeVries and his staff are still trying to make the most of what they have.