BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Darian DeVries era is officially here. Indiana hosts Alabama A&M Wednesday in DeVries’ first regular-season game as head coach.

Since being hired in March, DeVries has been making this program his. DeVries replaced every scholarship player Indiana had from last year, took the Hoosiers on a foreign trip to Puerto Rico in August, replaced Hoosier Hysteria with an outdoor event and brought back Haunted Hall of Hoops.

After months of roster-building, scrimmages and practices, and exhibitions, DeVries finally is leading this team into games that count. With a completely new coaching staff and roster, many questions surround Indiana and its outlook for the 2025-26 campaign.

Here are some notes and nuggets about Indiana as the season opens.

Key Players

• F Tucker DeVries

DeVries’ son, Tucker DeVries, projects as the leading scorer for the Hoosiers. Tucker DeVries played just eight games at West Virginia last season after suffering a shoulder injury. He has had surgery on both of his shoulders in his college career, but he participated in the full offseason leading up to this year.

In 2023-24 at Drake, Tucker DeVries averaged 21.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game as the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year. He was the leading scorer on consecutive Drake teams that made the NCAA tournament.

Tucker DeVries spent two seasons with Indiana starting guard Conor Enright at Drake, so the two have an established chemistry. Between having experience with Enright and entering his fifth season playing under his father, Tucker DeVries knows the system better than anyone, and he’s spread that knowledge with the rest of the team.

Tucker DeVries is a career 37% 3-point shooter on 6.7 attempts per game. Indiana will rely on his floor spacing and inside-out scoring attack to lead it this season.

• G Lamar Wilkerson

Wilkerson transferred to Indiana after averaging 20.5 points per game at Sam Houston last season. After starting his career as a junior college player at Three Rivers College, Wilkerson played three seasons at Sam Houston, where he was first-team All-Conference USA in back-to-back seasons.

Wilkerson is seen as an elite shooter. He made 44.5% of his 3s last season for the Bearcats, and — like Tucker DeVries — he’s set to help the Hoosiers be a tremendous shooting team. Wilkerson led the Hoosiers with 28 points in their exhibition win over Baylor. In that game, he made all 13 of his free throws, displaying an ability to attack the paint and draw fouls.

In the glimpses that we’ve seen of Indiana so far, it appears Wilkerson and Tucker DeVries will play off one another quite a bit. They’ve set screens for each other and used their shooting gravity to get open.

“They're a little unique just because of their ability to screen for one another and set each other up for flare opportunities and such,” DeVries said Tuesday. “I do like the chemistry that those guys have so far.”

“It makes it easier to play with such a great player like Lamar,” Tucker DeVries said at Big Ten media day on Oct. 9. “It makes the defense have to make a lot of decisions, especially size-wise for our position. … A lot of those actions can be difficult for them to guard, and when we’re both able to shoot the ball the way we can, it also makes it that much more difficult.”

Wilkerson and Tucker DeVries could be one of the more dangerous duos in the Big Ten this season. If they’re able to combine for over 30 points nightly, Indiana’s offense will be in a good place.

• G Tayton Conerway

Conerway comes to Indiana from Troy, where he was the 2024-25 Sun Belt Player of the Year. He averaged 14.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 2.9 steals per game last season. Like Wilkerson, Conerway began his career at a junior college, Ranger College.

Conerway is the best athlete Indiana has on the perimeter. He uses his quickness to be an effective driver and menacing defender. On a team that doesn’t have many great athletes, the Hoosiers will rely on him to drive inside the lane.

“Tayton’s a big piece just because he's a paint-toucher,” DeVries said at Big Ten media day. “You’ve got a lot of shooters out there, but he’s one of those guys that can create on his own. So that’s a big piece for us, his ability to get inside the paint, get in the teeth of the defense and then have the ability to finish at the rim or if he forces some help, to be able to spray it out to our shooters.”

If Conerway can be one of the best defenders in the Big Ten while being a key offensive initiator, he may end up as the Hoosiers’ most valuable player. He’s half of a defensive tandem with Enright that should give opposing backcourts trouble.

Injuries

The Hoosiers enter the season with multiple key injuries. Indiana was without three guards — Nick Dorn, Aleksa Ristic and Jason Drake — for its exhibitions, and forward Josh Harris was also inactive.

DeVries said the Hoosiers “hope to have Nick available for Wednesday” on his Inside Indiana Basketball radio show on Monday. Dorn averaged 15.2 points per game at Elon last season, but a noncontact injury kept him out of most of the team’s September and October activities.

Ristic and Drake — both project as primary ball-handlers — will be out “for the foreseeable future,” DeVries said. Drake averaged 11.1 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game at Drexel last season. Ristic is a freshman who averaged 13.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game last season in Serbia’s top league, the Serbia KSL.

Harris is “going to be out for a while,” according to DeVries. Harris has regularly worn a boot and has not participated in Indiana’s preseason festivities. The big man averaged 13.4 points and 7.1 rebounds per game at North Florida last season. Without Harris, Davidson transfer Reed Bailey and Florida transfer Sam Alexis will be the two main bigs Indiana uses.

Indiana played just eight players in its exhibition against Baylor, and one of them — Jasai Miles — played only one minute. The Hoosiers are short on depth, but having Dorn back in the lineup should help. To start the year, DeVries and his staff must make do with Indiana’s healthy players and get creative with lineups.

Games to Watch

Indiana will go through the gauntlet of the Big Ten, which has several teams that could compete for a national championship. These are the most notable games on Indiana’s schedule:

• Sun., Nov. 9 vs. Marquette (United Center in Chicago)
• Tue., Nov. 25 vs. Kansas State
• Sat., Dec. 6 vs. No. 11 Louisville (Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis)
• Sat., Dec. 13 at No. 9 Kentucky
• Tue., Jan. 13 at No. 22 Michigan State
• Tue., Jan. 20 at No. 7 Michigan
• Tue., Jan. 27 vs. No. 1 Purdue
• Sat., Jan. 31 at No. 12 UCLA
• Sat., Feb. 7 vs. No. 24 Wisconsin
• Sun., Feb. 15 at No. 17 Illinois
• Fri., Feb. 20 at No. 1 Purdue
• Sun., Mar. 1 vs. No. 22 Michigan State

Potential Strengths

• Shooting: Indiana plans to take and make a lot of 3s. All 10 of this team’s transfers regularly attempted 3s last season, and five of them shot above the national average. Players like Wilkerson (44.5%), Tucker DeVries (47.3%), Drake (39.6%) and Dorn (35.1%) shot the ball extremely well last year.
• Defensive Aggression: Indiana forced 16 turnovers in the Baylor exhibition. This team isn’t super imposing on the interior, so its best way to make up for that will be by being aggressive on the perimeter. Players like Enright and Conerway will pressure players on top to try to take the pressure off Indiana’s paint protectors.
• Ball Movement: DeVries has instilled a motion offense for this team that doesn’t rely on anyone holding or dribbling the ball too long. On Tuesday, DeVries said, “The way these guys have shared it and moved it has been really impressive in practice.” If the Hoosiers can share the ball effectively, it’ll make the lives of everyone on the team a lot easier on offense.

Potential Weaknesses

• Rebounding: Indiana doesn’t have a player on its roster taller than 6-10. Bailey, the Hoosiers’ starting center, averaged just 6.1 rebounds per game as Davidson’s starting center. Rebounding will be a concern for the Hoosiers all season. Baylor got 16 offensive rebounds against the Hoosiers in the exhibition. It’s going to take a full team effort this year for Indiana to be just a mediocre rebounding squad.
• Offensive Consistency: Indiana’s lack of players who can create their own shots could come back to bite the Hoosiers. Many of this team’s players are seen as secondary playmakers, guys who are best when others create shots for them. Against some of the better defenses on Indiana’s schedule, that lack of on-ball creators could lead to some lulls.
• Continuity: Between the players’ unfamiliarity with each other and the injuries going into this season, building synergy will be a challenge for the Hoosiers. DeVries may go through two or three different versions of this team before he truly establishes roles for everyone. This could lead to a slower start to the year until Indiana’s at full strength and sees its players gain comfort with one another.