Indiana men’s basketball got off to a blistering start to the 2025-26 season, Darian DeVries’ debut as head coach.
For the first time in nearly a decade, the 3-point shot was an integral part of the Hoosiers’ offense. Indiana was taking, and making, plenty of 3s en route to a 3-0 start that never saw the offense put up less than 90 points with two 100+ point outings.
But there was always the looming specter of what this team would look like when those shots aren’t falling. On Sunday night, we got a bit
of a sense.
Indiana hit just 20.8% of its attempts from long range in a 69-61 slog of a win over Incarnate Word that saw the Hoosiers in real peril in the closing minutes. On the other end, the Cardinals were hitting just about every shot they needed to keep the Hoosiers from pushing the lead up.
Tucker DeVries and Lamar Wilkerson, the Hoosiers’ top scorers from deep on the season, went just 3/11 and 0/3 from deep on the night. DeVries still managed to put 14 points on the board, but it took him 13 shots to get there. Wilkerson scored 9, with over half of those points coming at the free throw line.
Indiana found some success getting the ball to its bigs, Reed Bailey and Sam Alexis, throughout the first half. Bailey had 2 points in 7 minutes while Alexis, coming off the bench, went 4-5 from the field and 5-6 from the free throw line to lead the Hoosiers with 13 points. The two combined for eight points on four shots in the second, when things got tight.
One way or another, Indiana’s going to have to figure out a way to keep the points coming when the long ball isn’t working. This is just going to happen with a team built as much around the 3 as Indiana is, which has to be a weird feeling given how long it’s been since that’s been true around here.
You’d much rather Indiana have a sleepy night from range against a team it can handle, for the most part at least, from a talent standpoint. That gives the Hoosiers a chance to figure out what works and see if they can make any tweaks the next time this happens, because it will.
This’ll be one to look back on in a while. Will Indiana figure out how to build a solid lead or will a weird shooting night bite the Hoosiers again? Time will tell, but it’s not cause for worry long-term.
