Much of the focus surrounding the Indiana men’s basketball program this year has been centered on the incoming transfer class, rightfully so. As of now, Indiana’s portal class is fourth nationally, per 247 Sports.
Darian DeVries also has a top 20 incoming class of high school players, though, and it’s made up of just three players, Vaughn Karvala, Prince-Alexander Moody, and Trevor Manhertz. As the roster stands today, at least one or two of these guys are going to have to contribute right away for
Indiana to reach its potential this coming season.
Like we wrote before, it’s possible that Indiana already has its starting lineup – and maybe first guy off the bench – from its portal commitments alone. At least four starting positions seem set, with Markus Burton, Samet Yigitoglu, Aiden Sherrell, and Bryce Lindsay probably penciled in as starters.
Jaeden Mustaf, Trent Sisley, and Darren Harris will all figure heavily in the rotation, though the latter two are unproven at the college level, while Mustaf was productive but not terribly efficient for a poor Georgia Tech team. The fact that all three of them are somewhat unknown commodities only underscores how important this year’s freshman class is, though.
Even if all of Mustaf, Sisley, and Harris can play somewhere close to their ceilings, that’s only seven players. Good college basketball teams have deeper rotations than that.
All four of last year’s Final Four teams had rotations at least eight deep, and Michigan’s would have been deeper had L.J. Carson stayed healthy. There were seasoned veterans like Yaxel Landeborg and Alex Karaban as well as talented freshmen like Keaton Wagler or Koa Peat.
Indiana, on the other hand, effectively had a seven-man rotation, with Sisley being eighth in minutes on the team, but appearing less and less frequently down the stretch of the season. He saw more than 10 minutes just twice over Indiana’s final 10 games, never adding more than 3 points to the box score.
The short bench wore on Indiana, with the Hoosiers hardly able to put up a fight against Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament, even with postseason hopes on the line. Despite some good wins in the second half of the season, Bart Torvik had Indiana trending downward over the course of the season.
This means that, even with the overhaul to the starting lineup and top half of the roster, DeVries is going to need something from his freshman for his team to avoid burning out.
Going by composite rankings alone, Karvala might be the most ready for that kind of production. As the no. 57 player in his class, he’s coming in ranked higher than Sisley was the season before, with a skillset (namely shooting) that could help him find minutes early.
Looking at the roster though, Indiana will need most help in the front court, which could give Trevor Manhertz a shot. At 6’8”, he’s the tallest of the incoming freshmen, but he’s just 185 lbs., meaning he’d have to do some serious work in the weight room to get ready for Big Ten play.
Then there’s Prince-Alexander Moody, the combo guard out of Bishop McNamara high school in Washington, DC. He’s coming from the same conference that gave Indiana Victor Oladipo, so he may be more seasoned when it comes to the level of competition and stakes of the games he will play in at Indiana.
Depending on how the roster fills out and the development of some of the older guys on the roster, at least one of these three are going to have to be productive players at some level for Indiana next season. If things don’t go exactly as planned, two or maybe all three of them could see minutes.
They absolutely don’t and almost definitely won’t end up as diamond in the rough one-and-done lotto types like Illinois’ Wagler. Five to six points per game, reliable defense, and good decision making might be enough for Indiana next season, especially with the talent at the top of the lineup.
While Burton, Sherrell and the other incoming transfers have raised the floor for the Hoosiers next season, the team’s ceiling may be up to these three freshmen.
