The Ohio State men’s basketball team officially opens the 2025-26 season on Monday night against the IU Indy Jaguars. IU Indy, formerly known as IUPUI from 1971-2023, hails from the Horizon League, and
has finished outside of the top-300 teams in KenPom five of the last six seasons. They were picked to finish 10th (out of 11) in their conference this season in the Horizon League preseason coaches and media poll, and will begin the season at No. 354 in Ken Pomeroy’s rankings.
The last time these two programs met was during the 2021-22 season, when the Buckeyes blasted the Jaguars 83-37. Nobody on the current Ohio State roster was on the team at the time, but there is one player on this year’s team that has an extensive, successful history against IU Indy — senior forward Brandon Noel.
Noel, who transferred to Ohio State from Wright State on April 8, faced IU Indy seven times while playing for the Raiders, going 6-1 against them over his three seasons in the Horizon League from 2022-2025. He averaged 18.4 points and 9.6 rebounds per game over those seven games, shooting 59% overall and 36% from three-point range against the Jaguars. Included in those seven games were three separate 20-point games, including a 26-point, 16-rebound double-double against IU Indy on February 8, 2025.
During Noel’s three seasons playing at Wright State (he was on the team but did not play from 2020-2022), IU Indy went 10-50 in Horizon League play. Wright State, in comparison, went 31-29.
Noel, a Lucasville, Ohio-native, scored a team-high 18 points in Ohio State’s 103-74 preseason win over Ohio University on October 26. He started at power forward, played 19 minutes, and also registered one assist and one steal apiece. He is expected to start at power forward for the Buckeyes on Monday night.
The results of last month’s exhibition against the Bobcats can mostly be taken with a grain of salt, as Jake Diebler and Jeff Boals were prioritizing running specific lineups and simulating specific scenarios over maximizing every minute of the game. However, Ohio likely presented a much tougher challenge than IU Indy will. The Bobcats were picked to finish fourth in the MAC this season, and begin the season at No. 154 in KenPom — exactly 200 spots higher than Ohio State’s opponent Monday night.
Now surrounded with far superior talent than he was at Wright State and an offense that’s expected to be one of the best in the nation (No. 13 in expected offensive efficiency nationally), look for Noel to continue his years-long bullying of IU Indy on Monday night. He may not top his 26-point performance he put up last season, but it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility if the Buckeyes put up triple-digits in the season-opener.
