The college basketball season is upon us and Indiana men’s basketball is looking for more success in year two under head coach Darian DeVries.
The Hoosiers reloaded this past offseason, undergoing an identity change from a roster focused on 3-point shooting to one focused on rebounding. With a pair of 7-footers in the frontcourt and newfound quickness and scoring in the backcourt, this has the look of a team that’ll break the program’s NCAA Tournament drought.
With this in mind, we ran a few polls
ahead of the season to gauge fans’ feelings heading into what’ll prove a pivotal year for DeVries’ rebuild. We’re sharing the results below as something to look back on as the season goes on. Want to participate in more polls like this? Make sure to check out The Feed on a regular basis!
Here’s how fans voted:
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Will Indiana make the 2027 NCAA Tournament?
This one’s actually still in progress. Vote below!
How many games will Indiana win in 2026-27?
Fans aren’t overly bullish on Indiana’s win total this season and you really can’t blame them. Indiana hasn’t won 20 or more games since the 2022-23 season, when Indiana earned a No. 4-seed largely on the shoulders of Trayce Jackson-Davis’ excellent play.
Hoosier fans see this team winning a pretty modest 20-24 games this season, which would put this group on par with some of the other tournament teams of the past decade. That option earned 61% of respondents votes. Just 11% see this team winning 19 games or less, 22% see it winning between 25-29 and 6% see it ascending to 30 or more.
That’s pretty fair and sort of flies in the face of the outside perception that the fanbase expects a Final Four every season.
Who leads the team in scoring?
Well, this one was interesting. We got a three-way tie between four options listed. Markus Burton, Aiden Sherrell and Bryce Lindsay all finished with 30% of the vote. Jaeden Mustaf was behind at 10%.
Both of Burton and Lindsay have shown tremendous scoring prowess for the Hoosiers early while Sherrell has gotten his at a more modest rate.
Which freshman will have the biggest role?
Indiana signed a trio of high school prospects in the class of 2026 while adding German big Clemens Sokolov from the international ranks ahead of the season.
These four got a solid amount of run in exhibition play, with Vaughn Karvala slightly limited with an injury and Trevor Manhertz getting serious minutes off the bench. With that in mind, 60% of respondents chose Manhertz as having the biggest role. Karvala was right behind with 30% and Prince-Alexander Moody, prior to his knee injury, was at 20%. Sokolov, who logged sparse minutes in exhibition play, was at just 10%.
Which proves more impactful, offense or defense?
Indiana hasn’t really had a consistent identity, at least not a successful one, in several years. DeVries’ first team leaned more on offense, particularly 3-point shooting, to win games.
Fans see this team, with all its size in the frontcourt and tenacity in the backcourt, as more of a defensive unit. That side of the court won 80% of the vote over the offense as the side the proves most impactful for Indiana in 2026-27.
Will Indiana finish in the top-10 nationally in offensive rebounding rate?
Again, this team was built to own the boards and its success will be measured by its ability to do so on a consistent basis, especially in a league as physical as the Big Ten.
DeVries has emphasized it as the team’s identity both in practice and in the media. We asked fans if they expected the Hoosiers to finish top-10 in offensive rebounding rate and a strong 56% of respondents voted yes.
Make sure to keep an eye out for more polls in The Feed! We’ll be predicting every matchup and sending a few throughout the season to gauge your thoughts!
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