Indiana men’s basketball is set for its second game of the 2026-27 season, taking on Bellermine on Thursday evening at Assembly Hall in Bloomington.
It’s the second consecutive buy game for the Hoosiers on the season as the new roster continues to gel after several exhibition opportunities the past few weeks and throughout the summer. There’s still plenty to learn about this group and games like this can be revealing if not competitive.
Here’s a few things to watch for:
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Rebounding, rebounding, rebounding
Between his roster moves this past offseason and the way he’s described it during media availabilities, DeVries has been pretty clear about what this team’s identity will be.
The Hoosiers are huge on the front line, starting a pair of 7-footers in Samet Yigitoglu and Aiden Sherrell. There’s no excuse to not be a top rebounding team with that kind of size. But it’s an emphasis for the guards as well, with DeVries challenging the entire lineup to crash the glass.
Bellarmine has a single player over 6’8” tall in center Jacob Wassler, a sophomore who hasn’t proven to be much of a factor on the glass. Indiana should impose its will here and play physical ball to not only generate those extra possessions, but keep Bellarmine from trying to stop it.
Will Aiden Sherrell bounce back? (yes)
Sherrell, one of the prized signings from the portal, had a bit of a rough debut against Eastern Illinois. He finished with 9 points, six rebounds and an assist while shooting 0-4 from 3-point range and 3-11 from the field.
That’s far from a disastrous start and he played just 25 minutes. He also stayed out of foul trouble and pulled in a pair of offensive boards, so it wasn’t like he was out there slumping. You really shouldn’t take too much from a sample size of one game, hence the parentheses above.
He’ll be fine and have another chance to demonstrate as much when the Hoosiers take on the Knights.
Jaeden Mustaf with the ball
We’ve seen plenty of what Markus Burton and Bryce Lindsay can do with the ball in their hands up to this point with the former showing out against Eastern Illinois and the latter proving immensely valuable for Indiana’s preseason exhibition stretch.
I’m more curious as to the plan with Mustaf, who offers something else as a ballhandler. Mustaf has a more bounce to his game than either Burton and Lindsay and brings size on top of that. He brings strong rim pressure that forces defenses to keep tabs on the interior, which opens opportunities for himself and others from long range.
He took just three shots in the opener despite playing 24 minutes, going 4-5 from the free throw line while bringing in three rebounds and dishing out a pair of assists. His role is the one I’m most curious to watch develop as the season goes on.
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