Indiana men’s basketball’s first season under head coach Darian DeVries ended in disappointment when the Hoosiers didn’t receive a bid to play in the 2026 NCAA Tournament.
With six seniors out of eligibility and at least one likely transfer portal entry from the current roster in Jason Drake, the program enters its first full offseason under DeVries looking to execute a second consecutive near total roster rebuild. There were plenty of reasons Indiana fell short of March Madness with roster construction
being among the most prominent.
With all of this in mind, we surveyed Indiana fans to see how they viewed expectations heading into DeVries’ second season prior to any roster moves. The results are as follows:
A strong majority of fans surveyed, or 77%, believe it’s tournament or bust for DeVries in year two. He’ll have to thread the needle of building a roster that can get to the postseason immediately while adding long-term pieces to set the foundation for the program.
He’ll have to do it in the shadow of the Final Four up in Indianapolis, where former Bob Knight student manager and Hoosiers coaching darling Dusty May’s second Michigan team sits at -300 to beat UConn and former Indiana Mr. Basketball Braylon Mullins for a national championship, per FanDuel Sportsbook.
It’s not DeVries’ fault that Indiana has neither the expectations nor the Hoosier State ties those programs enjoy, but it’s his job to get the program back to that level.
