Indiana University Athletics
Lessons Learned – DeVries ‘Excited’ by Bigger-Stronger-Faster Roster Rebuild
5/13/2026 9:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Lessons were learned, experience was gained and, if coach Darian DeVries' roster-building plan works out as planned, Indiana basketball victories will be delivered.
Optimism resonates for the program, and Hoosier Nation cannot wait.
"We're excited about the way it's played out," DeVries says. "We're excited about the way the portal season played out. We have good depth at most positions, so we're covered in a lot of areas."
Last year's 18-14 season, with losses in six of its last seven games, exposed weaknesses DeVries and his staff worked to address.
Early signs are positive.
24/7Sports ranks IU's six-player transfer portal class No. 4 nationally with 6-foot point guard Markus Burton from Notre Dame, 7-foot-2 center Samet Yigitoglu from SMU, 6-foot-11 power forward Aiden Sherrell from Alabama, 6-foot-6 swingman Jaeden Mustaf from Georgia Tech, 6-foot-3 guard Bryce Lindsay from Villanova, and 6-foot-5 guard Darren Harris from Duke.
That doesn't include three high school players signed last fall in forward Trevor Manhertz, guard Prince-Alexander Moody, and forward Vaughn Karvala.
"Right now, we don't have a single senior through the portal," DeVries says. "We have a lot of experienced guys, especially at the Power 4 level, that we feel great about."
This is the third straight season DeVries has had to rebuild a roster as he went from coaching at Drake to West Virginia to IU. Last year's Big Ten experience was a grueling eye-opener with Michigan winning the conference regular-season title and then the national championship, Illinois making the Final Four, Purdue winning the Big Ten tourney title and reaching the Elite Eight, and Michigan State, Nebraska and Iowa advancing to the Sweet 16. It was an unprecedented level of Big Ten NCAA tourney success.
Last year's Hoosier roster, which was dominated by mid-major transfers, lacked Big Ten size, strength, and perimeter quickness. It reflected DeVries's late recruiting start after taking the Hoosier job in March of 2025.
"The biggest thing when taking a job in the spring," he says, "is it's a lot different scenario than when you have a staff in place so when the portal season comes, you have everything aligned with what you need to do and what you're trying to get done from a staff standpoint.
"That's the biggest difference this time. We have a full staff."
That staff, with Drew Adams, Rod Clark, Kenny Johnson, and Nick Norton, began building recruiting relationships while analyzing what IU needed to thrive at an elite level.
"Having a season to go through the league and understand exactly what you need," DeVries says, "we were able to shift our focus to prioritize certain things. We recognized what this roster needed to look like. We had a good plan in place."
What were those priorities?
"Certainly, we prioritized needing to get some size, some physicality, and some depth," DeVries says. "We also wanted to, as much as we could, find guys who we'd have an opportunity to retain so we can start to build some stability."
While the transfer portal was huge in that, so was signing freshmen who potentially could be in the program for three, four or even five years.
"Another big piece of it, too," DeVries says, "that maybe doesn't get as enough attention, was being able in the fall to sign three freshmen. You're starting to build some opportunity for retention there, as well.
"That will be critical as we continue to go year to year to make sure we're bringing in freshmen and have freshmen who can go on to become sophomores, then have two, three or four freshmen, whatever it ends up being, every year. Now you have a roster that you fill in holes through the portal as opposed to rebuilding an entire team. That's very important to us."
It's not a coincidence that all of IU's transfers come from Power 4 conferences.
"That's something we wanted to prioritize," DeVries says. "It's not that we didn't continue to look at all levels. We did. But any time you have a chance to find someone who had success at this level, that's something you know will translate. If you take someone from a lower level, you have to project a little bit more."
All six transfers have at least two years of college eligibility remaining. Four are listed among the nation's top 100-rated transfers. Sherrell is a top-15 prospect. Burton, the 2023 Indiana Mr. Basketball from Penn High School, averaged 19.1 points over 69 career games at Notre Dame. He's a top-25 transfer prospect.
"Some of the guys at this level we felt good about, maybe they didn't have as high a number (ranking)," DeVries says, "but we knew what they were and what their abilities were.
"I'm excited about the experience we'll have. They've played at this level, so we have a good idea of what that will look like as they get here."
Aiding the recruiting success was last February's hiring of executive director of basketball Ryan Carr, a former IU manager under Hall of Fame coach Bob Knight who had spent the last 23 years with the Indiana Pacers.
"Ryan was certainly helpful," DeVries says, "but it was a complete staff effort. He came on a couple of weeks before the portal started.
"Overall, our staff did a good job with having relationships through recruiting. Previously, maybe they had recruited somebody the first time around and had relationships with players and agents, so when the portal opened, we were in a good space to be aggressive."
That aggression enabled IU to quickly sign transfers.
"A big part of having gone through it last year is you know how quickly things can go," DeVries says. "There are only so many guys in the portal. It's not like you get to create guys. What's in there is in there.
"We wanted to make sure ,when the portal opened, we were as aggressive as possible in getting guys on campus as quickly as we could. That's what we did. We wanted to load up the visits on the front end and do as good a job as we could as fast as we could."
IU still has a couple of scholarships remaining. DeVries says the goal is to add depth.
"That's a priority for us. Adding a little more depth in a couple areas just to cover us from a practice standpoint, from an injury standpoint. That's our priority with these last couple of scholarships."
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Lessons were learned, experience was gained and, if coach Darian DeVries' roster-building plan works out as planned, Indiana basketball victories will be delivered.
Optimism resonates for the program, and Hoosier Nation cannot wait.
"We're excited about the way it's played out," DeVries says. "We're excited about the way the portal season played out. We have good depth at most positions, so we're covered in a lot of areas."
Last year's 18-14 season, with losses in six of its last seven games, exposed weaknesses DeVries and his staff worked to address.
Early signs are positive.
24/7Sports ranks IU's six-player transfer portal class No. 4 nationally with 6-foot point guard Markus Burton from Notre Dame, 7-foot-2 center Samet Yigitoglu from SMU, 6-foot-11 power forward Aiden Sherrell from Alabama, 6-foot-6 swingman Jaeden Mustaf from Georgia Tech, 6-foot-3 guard Bryce Lindsay from Villanova, and 6-foot-5 guard Darren Harris from Duke.
That doesn't include three high school players signed last fall in forward Trevor Manhertz, guard Prince-Alexander Moody, and forward Vaughn Karvala.
"Right now, we don't have a single senior through the portal," DeVries says. "We have a lot of experienced guys, especially at the Power 4 level, that we feel great about."
This is the third straight season DeVries has had to rebuild a roster as he went from coaching at Drake to West Virginia to IU. Last year's Big Ten experience was a grueling eye-opener with Michigan winning the conference regular-season title and then the national championship, Illinois making the Final Four, Purdue winning the Big Ten tourney title and reaching the Elite Eight, and Michigan State, Nebraska and Iowa advancing to the Sweet 16. It was an unprecedented level of Big Ten NCAA tourney success.
Last year's Hoosier roster, which was dominated by mid-major transfers, lacked Big Ten size, strength, and perimeter quickness. It reflected DeVries's late recruiting start after taking the Hoosier job in March of 2025.
"The biggest thing when taking a job in the spring," he says, "is it's a lot different scenario than when you have a staff in place so when the portal season comes, you have everything aligned with what you need to do and what you're trying to get done from a staff standpoint.
"That's the biggest difference this time. We have a full staff."
That staff, with Drew Adams, Rod Clark, Kenny Johnson, and Nick Norton, began building recruiting relationships while analyzing what IU needed to thrive at an elite level.
"Having a season to go through the league and understand exactly what you need," DeVries says, "we were able to shift our focus to prioritize certain things. We recognized what this roster needed to look like. We had a good plan in place."
What were those priorities?
"Certainly, we prioritized needing to get some size, some physicality, and some depth," DeVries says. "We also wanted to, as much as we could, find guys who we'd have an opportunity to retain so we can start to build some stability."
While the transfer portal was huge in that, so was signing freshmen who potentially could be in the program for three, four or even five years.
"Another big piece of it, too," DeVries says, "that maybe doesn't get as enough attention, was being able in the fall to sign three freshmen. You're starting to build some opportunity for retention there, as well.
"That will be critical as we continue to go year to year to make sure we're bringing in freshmen and have freshmen who can go on to become sophomores, then have two, three or four freshmen, whatever it ends up being, every year. Now you have a roster that you fill in holes through the portal as opposed to rebuilding an entire team. That's very important to us."
It's not a coincidence that all of IU's transfers come from Power 4 conferences.
"That's something we wanted to prioritize," DeVries says. "It's not that we didn't continue to look at all levels. We did. But any time you have a chance to find someone who had success at this level, that's something you know will translate. If you take someone from a lower level, you have to project a little bit more."
All six transfers have at least two years of college eligibility remaining. Four are listed among the nation's top 100-rated transfers. Sherrell is a top-15 prospect. Burton, the 2023 Indiana Mr. Basketball from Penn High School, averaged 19.1 points over 69 career games at Notre Dame. He's a top-25 transfer prospect.
"Some of the guys at this level we felt good about, maybe they didn't have as high a number (ranking)," DeVries says, "but we knew what they were and what their abilities were.
"I'm excited about the experience we'll have. They've played at this level, so we have a good idea of what that will look like as they get here."
Aiding the recruiting success was last February's hiring of executive director of basketball Ryan Carr, a former IU manager under Hall of Fame coach Bob Knight who had spent the last 23 years with the Indiana Pacers.
"Ryan was certainly helpful," DeVries says, "but it was a complete staff effort. He came on a couple of weeks before the portal started.
"Overall, our staff did a good job with having relationships through recruiting. Previously, maybe they had recruited somebody the first time around and had relationships with players and agents, so when the portal opened, we were in a good space to be aggressive."
That aggression enabled IU to quickly sign transfers.
"A big part of having gone through it last year is you know how quickly things can go," DeVries says. "There are only so many guys in the portal. It's not like you get to create guys. What's in there is in there.
"We wanted to make sure ,when the portal opened, we were as aggressive as possible in getting guys on campus as quickly as we could. That's what we did. We wanted to load up the visits on the front end and do as good a job as we could as fast as we could."
IU still has a couple of scholarships remaining. DeVries says the goal is to add depth.
"That's a priority for us. Adding a little more depth in a couple areas just to cover us from a practice standpoint, from an injury standpoint. That's our priority with these last couple of scholarships."
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