{"id":204574,"date":"2025-09-06T08:59:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T08:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/204574\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T08:59:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T08:59:13","slug":"indiana-basketball-3-things-darian-devries-should-prioritize-in-2026-recruiting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/204574\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana basketball: 3 things Darian DeVries should prioritize in 2026 recruiting"},"content":{"rendered":"

In case you hadn\u2019t heard, the college basketball recruiting calendar is back into full swing with coaches travelling across the country to visit prospects at their schools, at camps and apparently at their houses just after midnight<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Indiana head coach Darian DeVries isn\u2019t doing that, instead opting to have said prospect visit Bloomington instead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But now that recruiting is intensifying, it\u2019s worth considering what DeVries should prioritize for his first class as the Hoosiers\u2019 head coach. The program already has one prospect, combo guard Prince-Alexander Moody<\/a>, committed for the 2026 group, but there\u2019s more than enough room to bring in a substantial class.<\/p>\n

I hesitate to treat Indiana\u2019s starting lineup from its Puerto Rico trip as gospel, which you shouldn\u2019t, but that\u2019s all we have to go on right now and those five guys will have prominent roles on this season\u2019s team whether or not they\u2019re starting. The thing about those guys? They\u2019re all gone after this season. Indiana will almost certainly have an entirely new starting lineup in year two under DeVries as the staff leaned on experience in the transfer portal.<\/p>\n

Assuming there\u2019s no medical redshirts or weird NCAA eligibility extensions because of *gestures at everything,* Indiana is looking at eight open scholarships for the 2026-27 roster, seven when you count in Moody. That number decreases further, down to five, when you consider Indiana is unlikely to use those last two spots, as it didn\u2019t this year, to avoid diluting the revenue sharing pool.<\/p>\n

That number could fluctuate based on upcoming commitments from the class of 2026 or transfer portal attrition, which I don\u2019t find fair to speculate over and isn\u2019t reliably possible to predict without inside information. So for now, we\u2019re going with five.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been said that DeVries is going to lean on high school recruiting rather than turning Indiana into a \u201cportal program,\u201d which is good because roster continuity is pretty predictive of team success in college basketball. It also means larger high school recruiting classes than the program has put together in years.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s always the option of leaning on the portal if a prospect doesn\u2019t pan out, but that should be treated as an auxiliary roster building tool rather than the main thing. A star developed in a system with continuity will probably perform at least a bit better than a star thrown into a new system with new teammates, especially in high-pressure situations like NCAA Tournament play.<\/p>\n

But, to get to the point here, what should DeVries prioritize? Fair warning a lot of this is going to seem obvious. That\u2019s because it is.<\/p>\n

Well, yes, this is a pretty obvious one.<\/p>\n

I know the whole thing with Indiana is that the program has assembled a ton of talent over the years and has little to show for it, but at the end of the day you need those types of players to win at the level that Indiana should. Indiana also happens to be in the rather fortuitous situation of being able to attract that type of talent.<\/p>\n

DeVries\u2019 staff reflects this, it\u2019s loaded with recruiters with connections all across the sport from the DMV to the various youth circuits and around the state of Indiana. That\u2019s why Indiana keeps appearing on top-8s, top-5s and whatever other number for all those highly-rated prospects you see on social media, it\u2019s the program leveraging those pre-existing connections.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m truly not sure how many future starters are on Indiana\u2019s bench right now. Trent Sisley figures to take on that sort of role eventually, Nick Dorn has some intrigue to him and it\u2019ll be interesting to watch Aleksa Ristic develop, but the rest are hard to project.<\/p>\n

The kind of talent Indiana has been pursuing is the type that\u2019d start immediately, guys who are gonna be on NBA Draft boards year one or two. You shouldn\u2019t solely rely on that talent to carry you through a season but it certainly helps to have a guy who can do the kinds of things most of your opponents just can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Ideally this talent is mixed into a cohesive group of developed players that\u2019s already spent years together but that\u2019s the sort of thing that comes with time.<\/p>\n

Just taking a peek at the roster and the offers DeVries and co have extended up to this point, it\u2019s clear that a few positions will take priority in 2026.<\/p>\n