With the lone, potential exception of Luke Goode, the Hoosiers will likely have a new group in 2025-26
With Bryson Tucker’s entry to close out last week, every member of Indiana men’s basketball’s 2024-25 roster with guaranteed eligibility next season is in the transfer portal.
The lone member of the roster who’s stated he would return is Luke Goode, who has to go through a waiver battle to try and gain an extra season.
Even if Goode is retained, Indiana is set for a complete roster overhaul the likes of which hasn’t been seen in a long, long time. As of right now Darian DeVries has one scholarship spoken for, that of incoming freshman Trent Sisley. His son, Tucker DeVries, is also expected to commit out of the transfer portal, so that makes two.
This is a little bit good and a little bit bad for a few reasons, though the positives outweigh the negatives substantially depending on how DeVries plays his cards in the coming weeks and months.
For one, DeVries has a level of complete liberty to build his first roster, and even the second, as he sees fit. It’s not full liberty because he has a pool of transfers to work with rather than the wide-ranging world of the high school ranks.
On another hand, Indiana has to find starters AND depth pieces through the portal. It’s easy to get players to sign on the dotted line when there’s guaranteed starting minutes evolved and a solid amount of NIL with it. Things get more difficult when those starting spots are full and you have to convince a guy who could probably start at a lower level to come off the bench.
But it’s been done before. John Calipari at Arkansas was a special case because, well, he’s John Calipari and was able to bring large swaths of his Kentucky roster and signees with him to Fayetteville. But Mark Pope got the Wildcats to the Sweet Sixteen with a completely rebuilt roster, so.
That is not, at all, to say Indiana is about to have a Kentucky-esque roster rebuild and similar year one run. Just that it’s absolutely possible to construct a year one roster through the portal and find some level of immediate success.
With that in mind, I’d expect Indiana to be very, very calculated in how it approaches the portal this year. You can afford a whiff when it’s a supplementary guy you’re adding onto a strong core because there’s pieces that can step up if said portal addition doesn’t play up to expectations. You can’t afford too many whiffs, and there will be whiffs, when that’s how you’re building an entire roster.
It’s easy to see the program zeroing in on a few starting-caliber talents it likes early on and trying to get them committed and signed as fast as possible before some big name comes along and resets the portal market.
After that? Things get interesting. Does Indiana go after experienced guys who are willing to come off the bench for substantial NIL? Or take some flyers on younger players willing to sit and be developed.
Only time will tell.