No matter how you slice it, the basketball program at Indiana has not lived up to expectations. The Hoosiers are long past the success under Bob Knight some decades ago but recent work from head coaches Archie Miller and Mike Woodson just didn’t cut it. The Hoosiers sprint into a new era under an up and coming head coach from the Midwest.

Humble beginnings shaped Darian DeVries, who has spent much of his career out in the MVC. He played collegiately at Northern Iowa before learning under Dana Altman and Greg McDermott during a long stint as a Creighton aide. His head coaching career has included a very successful 6-year run in that league at Drake before spending the last season building something at West Virginia.

DeVries jumped ship from Morgantown after just a single season for the chance to shape something really special in Bloomington. Despite that lack of recent success and national prominence, Indiana is still a basketball program with significant resources and untapped potential. DeVries and his new staff sure have had to tap into those in rebuilding a new roster for next year.

Indiana won 19 games and finished in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten last season, but nothing of note returns from that roster. DeVries adds a 4-star forward in Trent Sisley but much of the movement came from the transfer portal. Considered a Top 10 transfer class, Indiana certainly gets a big boost with Tucker DeVries, a powerful shooter and scorer who’s followed his dad to another school and should bounce back after injury issues last year.

DeVries is far from the only notable addition. Former mid-major guards Tayton Conerway (Troy) and Lamar Wilkerson (Sam Houston State) both come highly regarded and should fight for major minutes. Former Davidson forward Reed Bailey joins former Florida big Sam Alexis in a rebuilt frontcourt that should also see contributions from North Florida transfer Josh Harris.

When you piece everything together, there’s talent coming to Bloomington but it’s all about how those pieces fit together under DeVries’ leadership. Any time you completely redo an entire rotation it’s a big game of chance, but there’s plenty of optimism based on what DeVries and his staffs have accomplished in recent years. Injuries and other inconsistencies really marred last year with the Mountaineers but that didn’t scare away the Indiana brass.

Tucker DeVries was one of the top names in the portal and landing him alone already made this offseason a win. The staff then added several other highly-regarded players and should be able to put together a very productive rotation. This team should be able to shoot well and put the ball in the basket, though the questions boil down to if they have enough in the frontcourt and on the defensive end. Time will tell, but it’s a good start at the very least.