The Inside the Hall Mailbag: 2026 recruiting, IU’s roster spend, injuries and more

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The Inside the Hall Mailbag is a collection of questions sent to us via X (@insidethehall), email, our community and our Facebook page. This edition of the mailbag will feature questions exclusively from our community. Submit your questions and we’ll answer as many as we can.

Casey writes: With the flurry of 2026 offers, what range of HS recruits do you think this coaching staff will take? 2-3?

Assigning a precise number to this would be nothing more than speculation. The new coaching staff has been on the job for less than two months and has been heavily focused on the transfer portal to assemble a roster for next winter.

That said, you are correct in classifying the recent 2026 activity as a flurry of offers. The staff has been busy reaching out to the rising senior class, extending offers to several elite prospects and will be on the road watching recruits this weekend in the lone spring evaluation period. More targets and offers will likely emerge over the weekend.

Moving forward, it would be surprising to see most power conference programs take large recruiting classes of freshmen. If you can get elite talent, you take the commitments. But ideally, the best balance is having two, three or four freshmen, several key returnees and a few portal additions. That would strike the best balance between maintaining continuity and building for future seasons.

Iowa Hoosier writes: Do we really have a 10 million dollar roster? I don’t mean “did we spend 10 million?” What I actually mean is: do we have enough talent on this team to justify having spent $10 million?

Much of the discussion surrounding the transfer portal among fan bases nationwide focuses on the amount of money programs are spending.

The reality is that spending big is the price of doing business in today’s college basketball landscape. To win in the portal, you must be able to identify suitable fits for your program and you also need the resources to sign those pieces you identify. Players are worth what the market values them at. The numbers being floated on program spend are likely a mix of educated guesses and speculation.

To answer your question, we won’t be able to make a judgment until the product is on the floor and results are available for evaluation. Overall, Indiana has a solid mix of players who produced at their respective schools last season. Production appears to have taken precedence over potential in the evaluation process.

Hoosier Jake writes: Do you anticipate more player access/availability for the media this season compared to last offseason/season? I hope so. It’d be nice to have a clue who these guys are before Christmas or at least be able to relate on some kind of personal level. PS: I liked the Q&A with Sisley. Good questions. Good answers.

Thanks for the feedback on the Trent Sisley interview.

It’s to be determined on player access and availability. You make a strong point about the fanbase being able to connect with the players on some kind of personal level. That’s even more important when an entirely new roster is assembled. There is little familiarity with the new players among the fans right now.

From a media perspective, the hope is that there will be some availability this summer to speak with the new players and get an update on how the team building and workouts are progressing.

Ho B Cat writes: Is there still a big guy out there to bring in? Any chance one of the bigs we are recruiting reclassifies?

The portal has quieted down significantly since the Josh Harris commitment at the end of April. Right now, the focus is on the Anthony Leal and Luke Goode waiver situations. How those situations ultimately unfold will determine the direction Indiana takes with its final open roster spots.

The Hoosiers currently have 11 players committed for next season and the belief is that the roster won’t exceed 13 scholarship players.

David Macer writes: What’s the likelihood of Leal or Goode getting a waiver for the 25-26 season?

Attempting to forecast what the NCAA will do with waiver requests at this point is a guessing game. Previous rules and precedent appear to be out the window.

Goode seems to have a better case on paper than Leal. Assigning a percentage chance would be a blind guess. Hopefully, there will be clarity sooner rather than later, so Indiana can finalize the roster for the 2025-26 season. It’s a waiting game.

Hoosierpreneur writes: Is everyone healthy and fully participating in offseason programming?

The known injury situations on the roster are Conor Enright and Tucker DeVries.

Enright had surgery on his shoulder last winter and is still rehabbing. Here was the update in early April from Enright: “I should be 100 percent middle or end of July. I’ll be doing non-contact workouts and being able to shoot pretty much all summer and getting in shape. I’ll be ready to go for the season. That definitely affected me a little bit. My shooting dropped significantly when I had that injury. I was wearing a brace and wasn’t playing the best. So I think being able to have this last year fully healthy will be big for me.”

DeVries had surgery on an upper-body injury last winter and no updates on his progress have been made public.

Swish writes: On a scale of 1 – the talent to make some noise in the BIG and in March;  2 – should make the tournament but nothing more;  3 – Bottom tier BIG and no dancing … How would you rate our roster in the following groups: Guards, wings and bigs.

Is it a cop out if the answer is a solid two with a chance to do more if things come together? This roster has been assembled to be competitive and make the NCAA tournament in the first year of the Darian DeVries era.

Based on what DeVries did at Drake and what he did last season at West Virginia, it would be a surprise if Indiana were bottom tier in the Big Ten without a chance to go to the NCAA tournament.

As for rating the roster by those groups, the guards and wings appear to be ahead of the frontcourt. That’s no knock on the frontcourt IU has assembled, but there is more depth and overall talent with the guards and the wings. And for how Indiana is going to play, that’s understandable.

Category: Commentary

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