Storylines to follow as IU basketball prepares for three exhibitions in Puerto Rico

IU basketball guard Lamar Wilkerson at practice in Cook Hall.

IU basketball begins its three-game exhibition tour in Puerto Rico on Wednesday night. The games won’t be streamed, televised or broadcast on radio, but Inside the Hall reporter Josh Pos will be in San Juan providing coverage all week.

Here are the key storylines to follow as the Hoosiers prepare to play three games over six days:

A look at how Darian DeVries views the hierarchy of his team

More than three months remain on the calendar before the Hoosiers tip off the 2025-26 regular season at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

Plenty could change between this week’s games and the games that matter beginning in November, but the exhibitions will offer a current snapshot of how Darian DeVries views his team based on the starting lineup he uses.

In last week’s open practice at Cook Hall, the current first five appeared to be Conor Enright, Tayton Conerway, Lamar Wilkerson, Tucker DeVries and Reed Bailey.

Will that be the lineup DeVries goes with when IU tips off in Puerto Rico on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET against Universidad de Puerto Rico Bayamón?

Who will be available to play?

One of the notable points from last week’s open practice was the injuries the Hoosiers are currently dealing with.

Two of the program’s transfer portal additions – Nick Dorn and Jason Drake – did not practice last Wednesday. Dorn is not expected to be available until later in the fall, with Drake’s setback believed to be more short-term.

“The timeline on both of them is a little up in the air, I guess,” DeVries said last week. “We’ll see where that leads. We’re obviously hopeful that both of them will be back in a relatively good timeline. But I don’t anticipate — with Nick, especially, that would be something more in the fall. So we’ll see how that shakes out as we move forward.”

The roster did get another player late last week as Serbian guard Aleska Ristic arrived on campus.

With Dorn out for Puerto Rico and Drake’s status uncertain, the addition of Ristic should give DeVries at least 10 healthy scholarship players for the trip.

A first glimpse at a new-look offense

A significant takeaway from last week’s open practice was the emphasis on ball movement and perimeter shooting. The Hoosiers want to play with pace, share the ball and shoot plenty of 3-pointers.

The games in Puerto Rico will be the first time this new philosophy is put on a public display in a game setting.

On a team that doesn’t have a back-to-the-basket post player that will demand the ball, what will the shot diet for the Hoosiers in Puerto Rico look like?

You can likely expect a much higher volume of 3-pointers attempted than in previous seasons, less emphasis on mid-range shots and an emphasis on putting pressure on opponents at the rim when the opportunity presents itself.

“They’ve done a really good job to this point of being unselfish, moving the ball, sharing the ball, taking care of the ball,” DeVries said last Wednesday. “And guys have taken advantage of those opportunities when they’ve gotten them. I do like the fact that we do have some versatility from a shot-making perspective.

Early tests for a defense that is currently behind the offense

As pleased as DeVries seemed to be with his team’s offense in his comments last week, he also explained that the offense has plenty of room for growth.

Late in the open practice, the first team struggled for several minutes to get stops defensively near the end of the hour-long session.

The three exhibitions will provide the coaching staff with valuable insight into the team’s defensive performance against live competition, a tool that will be particularly useful as official practice begins in September.

“I think we’re further along on the offensive end than the defensive end,” DeVries said. “I think part of that is because you have some guys maybe were up the line denying and other guys were way back in a drop coverage or up in hedging. Just a lot of different things. So those are things we’re working through.”

If there’s a stat to pay attention to coming out of the trip on the defensive end, it’s defensive rebounding. DeVries has brought it up repeatedly as an emphasis and without a true five on the roster to clean up the glass, limiting second-chance opportunities will be a key moving forward.

“The rebounding thing, again, it’s creating habits, making sure we make contact on every shot that goes up and have some physicality to what we do there,” DeVries added. “Again, just creating those habits on a daily basis.

“We still have time to do that and we’re going to continue to focus on that. That’s going to be a huge priority for us, and we know we need to be a good defensive rebounding team to win games.”

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

See More: Commentary, 2025 Puerto Rico Trip