2025-26 IU basketball player profile: Tayton Conerway

Tayton Conerway handles the ball.

With the start of college basketball season approaching, we’ve transitioned from our look at other Big Ten programs to our player-by-player previews of the 2025-26 IU basketball roster.

Today, our player profiles continue with senior Tayton Conerway.

Previously: Andrej Acimovic, Trent Sisley, Aleksa Ristic, Josh Harris, Jasai Miles, Nick Dorn, Jason Drake, Lamar Wilkerson, Conor Enright

Like several of the newcomers on IU basketball’s 2025-26 roster, senior guard Tayton Conerway has followed an unconventional route to the high-major level.

The 6-foot-3 guard, an unheralded recruit from Burleson, Texas, signed with Grayson College in the 2020 class. Grayson was the first of two junior college stops in Texas for Conerway, who spent a season there before transferring to Ranger College.

It was at Ranger where Conerway began to catch the eye of Division I schools. In his second season at Ranger, the 2022-23 campaign, Conerway averaged 15.7 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.6 steals and was named an NJCAA Division 1 first-team All-American.

That helped propel him to the Division I level at Troy in the Sun Belt Conference. In his first season at Troy, Conerway was named the Sun Belt Sixth Man of the Year as the Trojans finished 20-12 and won 13 league games.

Last season, in his fifth season as a college player and second at the Division I level, he blossomed into one of the best mid-major guards in the country.

In 34 starts, Conerway averaged 14.2 points, 4.8 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 2.9 steals in 30.3 minutes per game. Troy finished 13-5 in the Sun Belt, won the conference tournament and earned an NCAA tournament bid as a No. 14 seed, where it fell to Kentucky in the first round. Conerway was named Sun Belt Player of the Year and the most outstanding player of the Sun Belt conference tournament. His 98 steals were a program record at Troy and ranked third nationally.

After proving he could compete against the nation’s best last season and with a court ruling that allowed him an extra season of eligibility, Conerway entered the transfer portal last spring.

He was a priority target for several SEC programs. Still, Indiana won out for his commitment and added him to a backcourt that will also include Lamar Wilkerson and Conor Enright.

Defensively, he’ll welcome the challenge of defending the Big Ten’s best guards. He has stellar footwork, can get into passing lanes and likes to pressure the ball relentlessly.

“He has a really good gift and a knack for understanding that from a coaching standpoint, ‘hey, we want you sitting in this gap and being in position,’” Darian DeVries told Inside the Hall in June. “He’s one of those guys where you give him maybe a little bit more of that freedom and just go and trust your instincts because he is so good at when somebody turns their back, he’ll just leave and go attack.”

Offensively, Conerway got to the rim a lot last season for the Trojans and his ability to get paint touches will help collapse defenses and lead to open perimeter looks for IU’s solid contingent of shooters.

“That’s what I loved about him as you’re putting the roster together and you’re trying to make it all fit together,” DeVries explained. “I think he can be really, really good and creative in getting into the paint. He can finish, he’s a lot bouncier than maybe people realize. And then his ability to, when you get in there, his ability to spray and have some of those guys ready to knock it down.”

Conerway will be IU’s starting point guard and a major connector for its offense. He should also be one of the Big Ten’s better perimeter defenders, who will make life difficult for opposing point guards in the league.

Bottom line: The strengths of Conerway’s game are his ability to get into the paint with the ball and his defense. He’s a career 32.9 percent 3-point shooter and 68.9 percent free-throw shooter, two numbers Indiana hopes will improve this season in Bloomington. The Hoosiers won’t count on him to carry a heavy offensive load and his primary role on offense will be to facilitate open looks for IU’s shooters.

Quotable: “He’s very creative with the ball. So there’s some things he does from a passing standpoint, that you gotta let it go, because that’s part of who he is. That’s part of what makes him good and that creativity with the basketball and then just finding that middle ground a little bit.” – DeVries on Conerway’s playmaking and passing ability.

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

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