Three ways IU basketball’s new look front court could impact the 2026-27 season

Indiana's Aiden Sherrell dunks the ball.

It’s no secret that IU basketball wanted to get bigger and more athletic up front for the 2026-27 season.

After the first season of the Darian DeVries era saw the Hoosiers platoon the duo of Reed Bailey and Sam Alexis, next winter should feature the duo of Aiden Sherrell and Samet Yigitoglu in the starting lineup together.

Here are three ways the new-look front court could impact year two of the DeVries era:

More variety in how the Hoosiers can score

Indiana’s offense was heavily dependent on the 3-point shot last season.

The Hoosiers ranked 35th nationally in point distribution on 3-pointers, according to KenPom.com and 14th nationally in percentage of field goals attempted from beyond the 3-point line. Indiana scored 37.7 percent of its points on 3s last season and 50.5 percent of its shot attempts were 3-pointers.

Don’t expect Indiana to shift its offensive approach to a post-up-heavy one. Having Sherrell and Yigitoglu’s size and scoring efficiency, however, should allow the Hoosiers to be less dependent on 3-pointers to win games.

“We’ll still be heavy on threes, but now we have more guys that can get paint touches, more guys that we can put in the post,” DeVries said last month at Huber’s Winery. “So you can mix up the way you can attack defenses a lot more. It gives you maybe just a chance to not only rely on threes. A lot of nights that caught up to us at times last year. Just the versatility overall and the way that we can score is going to be something we’re excited about.”

Sherrell shot 53.9 percent from the field last season and Yigitoglu shot 62.8 percent.

Improved rim protection

It’s no secret that opposing Big Ten teams didn’t fear attacking the paint against Indiana last season.

Bailey offered no resistance at the rim and Alexis averaged 1.2 blocked shots per game but stood just 6-foot-9.

Sherrell and Yigitoglu bring legitimate size and much-improved shot blocking for the Hoosiers as DeVries prepares for his second season in Bloomington.

Sherrell was listed at 6-foot-10 and 255 pounds last season, and Yigitoglu at 7-foot-2 and 270 pounds. Sherrell blocked 76 shots and Yigitoglu had 43.

DeVries has made no secret of his excitement about Yigitoglu embracing his imposing frame.

“What I like about him is, like I said before, he’s a big and he understands he’s big,” DeVries said of IU’s new center. “He likes being a big. He likes the physicality. It’s a little bit of what attracted him to the Big Ten.

“The physicality of this league is something that he embraces and he’s looking forward to. I’m excited about that and I think he will certainly play his role, what we need him to be and do for us. That’s exciting for us, exciting for him, so it’s great.”

With size in the paint, IU can be more aggressive defending on the perimeter

One of the biggest flaws of the 2025-26 Hoosiers was their inability to force turnovers that led to easy transition opportunities.

Indiana routinely lost the points off turnovers battle and was usually hesitant to apply pressure or take chances on the perimeter.

With no legitimate shot-blocking presence or rim deterrent, the Hoosiers were conservative with their pressure and rarely tried to play the passing lanes out of fear of getting beaten for easy buckets.

There should be more flexibility to ramp up the pressure next season with Sherrell and Yigitoglu in the paint.

“When you have rim protection, it allows you to maybe be a little bit more aggressive so when you do get beat off the dribble, there’s somebody back there to protect a little bit more and we have multiple guys that can do that,” DeVries explained. “I’m excited to see how on the defensive end will evolve throughout the summer, but certainly that was one of the areas that we weren’t great at last year was creating turnovers and we want to be much more assertive on that end of the floor.”

Last season, Indiana ranked 279th nationally in defensive turnover percentage, according to KenPom.com.

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

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