Part 1: There are mixed emotions surrounding Indiana basketball right now.
For some fans, there’s real excitement — not because everything has gone perfectly, but because the way this team plays feels different. The ball moves. The effort shows up when it counts. There’s a sense of connection that hasn’t always been there, and for a fan base that has been waiting to recognize itself again, that matters.
For others, the feeling is heavier. Not anger or outrage, but resignation. A sense that we’ve already seen enough to know how this season ends. That the losses tell the real story. That the Big Ten will do what it does. That Indiana is already behind.
Both reactions make sense.
Because if you slow down and look honestly — not emotionally, not nostalgically, just honestly — this team’s story so far is more complicated than either reaction suggests.
Indiana sits here at the end of December with a record that is neither inspiring nor alarming. They’ve taken care of most of their non-conference business. They’ve stumbled early in league play with a road loss at Minnesota. They haven’t looked dominant. They also haven’t looked overwhelmed.
And that distinction matters.
Because right now, Indiana does not look like a bottom-of-the-Big-Ten team.
That doesn’t mean they’re elite. It doesn’t mean they’re finished. It simply means the floor is higher than the frustration would suggest.
Strip the season down to fundamentals and you can see it. Indiana shares the ball at a rate that places them in the upper half of the Big Ten, a small but meaningful indicator of connection rather than chaos. They’ve also defended well enough to keep games competitive, holding opponents to scoring levels that place them solidly in the middle of the Big Ten rather than at the bottom.
Indiana hasn’t collected bad losses that linger. They’ve been competitive even when the margin tightened. They share the ball in a way that reflects structure rather than panic. Even when things haven’t clicked offensively, the team hasn’t splintered.
Even neutral, predictive views of the league don’t see Indiana as a bottom-tier team — they see a group firmly in the middle, capable of competing most nights.
That doesn’t guarantee wins in January. But it does suggest this team has an identity forming.
They aren’t freelancing. They aren’t relying on one player to rescue them. They aren’t winning by accident.
What Indiana looks like right now is functional. Organized. Competitive. Still learning.
And in the first season under Darian DeVries, that’s not something to dismiss.
This season isn’t lost. It’s still being written.
Tomorrow, we’ll discuss what success might look like this season — and why different ways of measuring it can lead to very different conversations.
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