INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana football’s quarter-final at Nebraska on Saturday afternoon served as the highlight of the Hoosier men’s basketball team’s reading.
IU football, facing its first loss since 2024, rallied from an 11-point deficit with 12 minutes left in the game to score two touchdowns and a three-point win on the way. Coach Curt Cignetti said his team “finds a good way to win games like this.”
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That’s exactly the kind of mentality IU men’s basketball coach Daria DeVries wants to bring to her team.
“Ironically, our football team used to talk about that a little bit, and why were they successful?” DeVries followed IU’s 96-68 exhibition win, Butler said. “We’ve been using it since last year and this year. The ability to believe what you’re learning, the discipline to stay in the details, not through the variety of emotions, those types of things.”
It certainly wasn’t as high as IU’s key 22-game winning streak; It was a spectacular game at Hinkle Fieldhouse, and Butler had cut Indiana’s lead to just three points at halftime. But that mentality got the Hoosiers through a dominant half.
But mind you, whether it’s the first show of the year or the national championship game, it should be the same. That’s how teams stay consistent throughout the year.
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“What things did they do that helped them to win such tight games?” DeVries said. “Winning wins. The formula is the same in almost every game. You have to have a lot of discipline. You have to believe in that discipline, and it’s consistent. And our guys are getting there. We’re not there yet, but we’re getting close.”
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IU had 11 freshmen on scholarship this year as DeVries largely built his roster through the transfer gate for the second straight season. The starting five DeVries used — guards Darren Harris, Markus Burton, and Jaeden Mustaf along with forwards Samet Yigitoglu and Aiden Sherrell — all came through the gate for the Hoosiers this season.
“Most of our guys are new to the program, so we’ll have to get the job done soon,” said Harris, who led the team with 13 points. “… we planned against each other, because it feels like it always does now, so once the live ball starts to go and we saw stuff we didn’t see before, we’ll talk about activities and stuff, we’ll start to sit down. We had a better job in the middle.”
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All new Hoosiers, though, have subscribed to the Indiana Bowl model: Good teams find a way to win these games.
Butler hung around in the first half, staying on every inch every time and getting within three points at halftime, but Indiana stepped on the gas in the second half. They forced nine turnovers, held the Bulldogs to 33.3% shooting from the field (18% of 18 3-pointers) and allowed just 27 points in the second half to 41 points in the first.
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Overall, DeVries was particularly impressed with the rebounding team; when questioned, lists it as no. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 the best he saw on the floor. Indiana collected 53 total rebounds, well distributed across the players: Mustaf had eight, Sherrell had nine, freshman Trevor Manhertz had eight off the bench.
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“That’s been our whole focus our entire offseason,” DeVries said. “I came into the game, we wanted to build it. I thought our guys did a great job just stay behind, stay behind, stay behind. Even at halftime, we only doubled the three point lead in rebounds. There are plenty of other things we can work on, but I thought this, all the focus coming into this game, which we prioritized all the way we wanted, worked out.
The Hoosiers have two more exhibitions coming up: they play North Carolina at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Oct. 18, then Western Kentucky at the Ford Center in Evansville on Oct. 25. Indiana opens the season at Conference Hall against Eastern Illinois on Nov. 2.
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This article first appeared in the Indianapolis Star: How did IU football teach winning ways for Indiana basketball?