Source: Indiana Basketball to Decline Postseason Invitations, Ends Season 18-14

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana basketball’s 2025-26 season is officially over.

After being excluded from the NCAA Tournament, the Hoosiers will not accept a bid to any other postseason event, an IU Athletics source told Indiana Hoosiers On SI on Sunday. The NIT and College Basketball Crown figured to be potential options.

Indiana ends its first season under coach Darian DeVries with an 18-14 record. Including the Big Ten Tournament, the Hoosiers went 9-12 in conference play and lost six of their final seven games.

DeVries appeared to have his team headed for the NCAA Tournament after winning five of six games — including Quad 1 victories over Purdue, UCLA and Wisconsin — in the heart of Big Ten play.

Then, the wheels came off.

Indiana won just one game after beating Oregon on Feb. 9, and five of the team’s six losses were by double figures. The Hoosiers’ average margin of defeat during their skid was 15.3 points. Each of their final three losses were by 13 points.

Still, Indiana entered the Big Ten Tournament with a chance to solidify its spot in the NCAA Tournament.

The Hoosiers were largely considered one of the last at-large teams in the field of 68, if not the last, or among the first teams on the outside looking in. With one or two wins, they figured to be a safe bet to be included in Sunday night’s selection show. Instead, No. 10-seeded Indiana fell 74-61 to No. 15 Northwestern on Wednesday at the United Center in Chicago.

Afterwards, several Hoosiers held faith they'd get the chance to play again. Amid their own shortcomings, the performances of other bubble teams and the presence of proverbial bid stealers, the opportunity didn't come.

Indiana coach Darian DeVries felt the Hoosiers had a viable case to make the NCAA Tournament, but he'll now come to terms with the realization his first roster — spearheaded by six seniors in guards Lamar Wilkerson, Tayton Conerway and Conor Enright and forwards Tucker DeVries, Sam Alexis and Reed Bailey — won't take the floor again.

The Hoosiers will have significant roster turnover next season, but DeVries feels his first team, which arrived with little knowledge of or chemistry with one another, helped set a solid foundation for the future of Indiana basketball, even if it has multiple games it wants back.

"I think their practice habits were really good all year. They've represented themselves, our program, in a first-class manner," DeVries said March 11. "When you're putting that many new guys together and their ability to maintain a really good locker room throughout the season, I thought it was pretty impressive by them and what they did, the way they carried themselves, even during tough times.

"Certainly, we felt like there's a little more in there for us that we would have liked to have gotten done. These guys continue to stick together even during a couple of these losing streaks and stuff and continue to maintain positive and work and do things the right way. I'm certainly appreciative of that group and especially that group of seniors."

Indiana's season is now officially over. So, too, are the college careers of Wilkerson, Tucker DeVries, Conerway, Enright, Alexis and Bailey.

The Hoosiers will turn their attention toward the transfer portal, with Darian DeVries and executive director of basketball Ryan Carr aiming to build upon a 2025-26 campaign that ultimately ended just short of the NCAA Tournament — and won't include any taste of March Madness.