With the addition of Serbian guard Aleksa Ristic this week, Indiana showed us they aren’t finished building the 2025-26 roster, and they aren’t opposed to going the international route to add missing pieces.
At his most recent public appearance in late May, head coach Darian DeVries acknowledged his team was undersized at the five and would likely have suboptimal rim protection as a result.
But he also said his staff was still recruiting.
Since then there have been at least two international big men who both withdrew from the NBA Draft and have expressed interest in the NCAA route.
While the extent of any mutual interest is unclear, they are worth a mention given IU’s current roster construction.
Senegalese center Momo Faye immediately became one of the more intriguing prospects when he took his name out of the draft. The 6-foot-10 Faye was recently measured and has a 7-foot-4 wingspan.
Faye averaged nine points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks on 65.3% shooting from the field in 47 games with Reggio Emilia in the Italian League last season.
Jonathan Givony of ESPN said recently the 20-year-old Faye is evaluating both his international and NCAA options.
Paul Mbiya clearly has some degree of interest in college basketball, having already signed with North Carolina State. But on Wednesday Mbiya asked out of his agreement at that school.
The 6-foot-11, 260-pound Mbiya committed and signed with the Wolfpack last month after he dominated with ASVEL in the France-ProA U21 league this past season. He averaged 15.5 points with 11.6 rebounds, 3.1 blocks and 1.1 steals in 32.5 minutes a game across 23 contests.
Mbiya has been reported to have a 7-foot-7 wingspan.
In need of length and rim protection, Indiana no doubt has awareness of both Faye and Mbiya, and an intriguing opportunity exists in Bloomington should they choose to aggressively pursue either player.
With revenue sharing and NIL, college programs are now in effect competing with international clubs for talent. And the trend of young talented foreign players coming to U.S. colleges is rapidly expanding.
FIBA is now pushing for a mandatory Letter of Clearance for international players transferring to the NCAA, arguing that U.S. colleges now operate like professional clubs and should fairly compensate the European system that developed these young athletes. But for now the trend is only growing.
There are other prominent international big men who withdrew from the NBA Draft like 6-foot-10 Bassala Bagayoko, who plays in Spain, and 6-foot-11 Lazar Gacic, who plays in Serbia. To this point there hasn’t been any public reporting of either of them having interest in the NCAA route. But with attractive opportunities in U.S. college basketball, one can never be sure.
Players can join Indiana’s roster for the 2025-26 season until the fall semester begins, so the international path will continue to be something to monitor this summer.
For complete coverage of IU basketball recruiting, GO HERE.
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