In a preseason media poll published Wednesday by Adam Jardy of the Columbus Dispatch, Indiana basketball was predicted to finish in 10th place in the Big Ten ahead of the 2025-26 campaign.
The Hoosiers have finished no worse than 10th place in the conference going back to the 2010-11 season, although they have finished 10th three times in that span. Obviously the league has expanded multiple times since then.
On an individual level, IU was left out of the preseason media voting for awards, although two players — Tucker DeVries and Lamar Wilkerson — received votes. That duo will be representing Indiana at this week’s Big Ten media day in Chicago.
The full preseason media poll and player voting is below.
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Preseason Big Ten Media Poll
(first-place votes in parenthesis)
- Purdue, 501 (25)
- Michigan, 472 (3)
- UCLA, 417
- Illinois, 411
- Oregon, 338
- Michigan State, 360
- Wisconsin, 328
- Iowa, 278
- Ohio State, 272
- Indiana, 245
- Washington, 239
- USC, 227
- Maryland, 210
- Nebraska, 149
- Northwestern, 119
- Minnesota, 95
- Rutgers, 54
- Penn State, 43
Player of the Year
Braden Smith, Purdue (23).
Also receiving votes: Trey Kaufman-Renn, Purdue (3)
Freshman of the Year
Kayden Mingo (6).
Also receiving votes: Trey McKenney, Michigan, and Hannes Steinbach, Washington, (5); Darius Adams, Maryland, Omer Mayer, Purdue, Cam Ward, Michigan State, (3); Alijah Arenas, USC, Amare Bynum, Ohio State, Mihailo Petrovic, Illinois (1).
Transfer of the Year
Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan (11).
Also receiving votes: Bennett Stirtz (9); Donovan Dent (8).
First Team
Braden Smith, Purdue (56)
Trey Kaufman-Renn, Purdue (55)
Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan (51)
Donovan Dent, UCLA (43)
Bennett Stirtz, Iowa (42)
Second Team
Bruce Thornton, Ohio State (38)
Nick Martinelli, Northwestern (32)
Nate Bittle, Oregon (24)
John Blackwell, Wisconsin (24)
Also receiving votes: Tomislav Ivisic, Illinois (8); Andrej Stokaovic, Illinois (7); Tyler Bilodeau, UCLA, Tucker DeVries, Indiana (6); Coen Carr, Michigan State, Oscar Cluff, Purdue, Rienk Mast, Nebraska, Quimari Peterson, Washington, (2); Desmond Claude, Washington, Morez Johnson, Michigan, Jaxon Kohler, Michigan State, Fletcher Loyer, Purdue, Pharrel Payne, Maryland, Devin Royal, Ohio State, Lamar Wilkerson, Indiana, Wesley Yates III, Washington (1).
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