Is Jon Rothstein making the Curt Cignetti mistake?
With a new coach and a roster full of productive mid-major players, no one was predicting what happened with IU football in 2024. The Hoosiers were picked in the bottom third of the Big Ten by all of the national voices, and in the bottom couple spots by most.
Will non-power conference players translate to the highest level of the game they asked?
Of course you know what happened.
When it comes to Indiana basketball in 2025-26, it seems some could be making a similar mistake, including well known national college basketball commentator Jon Rothstein.
On his CBS Sports Inside College Basketball podcast, Rothstein predicts Indiana will finish 15th in the Big Ten this season, ahead of only Rutgers, Minnesota and Penn State.
Rothstein’s rationale sounds familiar.
“A lot of people are going to look at this and say well how is Indiana 15?,” Rothstein said. “I’m just studying Indiana’s roster, and I’m looking at the makeup of things, and I see a slew of players while productive, who are all coming without a great deal of power conference experience.
“Until you see it on the court, it’s tough for me to put Indiana above certain teams.
“Only three players on Indiana’s roster — Tucker DeVries, Conor Enright, and Sam Alexis — have tangible power conference experience.
“It’s hard to get a gauge on the Hoosiers right now.”
No one is saying new IU coach Darian DeVries is Cignetti 2.0, but they do have some similarities in their backgrounds.
DeVries took over a Drake program in 2018 that had been to one NCAA Tournament in 47 years. They had just 10 seasons with a winning record in that span. DeVries had six straight winnings seasons at Drake (six-straight 20-win seasons in fact), and three NCAA Tournament appearances in his six years leading the program. He won 73.1% of his games there.
Last year DeVries had West Virginia off to an 11-2 start with wins over Gonzaga, Arizona and Kansas before an injury to his son, star forward Tucker DeVries, eventually caught up with the team. They still finished 19-13 and were widely expected to make the NCAA Tournament before being snubbed.
If one wanted to build a positive argument to counter Rothstein, they’d have to look no further than a 2024-25 Florida team that won a national title with a mid-major transfer backcourt led by Walter Clayton Jr, Alijah Martin, and Will Richard. Cignetti coined the phrase “production over potential” when it comes to mid-major transfers, and that certainly applied to the Gators last season.
So while there are doubters, it won’t come as a major surprise to anyone if DeVries and Indiana outperform expectations this winter.
Rothstein picks Purdue to win the Big Ten, followed by Michigan and UCLA. His preseason first team All-Big Ten honors go as follows:
- Trey Kaufman-Renn, Purdue
- Nick Martinelli, Northwestern
- Bennett Stirtz, Iowa
- Donovan Dent, UCLA
- Braden Smith, Purdue
In a written piece analyzing the league, Rothstein says Indiana’s Tucker DeVries and Lamar Wilkerson are “impact transfers” and Reed Bailey is an “under-the-radar” transfer. He recognized no other Hoosiers.
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