BLOOMINGTON — The first nonconference schedule of Darian DeVries’ tenure as Indiana basketball coach will be highlighted by renewed series with Midwest powers across three different leagues, including one of Indiana’s oldest and fiercest rivals.
The Hoosiers will open the season with a Nov. 5 visit from Alabama A&M, as a warmup for their neutral-site meeting four days later with Marquette at the United Center in Chicago. A run of five straight home games will follow — highlighted by a visit from Big 12 foe Kansas State — before IU travels to Indianapolis and Gainbridge Fieldhouse for a Dec. 6 meeting with Louisville, which finished second last year in the ACC.
This will mark the third straight year the Hoosiers and Cardinals meet in the regular season.
One week later marks the resumption of the IU-Kentucky rivalry as an annual nonconference game for the first time in 14 years. The Hoosiers and Wildcats have met just twice in the intervening period, both times in the NCAA tournament (2012, 2016).
IU’s Dec. 13 game in Lexington will be the Hoosiers’ first visit to Rupp Arena since 2010.
Those games against Kentucky and Louisville are likely to coincide with at least some portion of the pre-new year two-game start to Big Ten play.
DeVries’ team will wrap up its nonconference schedule with a pair of home games before Christmas, Chicago State on Dec. 20 and Siena on Dec. 22, before a brief holiday break precedes the resumption of conference play.
The full nonconference schedule, with last year’s final records and KenPom rankings in parentheses, is as follows:
Indiana basketball 2025-26 schedule
Nov. 5, Alabama A&M (10-22, KenPom No. 360)
Nov. 9, Marquette* (23-11, KenPom No. 29)
Nov. 12, Milwaukee (21-11, KenPom No. 141)
Nov. 16, Incarnate Word (19-17, KenPom No. 224)
Nov. 20, Lindenwood (16-17, KenPom No. 327)
Nov. 25, Kansas State (16-17, KenPom No. 65)
Nov. 29, Bethune-Cookman (17-16, KenPom No. 286)
Dec. 6, Louisville^ (27-8, KenPom No. 28)
Dec. 13, at Kentucky (24-12, KenPom No. 16)
Dec. 20, Chicago State (4-28, KenPom No. 362)
Dec. 22, Siena (14-18, KenPom No. 253)
*game held at United Center in Chicago
^game held at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Kentucky revival, major neutral-site clashes highlight Indiana basketball nonconference schedule
Reporting by Zach Osterman, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
