Indiana's 2025 Men's Basketball Season Given Low Grade By ESPN

The men’s basketball season ended a long time ago for the 2024-25 iteration of Indiana men’s basketball. Indiana called it a day after its 72-59 Big Ten Tournament loss to Oregon at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on March 13.

ESPN waited until May to do its postseason Big Ten evaluation. Since then, Indiana has had a coaching change and a roster makeover, so the relevance of this grade is a matter of history, not the present.

The story written by Myron Metcalf makes it clear that grades are based on preseason expectations.

For Indiana, that’s fair, as preseason expectations placed the Hoosiers as the predicted second-place team in the Big Ten.

In hindsight, that view was wildly optimistic. Many of the players who were allegedly going to add depth of talent to the roster did not.

However, based on Metcalf’s reckoning, Indiana got a D grade. Metcalf cited the inability to live up to preseason expectation, but also used the Indiana portion of the story to make it indictment of the Mike Woodson coaching era itself.

Comparing Woodson’s statements when hired in 2021 to the reality of Woodson’s resignation in February, Metcalf wrote, “Woodson ultimately failed to elevate the program to national contender status.”

Indiana had plenty of company in the near-failing or failing grade realm.

Iowa, Ohio State, Penn State and USC were all given D grades. The Hawkeyes and Buckeyes were both underwhelming and the Nittany Lions did not capitalize on a roster that returned some key players.

The Trojans are an interesting inclusion. USC had to rebuild a roster from scratch after a late-term coaching change. Eric Musselman coached USC to seven Big Ten wins and a 17-18 record.

Failing grades were given to Rutgers – the Scarlet Knights finished 8-12 in the Big Ten despite the presence of possible NBA Draft top 5 picks Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey. Last-place Washington was also given an F.

Five teams – Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin – were given A’s.