The IU Indianapolis Jaguars are one of college basketball's genuine fresh starts. The program you see today was born on July 1, 2024, when Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis — IUPUI, a mouthful of an institution that had competed as the Jaguars since 1998 — split into two separate universities. The basketball program stayed with the Indiana University side, rebranded as IU Indianapolis (shortened to IU Indy), and joined the Horizon League under a new name with the same old ambition: to matter in March.
The road here was bumpy. As IUPUI, the Jaguars' greatest moment came in 2002–03, when Ron Hunter's squad won the Mid-Continent Conference tournament and reached the NCAA Tournament — the program's only March Madness appearance, ending against Kentucky. The program's most famous son is George Hill, the Indianapolis native who went from IUPUI to the 2008 NBA Draft and a long, respected pro career. But the final IUPUI years were lean, and the first IU Indy season under Paul Corsaro (10–22 in 2024–25) ended with his dismissal in May 2025 amid player complaints about program culture.
Enter Ben Howlett, and with him, a jolt of electricity. Hired on May 27, 2025, Howlett arrived from Division II West Liberty, where he compiled a staggering 217–37 record (.854) over eight seasons, won eight consecutive Mountain East Conference regular-season titles, reached eight straight NCAA Tournaments, played for the 2023 DII national championship, and led the 2024–25 Hilltoppers to a 30–5 Elite Eight run. His teams played at a breathtaking tempo — second in Division II at 100.2 points per game last season, launching 32.5 threes a night — and he promised Indianapolis the same show: "We will play up-tempo and bring an exciting brand of basketball to Indianapolis."
Year 1 was a beautiful mess, exactly as advertised. The Howlett era opened with a 118–102 track meet against Ohio State in which the Jaguars scored 102 points on 82 possessions with five players in double figures — Kameron Tinsley poured in 22 and Kyler D'Augustino 21. They hung 80 on cross-town Butler days later. The final record was 7–25 (3–18 Horizon, 11th), but the style was unmistakable: IU Indy played fast, shot freely, and made power-conference opponents work for every win. Guards D'Augustino, Maguire Mitchell, and Jaxon Edwards, and forwards Finley Woodward and Reece Hagy, gave the system its first college-level test pilots.
Now comes the more interesting part: Year 2, with Howlett's fingerprints all over the roster and a brand-new building on the horizon. The James T. Morris Arena — a 4,500-seat basketball and volleyball facility funded by $21 million from IU and $89 million in state appropriations — is expected to be completed late in 2026, finally giving the Jaguars a true modern home to replace The Jungle. The program's game notes already list a December 17, 2026 date against Judson at Morris Arena, a symbolic christening for a program desperate for a permanent stage.
The 2026–27 roster is a fascinating patchwork of Howlett's vision. Returners Reece Hagy, Garrett Sever, and Kameron Tinsley carry the system's institutional knowledge. The newcomers are a global recruiting haul: 6-10 German center Precious C. Idiaru, 6-5 German wing Tarik Fadel Mula, 6-7 Bulgarian forward Kaloyan Kolev, 6-5 Fishers (Ind.) product Landon Osswald, Toronto's Markus Pastorcic-Straun, plus guards Gus Etchison, Peyton Heiss, Jason Clarke Jr., Antoine Arnett, M.J. Stackhouse, Pat Curtin, and Trey Drexler. It's the kind of long, interchangeable roster a 100-possession system demands — waves of fresh legs, shooting at every spot, pressure for 40 minutes.
The Horizon League is a winnable league for a program with a plan. Cleveland State, Youngstown State, and Robert Morris have set the recent standard, but the league's parity means a system as disruptive as Howlett's can climb fast — especially once the Morris Arena opens its doors and Indianapolis recruits can see a future instead of a construction site. The Jaguars' non-conference slate remains ambitious by design: Howlett isn't hiding from power-conference tests, because the tempo he coaches travels anywhere.
What defines IU Indy right now is possibility. Few programs in Division I have this clean a slate: a two-year-old identity, a coach with one of the great winning percentages in the sport's history, a style nobody in the Horizon League plays, and a new arena rising on the skyline. The wins haven't caught up to the vision yet — 7–25 is 7–25 — but in Indianapolis, the bet is that the most entertaining 40 minutes in the Horizon League is about to become one of its most dangerous.
The infrastructure around the program is catching up to the ambition. Howlett didn't come alone — he brought his West Liberty staff with him, including assistants John Peckinpaugh, Dan Monteroso, and Connor Harr, so the system being installed in Indianapolis is the exact one that won 217 games in eight years. The non-conference scheduling philosophy is equally deliberate: rather than padding wins against overmatched opponents, IU Indy keeps taking guarantee games against power-conference programs, because Howlett's tempo is built to steal exactly those kinds of games when a favorite isn't ready for 40 minutes of full-court pressure. The Jaguars' identity as the city's upstart — the program playing in Butler's shadow, fighting for attention in a basketball-mad town — actually suits the style: nobody roots for the underdog like Indianapolis, and nobody plays like an underdog quite like a team launching 30 threes a night.