What we know about Indiana basketball's international recruits playing in Puerto Rico
BLOOMINGTON — Indiana basketball's most recent signees have yet to arrive on campus as the program prepares for a trip out to Puerto Rico.
The Hoosiers rounded out their roster for the 2025-26 season by landing Aleksa Ristic and Andrej Acimovic over the summer. They will join the program as freshman with four years of eligibility left.
Ristic, a 6-foot-4 guard, is headed to Bloomington after competing in the FIBA U20 European Championships for the Serbian National Team, while Acimovic wasn't officially signed until earlier this week.
Acimovic, a 6-foot-11 center, most recently competed in the U19 ABA League, the top league in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia.
"They're going to be tired when they get here," Indiana coach Darian DeVries said. "We should have for sure one of them, hopefully, in the next day or two. That's our hope. Then we'll get him acclimated as quickly as possible. If that means he gets the opportunity to play in Puerto Rico, great. If we can't get him close enough there, the last thing we want to do is put him in a position where he's just not ready."
DeVries is eager to get both players in the rotation to help build out Indiana's depth. The Hoosiers were down to nine available scholarship players at Wednesday's practice, with Nick Dorn and Jason Drake sidelined with undisclosed injuries.
Their availability is in question as well for the three exhibition games IU has scheduled next week overseas.
"Hopefully we can get through Puerto Rico in a good state and get some more bodies in here and continue to develop that depth is going to be important for us," DeVries said.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.