The Indiana basketball team has some high hopes for next year and ESPN has them just outside their way too early top 25.

The Indiana Hoosiers showed a lot of promise in the 2019-20 season but were also very inconsistent. They looked like they could be one of the best teams in the Big Ten one night and the very next game look like they didn’t know what they were doing.

They were able to beat ranked teams such as Florida State, Penn State, Iowa, Ohio State, and Michigan State at home, but also almost lost to Nebraska. With some of their big wins, they were almost able to get inside the top 25 but were always just barely on the outside looking in.

That is exactly where they find themselves in ESPN’s way too early top 25. In the rankings released on Monday, the Hoosiers are one of five teams in the “next in line” group. They are joined by fellow Big Ten team Rutgers, Florida, UCLA and Arizona State.

The Villanova Wildcats lead the way followed by Creighton, Gonzaga, Baylor, and Kentucky to round out the top five. There were five teams from the Big Ten in the top 15, led by Iowa at seven and Michigan State at nine. Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Michigan were also listed.

The Hoosiers have to be cautiously optimistic going into next year with the team they have returning. Indiana only loses two seniors in Devonte Green and De’Ron Davis. They also have a very good recruiting class coming in that could be even better if Khristian Lander reclassifies, which is still a possibility.

If Lander does reclassify it would immediately vault the Hoosiers into the top five in the Big Ten conversation. Indiana should return one of the top big men in the conference in Trayce Jackson-Davis and saw big improvements from others including Race Thompson.

If the Hoosiers can get more consistent scoring and stay away from the long scoring droughts that plagued them last year they could very well find themselves in the top 25 sooner than later. Of course, Indiana fans want to see it happen on the court before they believe it, but this could be a very good year for Indiana.

The Big Ten should again be loaded and it will be tough for the Hoosiers to climb up the standings but they have the potential to do so and ESPN at least recognizes the fact that they are on the edge of realizing it.

It is still way too early to be ranking the teams, but it is nice to see the Hoosiers getting some love from some media outlets. Let’s see if they can prove them right next year.