2024-25 Indiana non-conference opponent preview: Sam Houston State

Indiana’s 2024-25 non-conference schedule was finalized on July 9 and Inside the Hall will have a team-by-team look at each opponent. Today: Sam Houston State.

Indiana’s eighth non-conference game – and first contest after the Battle 4 Atlantis – should provide a formidable test.

Sam Houston State, which finished last season 142nd in the KenPom ratings and 128th in Bart Torvik, has NCAA tournament aspirations entering the 2024-25 campaign.

The Bearkats were listed as a No. 12 seed in a CBS Sports bracketology in early July and are currently projected as the 114th-best team nationally for next season by Torvik.

Sam Houston State finished last season with the 126th-best defense nationally, according to Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency numbers. In his current projections for the 2024-25 season, Torvik has the Bearkats 130th offensively nationally next season and 111th defensively.

Chris Mudge enters his second at the helm in Huntsville, Texas, after finishing with a 21-12 last season and winning the regular season Conference USA title. The 40-year-old was a student manager under Rick Barnes at Texas and has been at Sam Houston State since 2010 as an assistant (2020-2021) and the associate head coach for two seasons before taking over as head coach.

Mudge again has a roster capable of competing for the conference title as he returns four of the top five scorers from last season. The most notable contributor the Bearkats lost was second-leading scorer Davon Barnes, who left for Ole Miss via the transfer portal.

Leading scorer Lamar Wilkerson is back after exploring his options in the transfer portal. The 6-foot-4 senior guard averaged 13.8 points and shot 34.7 percent on 3s and 83.1 percent from the line last season.

Damon Nicholas Jr., another 6-foot-4 senior guard, returns after leading the Bearkats in steals and averaging 8.1 points a season ago. Nichols Jr. started 28 of the team’s 33 games and averaged 1.4 steals, shooting 36.8 percent on 3s.

Brennen Burns, a Division II transfer, should be in the mix for the starting point guard spot. The 5-foot-10 guard arrives from SE Oklahoma State, where he averaged 17 points, 6.7 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 33 minutes per game. Burns shot 39.6 percent from distance.

Up front, 6-foot-8 senior Cameron Huefner is back and should have the first shot at starting at the four. Last season, Huefner averaged 7.8 points and 3.1 rebounds in 19.4 minutes per game and started seven games.

Sam Houston State added a big man from the transfer portal in Kalifa Sakho, who arrives from Utah State. The 6-foot-11 senior averaged 2.7 points and 1.7 rebounds in 10.2 minutes per game last season for the Aggies.

Guard Marcus Boykin, a 6-foot-1 senior, started 11 games last season and shot 37.8 percent on 3s while averaging 7.3 points in 18.4 minutes per game. Josiah Hammons, a 6-foot-2 guard transfer from Incarnate Word, should also figure heavily into the guard rotation. Hammons averaged 12.5 points and shot 35.5 percent on 3s a season ago.

Dorian Finister, a 6-foot-5 wing, brings experience from the high-major level. Finister averaged nearly 13 minutes last season at Kansas State and averaged 2.8 points and 2.3 rebounds for the Wildcats. Kian Scroggins, a 6-foot-7 senior, is also back for the Bearkats. Scroggins started five times last season and averaged six points and led Sam Houston State in rebounds at 5.9 per game.

Given the strong mix of returnees and transfer portal additions, Mudge has the personnel to regularly go eight or nine deep with this roster. Eight of the top nine in the projected roster are seniors, which should make the Bearkats one of the most experienced mid-major teams in the country.

While the name Sam Houston State doesn’t stand out on paper, the Bearkats are the type of non-conference opponent who is more than capable of playing spoiler. Of Indiana’s eight confirmed non-conference games, Sam Houston State is the second highest ranked in the Torvik projections behind South Carolina.

Filed to: Sam Houston State Bearkats