Top-rated freshman focused on one big thing before Indiana basketball season

• Indiana freshman Vaughn Karvala is focused on adding weight and strength to his 6-foot-7 frame.
• Karvala was a highly-ranked recruit who averaged 26.5 points and 9.5 rebounds in his junior season in high school.
• He believes his athleticism and shooting ability will allow him to contribute to the team immediately.
• Karvala is preparing for the physicality of college basketball by challenging himself against bigger teammates.

BLOOMINGTON — Whatever he can.

That’s the answer. The question — one prompted by an urgency to add strength to his game — is what Vaughn Karvala, Indiana basketball’s athletic freshman wing, is doing to add weight. IU’s highest-ranked signee in the 2026 class, it’s not hard to envision a role for Karvala in Darian DeVries’ second season in Bloomington. The player himself knows that starts with meeting the physical demands of the college game.

Which starts with building onto to his 6-foot-7, 190-pound frame.

“The biggest thing for me is just putting on weight,” Karvala told reporters after practice Thursday. “That’s my biggest thing, getting stronger, trying to play with these guys that are three, four years older than me. I have to get stronger, I have to get faster, everything.”

A three-year letter winner at Oregon (Wisconsin) High School, Karvala spent his senior season at Bella Vista Prep in Arizona, bolstering a profile that saw him ranked No. 62 nationally per the 247Sports Composite.

Karvala averaged 26.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game in his final season with Oregon, shooting close to 42% from behind the 3-point line. He averaged another 14.7 points per game with Team Herro on the EYBL circuit.

He handed DeVries a major recruiting win last fall, when Karvala picked the Hoosiers over Xavier and Cal. Now, both at the rim and behind the arc, Karvala looks like a player who can contribute meaningfully in his first year in college.

“I know my athleticism catches the eye, but I can still shoot it,” Karvala said. “But another thing is just working on rebounding, trying to get extra possessions for us.”

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Whether on the glass or elsewhere, embracing the physical challenge of college basketball has been an emphasis for Karvala since he arrived in Bloomington earlier this summer.

That manifests itself offensively, when he tries to push the ball downhill and leverage that athleticism to attack the rim. It shows up defensively, where Karvala said he’s comfortable guarding the two, the three and, matchup depending, the four.

It even plays out on the glass, battling bigs up to including 7-2 teammate Samet Yigitoglu, who Karvala described with a smile as “the biggest guy I’ve ever seen.”

“Physicality, 100%,” Karvala said, when asked where he’s challenging himself. “Just playing with all these guys that have 20, 30, 40 pounds on me.”

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Which starts with the physical demand of more weight. Karvala said he’ll eat chicken, steak or “whatever we have in the locker room” that can help him in that effort. His focus, he said, is simply to “eat a lot, and work out every day.”

As that weight and strength begin to build, Karvala knows the next step — to mentally prepare for the rough-and-tumble nature of life on the floor in the Big Ten — is just as important. Preparing his body comes first. Challenging himself to toughen up once it’s required follows quickly after.

“Just getting fully there, mentally,” he said. “You’re going to have to push your body to get through this.”

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