Indiana basketball’s Nick Dorn did something no one’s done in a decade

LOS ANGELES — Indiana basketball guard Nick Dorn is making himself at home in the starting lineup. 

Dorn had a game-high 26 points in a 98-97 double-overtime win over UCLA on Saturday afternoon. He became the first IU player to hit at least six 3-point field goals in multiple Big Ten games in the same season since Yogi Ferrell in the 2014-15 campaign.

The Hoosiers (15-7, 6-5 Big Ten) improved to 3-0 with Dorn in the starting lineup. He’s hit at least four 3-pointers in each of those starts and is averaging 22.3 points per game during that stretch. 

“He’s been playing great, he’s really confident,” Indiana coach Darian DeVries said. “I feel like he fits well with what we try to do. I thought the guys did a good job of finding him and feeding him.”

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Dorn, who was sidelined at the start of the season while recovering from a foot injury, caught fire in the second half with 18 of his team’s first 24 points while going 4 of 5 from 3-point range. He was the first Hoosiers player with at least 25 points and six made 3-point field goals in a road Big Ten contest since 2018.

He didn’t score in overtime, but his 3-point barrage opened things up for his teammates.

“Puts stress in other areas, and we were able to get to the rim a little more because they were pressed out on Nick and got a couple rolls to the basket,” DeVries said. 

It’s why Dorn played a career-high 48 minutes with his only rest coming midway through the first half. 

Dorn was still more fired up about the Hoosiers escaping Pauley Pavilion with a win than his individual performance after UCLA erased a double-digit lead with less than two minutes to go at the end of regulation. 

He envisioned a rough couple of days on the West Coast if things had gone differently considering all the self-inflicted mistakes IU initially made trying to close out the game. 

“We came all the way out here and have another road (game), we didn’t want the days in between to be horrible,” Dorn joked. “If we didn’t pull that out, you would have been scared for us, might not have heard from us.”

The key for Indiana was quickly turning the page on those miscues. Tucker DeVries led the huddle going into the first of two overtimes and delivered the message everyone needed to hear — “Flush it.” 

“We got to find a way,” Dorn said. 

Dorn had no problem following the advice as a player who relies on a similar approach every time he comes down the floor. 

“When I shoot it, I think it’s going in regardless of where I shoot it or how I shoot it,” Dorn said. “I always just had that confidence since I was little. My brothers used to say I’m delusional. I feel like I live up to that.”

Indiana has benefitted from Dorn’s delusions the past couple of weeks as a team rising up the NET rankings while solidifying its NCAA tournament resume.

“We came too far to let it slip away,” Dorn said with a smile.

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.