Indiana Basketball 2025-26 Scouting Report: Nick Dorn's Fit and Future

In the coming days and weeks leading up to Indiana's Nov. 5 regular-season opener at Bloomington’s Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, Indiana on SI will share a scouting report for each Hoosier scholarship player listed on the team's official roster. Today, in the sixth of 13, we take a look at guard Nick Dorn.

More Hoosier scouting reports

C Andrej Acimovic
F Sam Alexis
F Reed Bailey
G Tayton Conerway
F Tucker DeVries

How Nick Dorn Should Impact Indiana’s 2025-26 Season: Scouting Report

Where is Nick Dorn from?

The 6-7 Nick Dorn comes to Bloomington by way of Elon – where he spent his first two collegiate seasons. Originally a Charlotte, North Carolina product, Dorn elected to stick around in his home state to attend Elon directly out of high school.

He was unranked by 247 Sports as a high school prospect, but was rated the No. 102 overall recruit in the transfer portal this past offseason.

Nick Dorn’s career before Indiana

At Elon, Dorn produced immediately, averaging 9.4 points and 3.1 rebounds as a freshman in 2023-2024, and starting 22 games for the Phoenix en route to CAA All-Rookie Team honors.

In his sophomore season, his numbers jumped, as Dorn put up 15.2 points and 3.8 rebounds, while knocking down 3.0 triples per game at a healthy clip of 35.1 percent.

Nick Dorn's game

With head coach Darian DeVries putting such an emphasis on stretching the floor, it’s no surprise he sought out Dorn. The 6-foot-7 wing was one of the best-available shooters in the portal this year.

His form is compact, he has excellent balance, and Dorn is an effective shooter in practically every way imaginable: stepbacks, sidesteps, pull-ups, off curls or flares, and, naturally, in any catch-and-shoot situation.

But, aside from being a long-distance marksman, Dorn hasn’t shown his ability to impact the game in many other ways. He has a respectable downhill game – although it’s usually just taking advantage of opportunities that arise due to the threat of his jumper.

He’s not exactly a game-changing athlete, but he has notably added 25 pounds since last season (listed at 225 on Indiana’s roster but was 200 on Elon’s 2024-2025 roster). Perhaps his extra muscle will allow him to expand his game, ideally on both sides of the floor.

6'7 SG Nick Dorn is an ELITE SHOOTER!!

• 15.8 PPG
• 43.7% 3PT
• 7.9 3PA/G (99th percentile of all D1 players)

The Elon sophomore is a dynamic 3PT shooter who can make shots from deep range, off movement, and off the dribble as well as C&S. Dorn has great positional size at… pic.twitter.com/jt9KaFX0RC
— Workin It Hoops (@workinithoops) December 12, 2024

Dorn speaks on leading Elon to an upset of Notre Dame last year

“I tend to like big crowds. And when we’re the underdogs, it just lights a different type of fire. [I] saw the first one go in, I kept shooting, and it was just a very good game,” said Dorn on his 24-point showing, and feeding off the crowd against the Fighting Irish.

Nick Dorn’s 2025-26 outlook

Dorn, who is in the midst of battling a foot injury, has the tools to develop into a huge piece of the puzzle for the Hoosiers. Whether he improves his abilities outside of shooting on the offensive end, can become a true impact player defensively, or, in a perfect world, is able to achieve both, then he could jump into the Indiana starting lineup.

But, at least for now, once he’s healthy, Dorn appears poised to compete for rotational minutes as one of the first wings – if not the first – off the bench.