Indiana Basketball's Tayton Conerway 'Doesn't Feel Ready to Go' Amid Ankle Injury

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — While Indiana basketball earned its first signature win under coach Darian DeVries, a 72-67 upset over No. 12 Purdue on Tuesday night, sixth-year senior guard Tayton Conerway was forced to join the 17,222 fans in attendance as a spectator.

Conerway had a better seat than most — courtside, placed in the middle of the Hoosiers' bench — but at a steeper cost: For the first time this season, he couldn't play.

And according to Indiana coach Darian DeVries, it appears questionable how soon Conerway's view will change.

"Tayton's trying to come back from an ankle injury that occurred during the Iowa game," DeVries said postgame. "So, he's working hard to try to get back out on the floor. But he just doesn't feel like he's ready to go right now."

The 6-foot-3, 190-pound Conerway wore a brace on his right ankle, the same he sprained in the Hoosiers' 74-57 loss to Iowa on Jan. 17. He returned to the court a few minutes after initially suffering his injury, and he started Indiana's following game, an 86-72 loss to Michigan on Jan. 20, but played only two minutes.

DeVries, at the time, said Conerway tried to give it a go but couldn't manage the pain. Three days later, Conerway played 16 minutes in the Hoosiers' 82-59 win at Rutgers, scoring 6 points in his first game coming off the bench.

The day before Indiana faced Purdue, DeVries said Conerway's ability to play even though he was "clearly ... not 100%" showed plenty about the Burleson, Texas, native's toughness and competitiveness.

Evidently, the pain grew too much.

"Everybody heals differently at their own pace," DeVries said Jan. 26. "But yeah, he certainly hasn't been able to do a lot. We'll hopefully get him healthy as soon as possible and be able to get him out there in more of that full-time role."

Amid Conerway's absence, the Hoosiers have inserted junior guard Nick Dorn into the starting lineup, and he's flourished. Dorn scored 23 points on 6-for-11 shooting from the field against Rutgers and 18 points against Purdue while making 4 of 9 attempts from beyond the arc. Over his past three games, Dorn is 14-for-28 shooting from 3-point range.

The 6-foot-7, 225-pound Dorn didn't play in the Hoosiers' Puerto Rico exhibition series, didn't return to practice until late September and missed the first two regular season games while rehabbing from summer foot surgery.

Now, he's hitting his stride.

"He's been great," DeVries said after the Purdue win. "You could see him, from early in the year when he missed time, it takes a while when you are out that long to just get back in shape, then get into game shape, and then find the rhythm back. You can really see here, the last couple weeks, he's starting to find it.

"And then playing time's starting to come up and increase. So, he's finding his spots where he fits in our offense, and our guys know where he is, too. So, he's gotten very comfortable in that. As you can see, he's not afraid. He'll let them go, and that's another option for us to continue to utilize and even grow into finding more ways to get him free."

Dorn aside, Indiana has also given more playing time to junior guard Jasai Miles, who delivered his most impactful 15 minutes this season in the victory over Purdue. Entering the day, Miles hadn't scored since Nov. 29 against Bethune-Cookman, but he finished with 5 points, two rebounds, one assist and played with a level of effort and physicality that made a difference.

Miles finished with a plus-minus of plus-10, the third-best mark on the team.

"It says a lot about Jasai," DeVries said. "Jasai hadn't played a lot this year. It would've been really easy for his number to be called and him not be ready because he hadn't been putting in the work, but he's continued to work even though he hadn't been rewarded a lot for it in terms of playing time.

"And now when his number's called, he's able to go out there and go do the things he needs to do to continue to grow. I love the mindset he's had."

Indiana (14-7, 5-5 Big Ten) now enters a two-game west coast swing, starting at 5 p.m. ET Saturday, when it tips off against UCLA (15-6, 7-3 Big Ten) inside Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.