Nick Dorn Raises Indiana's Ceiling After Big Game Against Purdue

For most of these Hoosiers, Tuesday marked their only Indiana-Purdue rivalry game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

Transfers Tucker DeVries, Lamar Wilkerson, Conor Enright, Sam Alexis, Reed Bailey and Tayton Conerway are all out of eligibility following the season, which makes the future under first-year coach Darian DeVries difficult to map out –– for better or worse. And for several reasons, that made Nick Dorn's performance in Tuesday's 72-67 win over No. 12 Purdue especially notable.

Not only did his 18 points help build an early lead and stave off a late Purdue run. They also proved Dorn can be a difference maker for these Hoosiers, whose path to the NCAA Tournament opened up after securing their first Quad 1 win of the season against the Boilermakers.

To get there, it'll take additional efforts like that from Dorn. And as one of few players with eligibility for next season, he can establish himself as a building block for DeVries.

"[Dorn] has been great," DeVries said. "And you could see him from early in the year when he missed the time and stuff, it takes a while when you are out that long just get back in shape, then get into game shape, and then find the rhythm back. And 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 you know that's a great another option for us to continue to utilize and even grow into finding more ways to get him free."

Nick Dorn plays key role in Indiana's win over Purdue

Nick Dorn Indiana Basketball — Indiana's Nick Dorn (7) celebrates a 3-pointer against Purdue at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

DeVries mentioned several times postgame the impact of having 17,000-plus fans cheering on the Hoosiers. It's part of the reason he made such a strong effort to build a relationship with fans during preseason events, and ran over to thank them after Tuesday's win. Because when Assembly Hall is rocking like it was against Purdue, it's among the toughest places to play in college basketball.

"I'm going to say the biggest key was that crowd out there," DeVries said. "I mean, that was awesome. That's what makes this place so special."

"That's what this place is. We love our hoops. And having that place full and rocking, and that's, like I said, that's a huge advantage for us as we continue to move forward. There's a lot of tough places to play in the Big Ten. But we want this to be the loudest, toughest place that there is, not only in the Big Ten but in the country, because it does matter, and it does make a difference in games, and that effort by the crowd tonight was impressive."

Aside from Conor Enright's 3-pointer that gave Indiana a five-point lead with 1:12 to play, several of the game's loudest cheers had to be for Dorn. Starting for the second time in place of Conerway, who's dealing with an ankle injury, Dorn got the Hoosiers started with a deep 2-pointer. His first 3-pointer came shortly after, and it was a sign of things to come.

The 6-foot-7 junior guard finished 6-for-11 from the field, 4-for-9 from 3-point range and 2-for-2 on free throws to go along with three steals and two rebounds. Dorn's 32 minutes were his second-most of the season, behind Friday's 36-minute, 23-point effort in an 82-59 win at Rutgers.

Tuesday was Dorn's first time playing in the Indiana-Purdue rivalry after transferring in from Elon going into the season. But he seemed to appreciate the importance of the game, even in a deafening atmosphere.

"It's always special just to be able to do this against Purdue in this environment, sold-out crowd. There's nothing like it," Dorn said. "I mean I could barely hear. I really enjoy playing in it."

Nick Dorn raises Indiana's ceiling

Dorn has only played in 19 of Indiana's 21 games this season due to a foot injury suffered at Elon. His minutes were limited early on, too, and he didn't crack the 20-minute mark until Dec. 9 –– Indiana's second Big Ten game of the season at Penn State.

It took time to get back into full game condition as well, but now Dorn has emerged at a crucial time. Indiana is on the NCAA Tournament bubble as February nears, and just picked up its first Quad 1 win of the season Tuesday against Purdue.

That moved the Hoosiers to No. 33 in the NET rankings, but there's plenty of work still to be done. Only four teams ahead of Indiana in the NET have one or zero Quad 1 wins, and only two teams match the Hoosiers with just one Quad 2 win. Having 12-of-14 wins come against Quad 3 and 4 opponents will do little to help on Selection Sunday, aside from simply not having bad losses.

With Dorn full-go in the rotation, though, additional Quad 1 wins down the road are more realistic than ever. For much of the season, Indiana relied far too heavily on Wilkerson and DeVries to shoot well night in and night out. If even one of those two had an off night, the path to victory became extremely narrow.

But between Dorn's 45.1% 3-point shooting on 91 attempts and his defensive versatility at 6-foot-7, all of a sudden Indiana has another real difference maker, and his teammates are feeling the impact.

"It gives our team a lot more options," Enright said. "When Tucker and Lamar are doing what they're doing and then you have Nick hitting six 3s a game, you gotta –– it's hard to guard. It leaves me or Sam or Reed out there with plenty of options."

'This Is Us': Indiana Basketball Is Still Alive. Darian DeVries Woke It Up vs Purdue

5 Stats That Explain How Indiana Pulled Off Win Over Purdue

Indiana Basketball Soars in KenPom Rankings After Purdue Upset

What Conor Enright, Nick Dorn Said After Indiana Basketball's Upset Win vs Purdue

What Darian DeVries Said After Indiana Basketball's 72-67 Upset Win vs Purdue