4 days Ago
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – On Saturday, I wrote that this would be an important week for Indiana men’s basketball coach Darian DeVries. The diplomatic way I put it was to say that it was DeVries’ first chance for his actions to make a great impression.
Described less diplomatically, I meant successfully recruiting the transfer portal was DeVries’ first chance to show he could cut it as Indiana’s coach. And an even less diplomatic way to put it was that knowing high-profile transfer portal target Lamar Wilkerson was coming to Indiana for a visit and that archrival Kentucky was also hot on Wilkerson’s heels? Losing a high-profile recruit to Kentucky would not have been the best way for the DeVries coaching regime to get off the launching pad. There’s no need to worry about that last scenario now.
On Tuesday, Wilkerson committed to Indiana. Along with Darian DeVries’ son, Tucker, Indiana now has a dangerous nucleus on which to build on. Both are plus-40% 3-point shooters and volume scorers who will inject significant excitement into Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in the 2025-26 season.
Their presence, along with fellow recruits Conor Enright, Reed Bailey and incoming freshman Trent Sisley, should also create a magnetic pull on other additions who want to get in on the fun and the potential winning roster DeVries has begun to construct for the Hoosiers. If it were just those factors alone, this would be a big day for Indiana men’s basketball. Wilkerson averaged 20.
5 points, made 82.2% of his free throws, was good for four rebounds a game and had the aforementioned 3-point sharpshooting at 44.5%.
But it isn’t just Wilkerson’s talents that make this sweet for Indiana fans. The Hoosiers beat out Kentucky for Wilkerson in a head-to-head recruiting battle. I don’t have to explain to Indiana fans that it is a big deal.
Wilkerson isn’t Indiana's first recruit under DeVries, but he is the first recruit Indiana had to battle one of college basketball’s whales to bring to Bloomington – and DeVries won. Not only did he win this recruiting faceoff with UK, but DeVries put in the extra mile. As Wilkerson explained in his post-commitment interview with Field Of 68 , DeVries didn’t sit back and wait.
He went to Wilkerson on Tuesday to make the Arkansas native felt wanted. “He actually flew out here today to come see me, and so that was big, man, that was major. I want to go where I’m a priority, and that's what Indiana makes me feel like – a priority,” Wilkerson said.
So DeVries beat Kentucky for a top recruit – and in one fell swoop also wiped out years of alleged low-commitment recruiting practices by the previous regime. This recruiting victory over Kentucky is a long time in coming. When was the last time Indiana got one over on the Wildcats in basketball in such a high profile manner? I thought maybe Romeo Langford, but Kentucky wasn’t a finalist for him.
The 2016 NCAA Tournament win? The point is, it's been a long time since Indiana fans could puff their chests out at Kentucky fans and justifiably call scoreboard on them. Far be it for me to dunk on our friends to the south. I lived in Kentucky, and I loved it.
I’ve covered multiple sports on Kentucky’s campus, including basketball, and it’s a classy organization. Kentucky’s fans are fiercely loyal like Indiana fans. But one thing they are not is humble.
I don’t think I’m creaking any limbs in saying that if Kentucky had gained Wilkerson’s services, Indiana fans would not have heard the end of it. The superiority complex is galling at times. One of the web sites that covers Kentucky, KSR, had a headline when DeVries was hired that condescendingly said, “Indiana ACTUALLY Hired Darian DeVries to be the Hoosiers' Head Coach.
” Yep. They actually did. How are you enjoying it so far? Social media provided an interesting laboratory into this phenomenon over the last few days.
It was also a reminder of how vapid social media can be and how hype is too often construed as gospel. When Wilkerson was on his Indiana visit, a segment of overly confident Hoosiers fans were convinced he’d be so awed he’d never make it to Kentucky. Similarly, once Wilkerson got to Lexington, Big Blue Nation thought he’d never leave.
Recency bias kicked in as last visits are often given an air of finality. National recruiting sites, often greased with info by handlers and agents with an agenda, began to buy in, too. Kentucky was gaining ground! As it should, Kentucky pulled out the stops, even taking Wilkerson to the famed Keeneland thoroughbred track.
But Wilkerson was a horse for a different course as it turned out. How will this go over in the Commonwealth? Probably not well, but that’s their problem. What’s far more important is what Wilkerson’s successful recruitment means inside the state of Indiana.
It ought to have an energizing effect. You know how I said I lived in Kentucky? My first full-time job in this business was working in Jeffersonville, Ind. Indiana fans on the front line of the Indiana-Kentucky rivalry down there are as rabid as it gets given that they’re in the Kentucky and Louisville media markets.
Indiana is third on the totem pole in coverage, so they’re fiercely loyal and particularly antagonistic toward Kentucky. It may not literally happen, but those fans down there are going to carry DeVries on a throne into the Hoosier Connect fundraising event at Huber's Winery on May 28 in Starlight. They’re clanking beers and talking smack in Jeffersonville, New Albany, Madison and Evansville to celebrate as we speak.
And surely, Indiana fans everywhere are walking on air. In addition, the resumption of the Indiana-Kentucky series now has even more spice. Indiana can sashay into Rupp Arena on Dec.
20 knowing that they got one over on the Cats. Wilkerson, of course, needs to live up to the expectation, and so does DeVries in terms of how he builds a roster still very much a work in progress. But when you beat Kentucky in anything? You win a ton of goodwill inside the Hoosier State.
DeVries didn’t just win the battle to get Wilkerson on Tuesday. He won the hearts and minds of Hoosiers fans everywhere. He couldn’t ask for a better way to get started as Indiana’s coach.
Related stories on Indiana basketball WILKERSON WANTED TO BE A PRIORITY AND INDIANA MADE HIM FEEL THAT WAY: Lamar Wilkerson explained why he chose Indiana over Kentucky. CLICK HERE. WILKERSON IS A HOOSIER: In a frenzied battle with Kentucky for his services, Lamar Wilkerson is headed to Indiana.
CLICK HERE. DARLING INTEREST: Indiana has reached out to Big Sky MVP Dylan Darling, a sharpshooting guard. CLICK HERE.
CONERWAY TO VISIT: Sun Belt Player of the Year Tayton Conerway will reportedly visit Indiana. CLICK HERE. MIKE BARGEN TO JOIN STAFF: Former Bradley associate head coach Mike Bargen will join the Indiana staff.
He's worked with head coach Darian DeVries before. CLICK HERE. KENNY JOHNSON TO JOIN INDIANA STAFF: Kenny Johnson will join Darian DeVries' coaching staff.
CLICK HERE..
