Nick Dorn’s Breakout Stretch Has Indiana Surging Toward March
LOS ANGELES - Don’t look now, but Indiana might be turning the corner - and Nick Dorn is leading the charge.
The Hoosiers are riding a three-game winning streak that’s not just impressive, it’s meaningful. Two of those wins - a gritty road victory at UCLA and a statement home win over rival Purdue - qualify as Quad 1 wins, the kind that matter most when the NCAA Tournament committee starts sorting resumes. Add in a win at Rutgers, and Indiana’s recent run has shifted their postseason outlook in a big way.
Before this stretch, Indiana was sitting 0.2 wins below the bubble on Bart Torvik’s rankings - a respected metric that’s now part of the official team sheets the selection committee uses. Now?
They’re 1.2 wins above the cut line. That’s a serious swing in just three games, and Dorn’s fingerprints are all over it.
Dorn’s Emergence
After missing the summer and most of the fall while recovering from injury, Dorn has found his rhythm - and then some. Over this three-game stretch, he’s dropped 23, 18, and 26 points, respectively. That’s 67 points total, with a barrage of threes fueling the surge.
In fact, Dorn has hit 16 triples in those three games, knocking down at least four in each. That’s not just hot shooting - that’s redefining a role.
And he’s doing it with efficiency: in Big Ten play, Dorn is shooting 43.8% from deep (28-for-64). Compare that to last season, when he shot just 29.2% from three at Elon in the Coastal Athletic Association.
Going from mid-major to Big Ten and improving your shooting? That’s a testament to both his development and his work ethic.
For the season, the 6-foot-8 guard is hitting 44.3% from beyond the arc (47-for-106). That’s elite territory, especially for a player who wasn’t fully healthy until the season was already underway.
Career-High Night in L.A.
Dorn’s best performance as a Hoosier came in Saturday’s double-overtime thriller at UCLA. He poured in 26 points in a 98-97 win that had all the intensity of a March showdown. His shooting stretched the defense, and his presence on the perimeter opened up the floor in ways that don’t always show up in the box score.
“I feel like that’s where all my confidence comes from - just staying in the gym,” Dorn said after the game. “Every shot I take in a game, I’ve practiced a hundred times, a thousand times. When I shoot, I feel like it’s going in, regardless of where or how I shoot it.”
That confidence is contagious - and it’s reshaping Indiana’s offense.
Spacing, Gravity, and a Balanced Attack
Dorn’s impact goes beyond the points he puts up. His shooting gravity - the way defenders are forced to stay glued to him - has opened up driving lanes and cutting opportunities for his teammates.
Against UCLA, that spacing helped Lamar Wilkerson and Reed Bailey each score 24 points. When you’ve got three players scoring 24 or more in a game, that’s not just a hot hand - that’s an offense clicking on multiple levels.
IU head coach Darian DeVries sees it too.
“He’s been playing great,” DeVries said of Dorn. “He fits well with what we’re trying to do and the spacing we have on the floor. The guys did a good job of finding him, and then we were able to stress the defense in other areas because they had to stay out on Nick.”
That floor balance has helped Indiana hit 10 or more threes in four straight games - something they hadn’t done since the 2002-03 season. It’s not just a stat; it’s a sign of a team evolving.
What’s Next
At 15-7 overall and 6-5 in the Big Ten, Indiana heads into tonight’s matchup at USC with momentum and purpose. This team, once teetering on the edge of the bubble, now looks like a squad that could make real noise in March - especially if Dorn keeps playing like this.
He’s not just a feel-good story of a player bouncing back from injury. Right now, Nick Dorn is one of the most impactful shooters in the Big Ten - and he’s helping Indiana find its identity at just the right time.