LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Lamar Wilkerson didn’t just break out of a slump. He ripped off his warm-up, tucked in his cape and torched the Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall nets like they were made out of silk and second-thoughts.
This building has seen some shooting exhibitions. It has never seen a long-range spectacle like Wilkerson put on Tuesday night. He made 10 out of 15 threes. An IU record for makes. He scored 44 points. A building record.
And he did it all in just 24 minutes, leading Indiana past Penn State 113-72 to end a two-game losing streak.
This wasn’t a Tuesday night buy game with East Sneeze State. It was a league game, Smoky. Wilkerson became the first IU player to score 40 in a Big Ten game since 1994. (That was Alan Henderson in a loss at Michigan State and, no, Bob Knight did not bring him to the interview room.)
Lamar Wilkerson did talk after the game.
“Hole looked big as the ocean today, man,” he said. “So I was just throwing it up there. It just happened to go in. All glory to God, man.”
Amen.
Wilkerson had made just 5 of 23 from deep in his past three games. He had 12 points or fewer in all of those. The fifth-year senior transfer from Sam Houston State said he wasn’t worried too much, but the slump had crept into his head a bit. IU coach Darian DeVries told him to stop thinking and start playing. Hs teammates told him to keep shooting.
And on Tuesday night, the ball left his hand and did what it used to do, fall through the net, again and again, until the crowd at Assembly Hall was out of breath and out of adjectives.
“I seen one, two, three go in, then after that they just like find the hot hand,” Wilkerson said. “They kept feeding me. The shots kept going in.”
It felt like more than that. Physics didn’t so much help as bow politely and get out of the way.
He hit from the wing. He hit from the top. He hit a step-back three in transition that turned the bench into a block party. Indiana finished with 17 made threes and 30 assists. But this was Wilkerson’s night. Every touch sent a ripple through the crowd. Every make brought it to its feet. By the time he walked off the court, he had made more threes than Penn State had as a team, and outscored their entire starting five.
“It was fun to see him kind of get loose and showcase all the work he puts in,” DeVries said. “He's had a couple nights where he's struggled. I was never worried about that. He's that level of a shooter. He's not going to do 44 every night. But he has that confidence. He puts in the work every day.”
That confidence has been evident from the day he walked on campus.
“Shooters shoot,” he said. “Shoot the ball, everything is going to work out. It's a numbers game.”
Wilkerson knows something about numbers. First thing he did with his NIL check? Gave six figures back to Sam Houston State.
That’s the move of a man grateful for the big time, and unafraid to take his shot.
So were the Hoosiers. Indiana came out firing, with 58 points in the first half. Reed Bailey was perfect from the field and scored 18. Tayton Conerway added 17. Tucker DeVries had 12 with six assists. The Hoosiers shot 69 percent from the field and 55 percent from three. It was Indiana’s first 40-point Big Ten win since 1993.
But the story was Wilkerson.
He hit three threes in the game’s first five minutes. Then two more. Then another from the corner, one in transition, and a final deep ball that sent the student section into full delirium.
“I really had no idea what the record was,” DeVries said. “But based on the fans, I figured he was close to something.”
Wilkerson didn’t ask. He had no idea.
“Not at all,” he said. “I was just shooting.”
More importantly, he was just making. History was just watching. And the record book was just flipping pages.
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