While Indiana men’s basketball opened its hour-long practice to reporters Wednesday inside Cook Hall in Bloomington, two Hoosiers weren’t in action on the court.
Junior guards Jason Drake and Nick Dorn were both sidelined due to undisclosed injuries.
“The timeline on both of them is a little up in the air, I guess,” Indiana head coach Darian DeVries said in a press conference after practice. “We’ll see where that leads. We’re obviously hopeful that both of them will be back in a relatively good timeline.”
With the Hoosiers’ upcoming week-long foreign trip to Puerto Rico — where they’ll play three exhibition games — slated for Aug. 5-12, DeVries insinuated Dorn wouldn’t play in any of the contests and may not return until the fall.
Dorn transferred to Indiana after two seasons at Elon University, where he averaged 15.2 points and 3.8 rebounds in his sophomore campaign. Drake arrived in Bloomington following stints at Cleveland State University, Butler Community College, and, most recently, Drexel University.
DeVries explained he and his staff would let the upcoming days “play out” before they see where everyone’s availability stands.
However, DeVries said the Hoosiers should “for sure” have one of them on campus within the next couple of days. He did not specify which of the two he was referring to.
“That’s our hope,” DeVries said. “Then we’ll get him acclimated as quickly as possible. If that means he gets the opportunity to play in Puerto Rico, great. If we can’t get him close enough there, the last thing we want to do is put him in a position where he’s just not ready.”
Indiana is scheduled to play one game against the Puerto Rican All-Star team, followed by two matchups against Mega Superbet — a professional Serbian club.
Dalton James covers Indiana basketball and football for the Indiana Daily Student. You can follow him at @DaltonMJames on X and contact him via email at jamesdm@iu.edu.