LOS ANGELES — Indiana basketball coach Darian DeVries isn’t in a hurry to make another change to the starting lineup.
The Hoosiers (15-8, 6-6 Big Ten) welcomed back Tayton Conerway to the floor in a 81-75 loss to USC on Tuesday night, but he came off the bench with Nick Dorn remaining in the starting five.
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Dorn is likely to remain in that role for the foreseeable future.
“We’ll see where it’s at,” DeVries said about Conerway getting his starting job back. “Right now, we’ll stick with what we’ve been doing and see how it plays out from there.”
While Dorn had an off shooting night against the Trojans, IU won the first three games he started. He averaged 22.3 points per game during that stretch while shooting 50% from the field and 47.1% from 3-point range.
One of Indiana’s biggest struggles this season has been having a consistent second and third scoring option besides Lamar Wilkerson. It was an issue again at the Galen Center with Wilkerson scoring 33 points with five 3-pointers, but getting little in the way of help.
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Dorn packs a similar punch when he’s on target.
In Indiana’s win over UCLA, he became the first Hoosiers player with at least 25 points and six made 3-point field goals in a road Big Ten contest since 2018.
“Nick has been shooting it as well as anybody in the country,” DeVires said.
Indiana basketball guard Tayton Conerway drives through the lane against USC at the Galen Center on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026.
Indiana’s lineup would also be a bit more balanced having a ball-handler like Conerway coming off the bench. He started the first 19 games of the season alongside Conor Enright and they would be a nice compliment to each other in more of a rotation.
Conerway came into the game against USC averaging 11.2 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game. He had seven points with three assists against the Trojans while playing 10 minutes.
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“We weren’t sure if he was going to be ready yet, but the last couple days he made pretty good progress,” DeVries said after the game. “He was able to practice a decent amount yesterday, felt he was good today to give it a go for some limited minutes.”
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Tayton Conerway is back. Will Indiana basketball put him back in starting lineup?
