For the first time in 15 years, candy-cane pants will be back on the Rupp Arena sidelines. Before Kentucky and Indiana renew their historic rivalry, the Hoosiers are spending the summer in Puerto Rico. It nearly ended in disaster.
Indiana opened the Darian DeVries era with three games in Puerto Rico. The final two games were against Mega Superbet. It’s a Serbian team BBN knows well. They were called Mega Bemax when Kentucky played them in the Bahamas ahead of the 2019 season. It’s also the team Andrija Jelavic played for last season.
The Hoosiers had to mount a comeback in the first matchup with Mega Superbet that ultimately turned into a rout. On Monday afternoon, they dug a hole that appeared insurmountable.
Indiana trailed by as many as 23 points to the team that lost 11 players this offseason. The Hoosiers were down by 20 at halftime and 13 in the third quarter before finally getting into striking range.
Tucker DeVries completed a couple of and ones to get the run started. The coach’s son had 13 points and five boards for the Hoosiers. Lamar Wilkerson, one of Mark Pope’s top transfer portal target, led the way for Indiana. He was just 3-11 from three-point land, but scored 17 points and dished out the game-winning assist with 6.6 on the clock to avoid an upset and give Indiana an 81-80 win.
Good News for Indiana Fans: At Least Nobody Saw It
I’m not making a joke about the state of Indiana basketball. “They’re so bad, who would want to watch them?” A lot of people from Indiana probably wanted to see DeVries’ first team in action for the first time. They couldn’t do it.
Indiana’s three-game series in Puerto Rico was not broadcast on television or the radio. Don Fisher was on the island, but he was not behind a microphone providing play-by-play. The only way to follow along was to receive live updates from reporters in the stands, like this one:
Indiana could have partnered with the Big Ten Network or Peacock to broadcast the event. Hell, Michigan State put their games on Instagram Live. Instead of behaving like one of the most important programs in college basketball, they tipped off the DeVries era with a barnburner in front of dozens of fans. DOZENS!
