BLOOMINGTON — Indiana basketball won’t have to face the Big Ten’s leading scorer Thursday night.
Rutgers guard Dylan Harper didn’t participate in early pregame warmups and sat on the bench wearing street clothes at Assembly Hall more than an hour before tipoff. He wasn’t on the team’s initial availability report, but an updated version listed him as questionable.
According to NJ.com, Harper won’t play against the Hoosiers.
The freshman is averaging 22.8 points per game this season with 5.3 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.2 steals. He was coming off the best game of his career with 16 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds in a 91-64 win over Columbia. It was the program’s first triple-double in 41 years.
Indiana recruited the former five-star prospect out of Don Bosco Prep when was the No. 3 ranked player in the 2024 signing class, according to 247 Sports composite rankings. Harper’s older brother Ron Jr. knocked down a game-winning shot at Assembly Hall in 2022 that helped the Scarlet Knights reach the NCAA tournament that year and a memorable celebration ensued.
“They’re a great team, they have a great roster, great coaching staff, so I’m just looking forward to playing a great basketball game,” Harper said earlier this week. “We are just going to go out there and compete like we always do, the same way.”
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.
