Lamar Wilkerson’s lone season in Bloomington is becoming more special each time he steps on the court.
With 41 points on Monday evening against Oregon, he became the fifth player in program history to record multiple 40-point games in his career. He’s the first Big Ten player since at least 1996-97 with multiple 40-point efforts in conference play during the same year.
And Wilkerson is the first IU player since at least 1996-97 with four separate 30-plus point efforts in a single Big Ten season. He has produced three of the 10 highest-scoring regular season Big Ten efforts by an IU player in that same timeframe.
In order to properly describe his accomplishments, you are required to reach into the rare air of IU basketball lore. The other four Indiana players to record multiple 40-point games in a season? Jimmy Rayl, Steve Downing, Don Schlundt and George McGinnis.
“You know how hard it is to get 41 points? And he’s done it twice this year already and putting up monster numbers with percentages to go with it,” IU coach Darian DeVries said on Monday following his team’s 92-74 win over the Ducks.
Wilkerson has scored 20 points in four-straight games and on 13 total occasions this year. He is averaging 33 points per game in February. And as goes Wilkerson so goes Indiana. The Hoosiers have won five of six games to improve to 17-8 on the season.
“Any time you have a guy like Lamar you always have a chance because he can do what he did tonight,” DeVries said. “That’s a special player. You got to have one of those to go make a run and he can certainly do that. He can win a game. Not by himself, but he can certainly change and impact the outcome of a game in a hurry.
“It’s fun when you have guys like that. Been around a few guys like that in my career. When they get in that zone, as long as they’re on your team, it’s really a joy to watch.”
It didn’t look like it was going to be a big night for Wilkerson early. He missed his first five shots as the IU offense struggled out of the gate.
But Wilkerson got free for a transition three with about seven minutes to go in the first half, and the floodgates opened. He was scoreless 13 minutes into the game, but Wilkerson then made 12 of his next 13 shots. He scored his 41 points in less than 25 minutes.
“When he gets going like that,” forward Tucker DeVries said, “it makes things easy for everyone. At that point, it’s get out of the way and let him cook. He does that well. He makes tough shots. It takes a special player to do that.”
What was Wilkerson thinking about when he started the game 0 of 5?
“Nothing for real. I mean, that’s what basketball is,” Wilkerson said. “You make shots and you miss shots. Coach and the other guys, we always try to live on the next-play mentality. You miss one, next play.
“It was easy. Everybody kept telling me keep shooting one fell, and then the rest happened.”
A big part of Wilkerson’s night was the 3-point arc, where he made 6 of 12.
And now if you want to talk made 3-pointers you have to include Wilkerson with legendary names like Steve Alford, Jay Edwards and Yogi Ferrell. He joined that trio as the only IU players to make 50-or-more 3-point field goals during a Big Ten season. And Wilkerson needs just four to break that all-time program record in Big Ten games.
Wilkerson is the first IU player since James Blackmon Jr. to hit at least 80 3-point field goals in a season. He’s just the seventh Hoosiers to make 80-or-more shots from beyond the arc in a year. And already at 84 threes made, Wilkerson has a good chance to break Alford’s all-time single season record of 107 threes made in a season.
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