Juwan Morgan is one of the bridges on Assembly Ball, the IU basketball TBT alumni team.
He played as a freshman on the 2016 Big Ten title team that featured Assembly Ball teammates Yogi Ferrell and Troy Williams.
And Morgan also played with Assembly Ball teammates Race Thompson and Devonte Green in his later years in Bloomington.
Ferrell is another bridge, connecting that 2016 team he captained as a senior to older Assembly Ball players like Jordan Hulls and Noah Vonleh, along with team general manager Christian Watford.
Later this year, the bridges will meet in, of all places, Montenegro, when Ferrell and Morgan team up to play professional basketball for Buducnost VOLI Podgorica.
After Ferrell poured in 27 points for Assembly Ball Friday evening at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Morgan was reminded why his former teammate was consensus First Team All-Big Ten in 2016.
“Strong, fast, and he just makes shots that are insane look normal. He’s the same Yogi,” Morgan said on Friday evening.
Both players spent multiple seasons in the NBA.
Morgan played in 52 games over three seasons, most recently with Boston in 2022. His career ended with an NBA Finals appearance. Ferrell saw action in 259 games through five seasons, most recently in 2021.
But Morgan harkened back to his time in Bloomington for the reason why he wanted to reunite with Ferrell.
“My best year at IU team wise was with Yogi,” he said.
When the opportunity arose to join Ferrell in Montenegro after playing this past season in Russia, Morgan gave Ferrell a call to learn more.
“And I was just like why not, that’s a great chance to play with a great point guard again, and also great competition overseas,” Morgan said. “I couldn’t pass it up.”
That reunion in Southeastern Europe is still a few months away. But if it’s anything like the last few days in Bloomington, Ferrell and Morgan won’t need any time to get reacquainted.
Practicing at Cook Hall and meeting with fans in their former college town, everything has felt very natural for the former Hoosiers on Assembly Ball.
“It has been amazing. It was almost like I never left,” Morgan said of being back in Bloomington and catching up with former teammates and staff members.
“We all still talk, just checking up on each other through the years,” he added.
“We got to practice, ran through old plays, and everybody was just chatting it up and it’s like we’ve been friends for 10 years.”
Assembly Ball will play again on Sunday evening at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis when they face Purdue alumni team Men of Mackey in a round-of-32 contest (8 p.m. ET, FS1).
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