A former UK basketball transfer portal target will lead Indiana into Rupp Arena
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Lamar Wilkerson leads Indiana basketball in scoring this season with 18.8 points per game.
- Wilkerson is a former UK basketball transfer portal recruit who picked IU over Kentucky.
- Previously, Wilkerson was a standout guard at Sam Houston.
A former Kentucky basketball transfer portal target will take center stage Saturday night at Rupp Arena.
Lamar Wilkerson — who was billed during the spring as Kentucky’s top transfer portal recruit — is Indiana’s leading scorer this season ahead of the Hoosiers’ weekend visit to Lexington.
A former standout guard at Sam Houston, Wilkerson’s transfer portal choice in April came down to IU and UK. Wilkerson picked first-year IU head coach Darian DeVries over Kentucky’s Mark Pope. Wilkerson took visits to both Indiana and Kentucky during his portal recruitment. His trip to Lexington included a stop at Keeneland during the track’s Spring Meet.
“We love shooters. We love guys that make shots,” UK head coach Mark Pope said when asked by the Herald-Leader to reflect on his recruitment of Wilkerson.
“He’s made a career of doing that. He’s got a toughness to him that’s pretty great. I love him as a kid. He’s actually a great young man. He’s all the good things. He earned his way, he worked his way up, to get to where he is right now.”
In the 10 games (all starts) that Wilkerson has played for the Hoosiers this season, he’s delivered on his scoring promise.
A 6-foot-6 guard who is originally from Arkansas, Wilkerson averaged 20.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists last season at Sam Houston, while also shooting 47.7% from the field and 44.5% from 3-point range.
So far in Bloomington, Wilkerson is averaging a team-best 18.8 points per game for Indiana (8-2). That figure is juiced by Wilkerson’s last game, a 44-point outing Tuesday night in a home win over Penn State that ranks among the best offensive displays in IU history.
Wilkerson — who set a new Indiana single-game record by making 10 3-pointers against the Nittany Lions — is shooting 46.8% from the field this season and 43.2% on 3-pointers. He’s also averaging 2.6 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game.
“He made every shot, and he got them out of his hands quick. He was really good,” Pope said of Wilkerson’s night against Penn State. “They scored 113 points in a game that actually didn’t have (an) incredible tempo to it. I think they’re doing an unbelievable job with how they’re playing offense right now. They’re really explosive.”
Individually, offensive consistency has continued for Wilkerson. Last season at Sam Houston, he was one of only five players in Division I men’s college basketball to score at least 10 points in all of their teams’ games. At Indiana this season, Wilkerson has scored in double figures in nine of 10 contests.
Kentucky (6-4) enters Saturday’s marquee game against Indiana having struggled defensively against top opponents this season. According to the BartTorvik.com analytics, against top 100 opponents this season — UK is 0-4 in such games — Kentucky has allowed teams to shoot 39% from 3-point range. Overall, UK’s adjusted defensive efficiency against high-major teams is 106.1, which ranks around 150th nationally.
Saturday will mark the resumption of the Indiana-Kentucky rivalry series. The two schools played in the NCAA Tournament in 2016 (an Indiana win in the second round) and 2012 (a Kentucky win in the Sweet 16), but they haven’t faced off in the regular season since 2011. That last regular season meeting ended with Christian Watford’s famous buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give IU a win over UK at Assembly Hall. Just a few months later, that same Kentucky team won the program’s most recent national championship, dispatching IU along the way in the national postseason.
This will be the first game at Rupp Arena between Indiana and Kentucky since 2010. UK leads the all-time series between the schools, 32-25.
The Hoosiers and Wildcats will face each other in each of the next three seasons. The teams will play at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis next season, at Rupp Arena again during the 2027-28 season and at Assembly Hall on IU’s campus in the 2028-29 season.
Notably, this four-year renewal of the rivalry series was agreed to when both schools were under different men’s basketball leadership. Indiana was coached by Mike Woodson and Kentucky was coached by John Calipari when game dates and locations were announced in October 2023.
This story was originally published December 12, 2025 at 6:30 AM.
