Quick, when is the last time you’ve seen an IU basketball player wear jersey number 8 or 9?
It’s been a minute or two.
In fact, most of you have never seen that.
A year ago the NCAA did away with a decades old restriction on what jersey numbers college basketball players can wear. Beginning with the 2023-24 season, players were allowed to wear any number from 0 to 99.
But no one on Indiana’s team jumped in to claim one of the new options a year ago.
For 2024-25, two numbers will be dusted off and worn for the first time since the 1950s.
Freshman Bryson Tucker will wear No. 8, following in the footsteps of an IU legend.
Basketball trailblazer Bill Garrett was the first African American to play for Indiana, and he was the last to wear No. 8.
On Dec. 4, 1948, Garrett became the first black player to start for a Big Ten team.
Garrett wore No. 8 from 1949 to 1951, and in his final year he was voted the most valuable player of the season by his teammates, named All-Big Ten first team, and recognized as a consensus All-American.
Meanwhile, Stanford transfer guard Kanaan Carlyle will be the first IU player to wear No. 9 since Bob Masters in 1952. Rice wore No. 3 at Stanford but likely had to make a change because that is fifth-year senior Anthony Leal’s number.
Masters played for three IU teams that went a combined 52-14. He was a starting guard on the 1950-51 squad for Garrett’s senior year, and on the 1951-52 team that introduced All-American center Don Schlundt.
Among returning players, redshirt freshman Jakai Newton is the only player to change his number, going from 12 to 0.
The other new players chose more conventional numbers. Myles Rice will wear No. 1, Luke Goode No. 10, Oumar Ballo No. 11, and Langdon Hatton No. 12. Rice made a change from the No. 2 he wore at Washington State that was occupied by Gabe Cupps, while the other three continued with their numbers at their previous schools.
The full roster by jersey number is below, courtesy of IU Athletics:
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