Hoosier Favorite No. 11? Picking Favorite Indiana Basketball Players, One Number At a Time

There are no names on the Indiana basketball jerseys, just a number, and those digits mean a lot to all Hoosiers fans. We want to know who your favorites are, resuming with the No. 11 in Indiana basketball history that's meant the most to you. Pick your favorite, and we'll do this every day for the rest of the summer.

Haley Jordan | Jul 15, 2022

IU Athletics

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Welcome back to our summer series where Hoosier basketball fans can vote on their favorite Indiana players to ever wear each number. Today, we resume with all the best to wear No. 11.

Hoosier favorite?

Every day we're going to give you four choices along with a short player bio to pick your favorite Hoosier who wore a certain number.

Here are your four No. 11 jersey choices in alphabetical order so that we're not showing bias. Be sure to take the poll below via Twitter.

(Editor's Note: We'll take results for 48 hours on the poll and then share results on this story the next day, so keep coming back to see the results.)

Yogi Ferrell (2012-16)

Point guard Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell out of Park Tudor in Indianapolis ranked No. 2 at the point guard position by Rivals.com coming into Indiana. He lived up to all the hype starting all 36 games in his freshman season and had two boards, one assist and one steal in the Sweet 16 versus Syracuse.

Former head coach Tom Crean's team ranked No. 1 for 10 weeks that season for the first time holding the top spot since 1993.

In summer of 2013, Ferrell joined teammate Will Sheehey in the World University Games held in Kazan, Russia before heading home to Bloomington for Ferrell's sophomore season.

The Hoosiers didn't make the tournament that season but advanced to the Second Round the following year where Ferrell dropped a stunning 24 points against Wichita State before the WuShocks sent Indiana packing.

For Ferrell's senior season, the Hoosiers advanced to the Sweet 16 by upsetting the No. 4 seed Kentucky in the second round. Top-seeded North Carolina defeated the Hoosiers despite Ferrell dropping a personal 25 points in Crean's final NCAA Tournament game at Indiana.

Ferrell's honors list is long but a few of the most notable include the 2015-16 Indiana Male Athlete of the Year, USA Today All-American Second Team and a unanimous First Team All-Big Ten honor by coaches and media.

If you need more, just take a look at Indiana's record book and see how many times Ferrell pops up. Hint: a lot.

Ferrell has had plenty of stints with various NBA teams but currently plays with Slovenian club Cedevita Olimpija of the ABA League.

Dane Fife (1998-02)

Guard Dane Fife from Clarkston, Mich. started in 104 out of 131 games for Indiana logging 3,524 total minutes shooting 43.6 percent from the field and 69.5 percent from the free-throw line.

Under head coach Bob Knight, Fife and the Hoosiers made the tournament all four of Fife's seasons with Indiana. In Fife's senior season, the Hoosiers entered the NCAA Tournament as a No. 5 seed and knocked off top-seeded Duke by one point in the Sweet 16.

Ultimately, Indiana settled for NCAA runner-up to Maryland, 12 points short of a championship.

Following his collegiate career, Fife was named an assistant for Indiana basketball under coach Mike Davis before serving in a couple of other coaching positions elsewhere and circling back to Indiana as an assistant in 2021. In March of 2022, head coach Mike Woodson announced Fife would not be on staff anymore.

Devonte Green (2016-20)

North Babylon, N.Y. native Devonte Green was a consistent guard for Indiana. Although he only started 31 times in his Hoosiers career, he put up great numbers off the bench scoring 954 career points, which ranks 55th in Indiana history, with 257 total assists.

In Green's senior season, he was named team captain. Green continued to show his strong leadership skills on the court by dominating from the three-point line his final year leading the team with 59 triples.

His best game came versus Florida State where he scored a career-high 30 points going 5-for-7 from three. To put this in perspective, these numbers were all from off the bench! The 30 points were the most by a Hoosier player off the bench since Matt Roth's 29 versus Ohio State in 2009.

Isiah Thomas (1979-81)

Chicago, Ill. guard Isiah Thomas played in and started 63 games for the Hoosiers totaling 968 points, 356 assists while shooting 53.4 percent from the field.

Thomas played alongside current head coach Mike Woodson in the 1979-80 season. Woodson was just short of being on the next year's team that would make history.

The Hoosiers took care of Maryland, University of Alabama at Birmingham, St. Joseph's, LSU and finally North Carolina to take home their fourth NCAA title and former coach Bob Knight's second with Indiana in 1981.

Thomas was named the tournament's most outstanding player and was later picked second overall by the Detroit Pistons in the 1981 NBA draft where he played from 1981-94.

Honorable mention:

Dan Dakich (1981-85)

We couldn't not include guard Dan Dakich from Merrillville, Ind. First let's brief you with his basketball career. Dakich started in 29 games for the Hoosiers totaling 356 total points shooting 51.7 percent from the field.

For three of Dakich's seasons at Indiana, the Hoosiers made the NCAA Tournament. In the 1983-84 season, Indiana advanced to take on the No. 1 seed North Carolina in the Sweet 16. Dakich led the Hoosiers in defensive effort shutting down Michael Jordan to advance to the Elite Eight, losing to Virginia by two points.

Dakich entered a coaching career both at Indiana as graduate assistant coach under Bob Knight and later head coach at Bowling Green State University.

Perhaps you know him from the Dan Dakich show on Indianapolis radio station WFNI, ESPN radio affiliate, 1070 The fan.

All-time No. 11's at Indiana

Here are all of the players who have worn No. 11 at Indiana:

Shaan Burke — (2021-current)
Devonte Green — (2016-20)
Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell — (2012-16)
Daniel Moore — (2008-12)
Errek Suhr — (2003-07)
Joe Haarman — (2002-03)
Dane Fife — (1998-02)
Malcom Sims — (1992-93)
Todd Jadlow — (1985-89)
Dan Dakich — (1981-85)
Isiah Thomas — (1979-81)
Bill Tosheff — (1949-51)
Gene Ring — (1948-51)
Lou Jensen — (1947-48)
Tom Schwartz — (1947-49)
Jack Mercer — (1943-45)
James Smith — (1942-43)
William Torphy — (1939-42)
Everett Hoffman — (1939-42)
Robert Hansen — (1938-39)
James Fausch — (1937-38)
Ralph Dorsey — (1936-40)
Charles Scott — (1933-36
Bernard Miller — (1928-31)
Harold Sanford — (1921-24)

Vote for your favorite No. 11 on Twitter

You'll be able to vote on Twitter for your favorite player with each number. Here's the link to today's poll for No. 11.

This one is good. Hoosier favorite @IndianaMBB player to ever wear No. 11? Read the blurbs and an important honorable mention and vote now! https://t.co/ciJALjgDoW
— Indiana Hoosiers on SI (@HoosiersNowFNSI) July 15, 2022