Hoosier Favorite No. 25? 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. 25 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 25, 2022

USA Today

In this story:

Indiana Hoosiers

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. 25.

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. 25 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.)

A.J. Guyton (1996-00)

Guard A.J. Guyton from Peoria, Ill. ranks fourth on Indiana's all-time leading scorers list with 2,100 points across 128 games and 4,348 minutes played for the Hoosiers.

Guyton also added 419 rebounds, 403 assists and 129 steals. Although Indiana never made deep NCAA Tournament runs during Guyton's career, the Hoosiers still appeared in the tournament each season with their best performances in 1998 and 1999 advancing to the Second Round.

In his senior season, Guyton was named Big Ten Co-MVP and was selected to the first team All-American Team.

Post college, Guyton was the 32nd overall pick in the 2000 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls where he played for two seasons. He briefly played for the Golden State Warriors before his overseas career.

Since his playing days, Guyton was named to the Indiana University Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014 and has had several coaching and sports management positions including his time as the director for player development for the Northwestern Wildcats in 2017.

The next year, Guyton became an assistant coach for the Loyola Greyhounds' basketball team for a season.

Pat Knight (1990-95)

Guard Pat Knight from Bloomington, Ind. is the son of former head basketball coach Bob Knight. Pat redshirted the 1991-92 Hoosiers season but still got to witness the magic of advancing to a Final Four with his father.

The Hoosiers beat out No. 1-seed UCLA to get there but were ultimately sent home by Duke who won 81-78.

Overall, Pat played in 112 games for the Hoosiers scoring 138 total points with 137 total assists.

Following Indiana, Pat had several coaching jobs including the Texas Tech Red Raiders head coaching position after his father abruptly retired. Pat coached there for three seasons from 2005-07 before heading to Lamar University to serve as head coach from 2011-14.

Race Thompson (2017-current)

Forward Race Thompson from Plymouth, Minn. is a current starter and two-time team captain for the Hoosiers.

Thompson has started in 62 out of 100 games played for the Hoosiers scoring 746 total points so far and totaling 563 rebounds. Last season, Thompson finished 10th in the Big Ten averaging 7.5 rebounds per game.

Thompson will stick around Indiana for another season with partner in crime and fellow forward Trayce Jackson-Davis. Head coach Mike Woodson welcomes in a top-rated recruiting class in Jalen-Hood Schifino (No. 22 overall), Malik Reneau (No. 27 overall) and Kaleb Banks (No. 84 overall) to team up with Thompson, Jackson-Davis and fellow starters Xavier Johnson and Miller Kopp.

Tom Van Arsdale (1962-65)

Forward Tom Van Arsdale from Greenwood, Ind. played in 72 games for the Hoosiers finishing with 1,252 total points for the 34th spot on Indiana's all-time leading scorers list.

Van Arsdale was selected in the second round of the 1965 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons and was named to the NBA All-Rookie Team in 1966 with his identical twin brother Dick who also played at Indiana.

Van Arsdale had a 12-year NBA career playing for 5 different teams and was a consecutive three-time All-Star beginning in 1970.

Tom VanArsdale — Tom Van Arsdale / IU Athletics

Honorable mentions:

Tommy Baker (1977-79)

Guard Tommy Baker played under Coach Bob Knight for less than two seasons. He shot 42.3 percent from the field and 58.3 percent from the free-throw line for 87 total points.

The Jeffersonville, Ind. native was dismissed by Knight along with Don Cox and Jim Roberson in the 1978-79 season.

In a 1978 article from the New York Times, Baker said: “You can't put any of this on the man (Knight). He was put in a spot where he had to make a decision. There were a few team problems. I would like to say jealousy, but only the players really know.”

Tom Pritchard (2008-12)

From Westlake, Ohio, forward Tom Pritchard finished his career as the only Indiana player to play in every game (130) during his four seasons.

Pritchard finished his career ranked 18th in Indiana field goal percentage with 52.8 percent.

In Pritchard's senior season, the Hoosiers made it to their first NCAA Tournament in four seasons advancing all the way to the Sweet 16 before getting beat by No. 1-seed Kentucky 102-90.

All-time No. 25's at Indiana

Here are all of the players who have worn No. 25 at Indiana:

Race Thompson — (2017-current)
Emmitt Holt — (2014-15)
Tom Pritchard — (2008-12)
A.J. Guyton — (1996-00)
Pat Knight — (1990-95)
Cam Cameron — (1981-83)
Tommy Baker — (1977-79)
Bob Bender — (1975-76)
Doug Allen — (1972-75)
Jeff Stocksdale — (1968-71)
Ken Newsome — (1965-68)
Tom Van Arsdale — (1962-65)
Charley Roush — (1960-61)
Glen Butte — (1957-60)
Clarence Doninger — (1956-57)
Burke Scott — (1952-55)
Tony Hill — (1949-52)
Gordon Neff — (1948-49)
Don Dewer — (1945-46)
George Milan — (1944-45)
Richard Peed — (1943-44)
Al Wise — (1941-42)
Bill Frey — (1939-40)
Ernie Andres — (1937-39)

Vote for your favorite No. 25 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. 25.

We have four of the best #iubb players to ever wear No. 25 plus a couple of honorable mentions. Hoosier Favorite? https://t.co/iwsuGhHdfb
— Indiana Hoosiers on SI (@HoosiersNowFNSI) July 25, 2022