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Miller Kopp Makes Quick Turnaround To Join Assembly Ball for The Basketball Tournament

Miller Kopp was in Las Vegas for an NBA Summer League game on Saturday night, and despite several delays, he made it to Indianapolis for Assembly Ball's win over Men of Mackey on Sunday night in the Basketball Tournament.

Jack Ankony

Indiana Hoosiers forward Miller Kopp (12) in the first half against the Kent State Golden Flashes at MVP Arena.
Indiana Hoosiers forward Miller Kopp (12) in the first half against the Kent State Golden Flashes at MVP Arena. / Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports
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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – As Miller Kopp advanced the Assembly Ball sticker to the round of 16 on the TBT bracket, he could finally exhale.

Less than 24 hours earlier, Kopp was competing with the Oklahoma City Thunder’s NBA Summer League team in Las Vegas, Nev. The Thunder had an 8 p.m. local time tipoff, and Kopp planned to catch a red-eye flight at 1 a.m. the next morning. But that flight was delayed and later canceled, causing Kopp to fly out of Las Vegas at 6 a.m. Sunday.

He finally landed in Chicago around 11 a.m. but still had to make a three-hour drive to Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis for Assembly Ball’s 8 p.m. ET tipoff in The Basketball Tournament. Kopp said he snuck in a one-hour nap after he arrived in Indianapolis. Then it was time to put on the candy stripe warm-up pants for the first time since the 2022-23 season.

“See ya soon. Cancelled flights won’t stop me. Lfg,” Kopp wrote in a social media post on Sunday afternoon.

“Miller got off the flight, I don’t know, like 10 minutes ago,” Assembly Ball coach Adam Ross joked postgame. “… I really, honestly, didn’t plan on suiting him up tonight. I thought we’d have to wait ‘til game three, assuming we got there.”

Kopp was a welcome addition to an Assembly Ball team that defeated The Cru 89-79 in the TBT Round of 64 on Friday night. He’s one of the team’s top 3-point shooters at 6-foot-7, and he provided a boost of energy at 25 years old in a tournament with plenty of players past their prime playing days.

Though Ross planned for dealing with Kopp’s absence in Sunday’s game, he felt confident Kopp was ready after a brief pregame meeting.

“[Kopp] showed up here during the Butler game, and I was sitting up scouting the game and he came by me and said, ‘I’m ready to go,’” Ross said. 

“So we caught him up a little bit on some of the actions that we’ve been working on, we sat there with a whiteboard. Miller’s a very, very smart kid. He absorbed it immediately, and I felt comfortable putting him in the game and he played very well considering the circumstances.”

Kopp didn’t check in until 5:49 left in the third quarter with Assembly Ball leading 42-26, but he made an immediate impact. Kopp caught the Men of Mackey transition defense sleeping  and scored his first points of The Basketball Tournament on an easy, runout layup. 

Seconds before the third quarter ended, Kopp made a smart cut to the basket, and Yogi Ferrell rewarded him with a pass that he converted for a layup just before the buzzer. And to cap off his seven-point performance in eight minutes of action, Kopp sank a 3-pointer from the right wing and let out his emotions as he ran back on defense.

“It was awesome,” Kopp said of representing Assembly Ball in TBT. “It’s been too long and just a cool opportunity to play in front of them and see them and put Indiana on my chest for another time. So it was really cool.”

With a 68-55 win over Men of Mackey, Purdue’s alumni team, No. 1 seed Assembly Ball is one of 16 teams remaining in TBT, which awards the champion a $1 million prize. 

Assembly Ball plays No. 6 seed Eberlein Drive on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET on FS1 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in the Butler Regional Final. Fortunately for Kopp, he’ll have some extra rest this time around.

“Biggest thing is we got the dub,” Kopp said. “So we’re moving on to the next round.”

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Jack Ankony
JACK ANKONY

Jack Ankony is a Sports Illustrated/FanNation writer for HoosiersNow.com. He graduated from Indiana University's Media School with a degree in journalism. Follow on Twitter @ankony_jack.

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