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Jordan Geronimo hasn't forgotten about Tuesday, March 15, 2022. The day when the 6-foot-6 junior forward proved to himself that he belonged.

As the clock crept toward midnight on the east coast, and with Indiana inching closer to a win over Wyoming in the NCAA Tournament First Four game, Geronimo's infectious, spark-plug energy gave the 12,522 fans at Dayton Arena, and hundreds of thousands more watching at home, a reason to stay wide awake. 

If Geronimo wasn't dunking everything in sight, he was rebounding every miss with ferocity. If Geronimo wasn't stifling Wyoming's transition offense, he was pestering would-be scorers near the rim alongside star forward Trayce Jackson-Davis. In just 19 minutes off the bench, Geronimo affected an entire 40-minute game, finishing with a career-high 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting, seven rebounds, one block, one assist, and zero turnovers.

This was the breakout performance that for two years the Indiana fanbase longed to see from the uber-athletic forward. But to do it on a national stage, in the program's first NCAA Tournament game in six years, with the spotlight shining as bright as ever, no one needed March 15, 2022, more than Jordan Geronimo.

" I feel like (my performance) just kind of told me, 'Hey, I can do this... it's not something I can't do,'" Geronimo said Tuesday in a press conference. "And I just kind of used that game as like a foundation to just work on my game outside of that."

Geronimo's explosion was a culmination of sorts, the kind that deserved every bit of adulation from his teammates, coaches and the IU fanbase. When he first arrived in Bloomington in 2020, as raw of a prospect as any that's come through the program in recent years, it wasn't immediately clear what role Geronimo might carve out in the present or future. Besides his tantalizing athleticism and bounce, there wasn't much that Geronimo could confidently hang his hat on as a go-to skill.

In simpler terms, he was a ball of clay oozing with potential that Indiana's coaching staff just needed to nurture and mold properly. Two years and a head coaching change later, that ball of clay is quickly taking shape but still far from completion.

On one hand, Geronimo has already established himself as an indispensable piece of Indiana's rebounding and defensive efforts. Last season as a sophomore, he played in all 34 games for the Hoosiers in a bench role, averaging 12.6 minutes, 4.4 points and 3.6 rebounds. When factoring in his per-40 minutes statistics, Geronimo's averages jumped to 13.8 points per game and a dazzling 11.3 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game. 

However, for Geronimo to unlock his full potential, he knows that his game is in need of more molding. It's why, when last season ended and Indiana began looking toward the future, Geronimo said he took the initiative to sit down with the coaching staff and ask for a bit of a role change: to play as both a wing and a forward.

Indiana's coaching staff was receptive to the idea, but the onus was ultimately on Geronimo to prove this offseason that he's capable of being more than just a modern-day power forward. Or in other words, an evolution of Jordan Geronimo.

"I'm more just trying to expand my game where I'm able to play as a three so I can be more productive for my team and just be able to produce more," Geronimo said. "But that's really the idea of it -- mostly just expanding my game to the point where I can play the three and the four."

It's not just talk from Geronimo, either.

From the moment he left that meeting with IU's coaching staff, Geronimo said he's spent a majority of his time in the gym honing the skills necessary to play the three. That means improved perimeter shooting, better court vision, enhanced playmaking abilities, and much more.

"I'm really just working on, or I have seen improvement in just making the right decision on the perimeter," Geronimo said. "Also, my jump shot has been getting better, handles getting better. But I guess overall, I see a lot of improvement in just my decision making, and just knowing when to make the right play and move the ball  wherever."

With over three months until Indiana's Nov. 7 season-opener, Geronimo still has plenty of offseason left to prove himself on the practice court. In that same time span, though, he also understands that mounting expectations will likely be placed on him from fans and pundits who are eager to see his on-court improvements.

The way Geronimo will combat those outside expectations? He simply won't allow himself to set any.

" I don't really have any specific goals because I kind of stay away from that," Geronimo said. "... I almost have too high expectations and sometimes I meet them, but sometimes I don't and I'm kind of hurting myself. So I tend to kind of avoid creating goals for myself, but just try to focus on trying to get better. Really just try to be more of an impact."

Geronimo's words are a far cry from the green freshman that arrived on campus in 2020.

Whereas back then Geronimo might've felt the weight of the entire Indiana fanbase on his shoulders, today's version of Geronimo is ostensibly leaps and bounds more mature than his former self.

It's just another step forward in his quest to do more and be more for Indiana.

"When I first came here, I feel like I had to prove myself, and I put in the work to be able to prove myself," Geronimo said. "So I feel like me and the position where I'm at now, it's just prove that, 'Hey, just just keep your head down, work hard, and you'll get to where you want to go eventually.'"

Where Geronimo wants to go is abundantly clear.  Where he'll eventually end up, only he can dictate that.

But if what Geronimo set out to do this offseason comes to fruition, the ripple effects could be long-lasting for an Indiana team with legitimate aspirations of cutting down the nets at season's end.

"I have trust in the program, that it's bigger than myself, really," Geronimo said. "I want the program to be successful. We're fighting for a championship."

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