Presidential candidate Donald Trump will be joined by former IU basketball Coach Bobby Knight during a visit to Indianapolis on Wednesday evening.

A release sent by Trump’s campaign confirmed Knight as a special guest shortly after Trump expressed he would want Knight to accompany him at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum.

“Indiana’s a great place,” Trump said to a crowd in Rhode Island. “Hopefully we’ll get Bobby Knight’s endorsement. The great Bobby Knight. That would be good. I would think that’s the gold-plated endorsement in Indiana.”

Interwoven into his speech Monday about Syrian refugees, strengthening a depleted American military and turning around Rhode Island’s job market Monday, Trump addressed an announcement from his fellow Republican candidates John Kasich and Ted Cruz.

Both senators released statements that they were working together to block Trump from the Republican nomination.

Kasich, who was scheduled to make appearances in Hamilton County and Indianapolis on Tuesday, has cancelled campaigning efforts in Indiana and redirected his attention to New Mexico and Oregon, according to his website.

Because Indiana’s primary May 3 is winner-take-all style, Cruz and Kasich are working to split the support between them. The candidate who receives the most votes in a given district will win all of that district’s delegates. Indiana will send 57 delegates to Cleveland for the Republican National Convention in July.

By combining efforts, Cruz and Kasich are aiming to keep Trump under the 1,237 delegate threshold needed to win the nomination outright, according to Kasich’s website.

“We are very comfortable with our delegate position in Indiana already, and given the current dynamics of the primary there, we will shift our campaign’s resources West and give the Cruz campaign a clear path in Indiana,” Kasich for America chief strategist John Weaver said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Cruz will continue to campaign in Indiana. The senator visited the Johnson County 4-H Fairground Monday evening for a rally.

“Having Donald Trump at the top of the ticket in November would be a sure disaster for Republicans,” Cruz for President Campaign Manager Jeff Roe said in a statement. “Not only would Trump get blown out by Clinton or Sanders, but having him as our nominee would set the party back a generation.”

Doors will open at 3 p.m. for Trump’s rally at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum. Tickets are available on his website.

Lindsay Moore

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