A little bit of everything at Hoosier Hysteria

  • 10/17/2009 10:48 am in

When Indiana fans packed Assembly Hall Friday night for the kick off of the 2009-2010 men’s basketball season, most probably weren’t expecting the following events to transpire: The return of the mop lady. A delivery of a sub by Subway spokesman Jared Fogle. A scrimmage against Straight No Chaser. A heart felt mention and hug from Tom Crean for Wes Hovis, an 82-year old fan recently diagnosed with stomach cancer.  And an appearance by key 2012 North Central recruit D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera in the north end bleachers.

Let’s have a rundown of the night that was Hoosier Hysteria, shall we?

+ Martha the cleaning lady is back: Well, not the original Martha. But a suitable replacement. One of the evenings loudest ovations went to Sheila Stephen, who Crean gave credit to the wife of former Herald-Times sports editor Bob Hammel for helping bring to Hysteria.

+ Bring in the sub for Straight No Chaser: In the midst of a scrimmage between the team and Bloomington based a cappella group Straight No Chaser, Crean called for a sub. (Straight No Chaser won, by the way.) Jared Fogle, everyone’s favorite Subway spokesperson, was happy to oblige and met Crean decked out in Indiana gear with a sub in hand.

+ Meet Wes Hovis: The most memorable moment of the night was Crean’s comments about 82-year old Muncie resident Wes Hovis. Despite recently being diagnosed with stomach cancer and asked by his doctor not to attend Friday’s festivities, Hovis showed up and Crean told his story which drew a large round of applause. “Wes Hovis is in this building with the program that he loves,” Crean explained. “And that is why it’s Indiana, Wes, that’s why it’s Indiana.”

+ 3-point shootout, dunk contest and scrimmage results: Matt Roth took the 3-point shootout and walk-on Steven Gambles won the dunk contest. The red team, led by 10 points from Devan Dumes, edged the white team 22-21 in a 15-minute scrimmage. There wasn’t much flow and not a lot was learned from what was essentially a pick-up game. If anyone stood out, it was Dumes, Verdell Jones and Jeremiah Rivers.

+ Recruits, recruits, recruits: Here’s a list of recruits that attended based on what I saw and reports from the Herald-Times, Hoosier Nation, The Indiana Daily Student and Peegs:

  • 2010: Victor Oladipo
  • 2011: Austin Etherington, Matt Carlino, Spencer Turner
  • 2012: D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera, Hanner Perea, Kenny Kaminski, Jared Drew, Jeremy Hollowell, Kellen Dunham, Kellon Thomas, Peter Jurkin, Ron Patterson
  • 2013: Darryl Baker, Darryl Hicks

+ Open practice: There will be an open practice at 4PM today at Assembly Hall.

+ Announced attendance: The crowd, based on an estimate because tickets were not sold, was 13,321.

+ Video: A few clips from the scrimmage filmed by yours truly and player introductions and Crean speech are available below from IU Athletics:

Hoosier Hysteria Scrimmage Footage from Inside The Hall on Vimeo.







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