Wait, is there a game on tonight?
On a night that featured the highest ranking teams to ever square off in Assembly Hall, this Indiana team did something no other Hoosier team has done: beat the number one team in back-to-back seasons. It was only fitting that a game of this magnitude was primetime the Saturday before the Super Bowl.
I found myself watching the game at a local beverage distributor with some friends, of which, one was a diehard Michigan fan. Throughout the game there were certainly some questionable calls that maybe an unbiased fan would say went the Hoosiers way. Naturally, talks of the "Hall of Calls" and "homer-isms" were directed at the TV by the Wolverine fan and other objective viewers. This talk would have normally bothered me in the past, but I gained some knowledge from Dan Dakich this past week from his radio show and I want to share it with the rest of you. I am going to paraphrase what he said and I promise I won't be able to put it as elegantly as he put it:
I don't think people realize when they refer to Assembly Hall as the 'Hall of Calls' I take it as a compliment. It speaks to tradition. Does Mackey Arena get those calls? No. You have individuals that get paid $15,000 to be objective that do not always make the right call. It's tradition.
After thinking back to Dakich's wisdom, for the first time I embraced the pseudo trash talk. The result? It absolutely increased my enjoyment of the game watching experience, much to the chagrin of the Wolverine fan. With that small tangent out of the way, let's jump into three things we learned from last night's game:
1. The real winner last night was Hoosier Nation. I could only guess that the attendance for College GameDay was one of the largest the show has seen. The door's opened at 8 AM and when the show started at 10 AM the entire West side of Assembly Hall was completely full. Hoosier Nation and the tradition of Indiana University basketball were on full display for the world to see. And let's just say you prefer to watch golf over basketball for whatever reason, you still knew there was a game.
IU alumnus Jeff Overton received permission from the PGA tour to wear the candy stripe warm-ups for one hole during the third round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open yesterday afternoon.
The energy that was showcased during the two hour show on ESPN carried over to tip off. Local, regional, national media members alike were impressed with the environment. Mike Pegram, founder of Peegs.com stated it was the loudest first five minutes of a game he's ever attended. Assistant Athletic Director Jeremy Gray confirmed that last night set a new decibel record at 116. Post game, Jay Bilas noted that "College GameDay at Indiana was one of our best ever. Assembly Hall is a special place, and the people of Bloomington were tremendous!"
Side Note: I think what makes events like this special at Indiana is the tradition. My father graduated from Indiana in 1982. He still gets goose bumps when he attends games because it has remained unchanged.
For those who haven't seen it, the above is a picture of Indiana's alternate jersey's provided by Adidas. Personally, I am not a fan. I feel like Indiana is unique because they don't give in to fads such as this. All that I ask is that if the Hoosiers do sport these jerseys at some point, please do not let it be in Assembly Hall and they better not have a name on the back.
2. Victor Oladipo is NBA bound... after this year. If there was any remaining doubt about whether Oladipo was leaving at season's end, he answered it this week. In a week that featured two nationally televised games against ranked conference foes, as well as, a heated rivalry game his stat line reads: 17.6 PPG on 58% shooting, 38% from deep, 5.0 RPG, 3.6 SPG, 1.7 APG and 1.3 BPG. He is the best defender in the Big Ten and arguably the entire country. He doesn't play five positions, but he can guard all five effectively. And with the addition of a jump shot that other teams have to respect, he has the most complete offensive skill set on the nations top-rated offense. With that being said, let the unfortunate countdown begin. Assembly Hall has four games left to enjoy "Zell-adipo" (they deserve a nickname that rivals Hollywood couples).
3. Trey Burke will be the National POY. There was a ridiculous stat thrown out there after the game last night. In forty-five possessions, guarding four different people, Oladipo only gave up four points. They were to Trey Burke. I treat that like shooting Chuck Norris the wrong look twice and getting away with it. His actual stat-line from last night's game was 25 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals. The crazy thing is, the numbers alone do not do any justice to how impressive he was. He made step-back fade-aways look easy, did cross-overs that made my ankles hurt and it didn't even look like he was trying. He is better than advertised and all you need to know is that the only person in Big Ten history to average 17.0+ PPG and 7.0+ APG over the course of an entire season is Magic Johnson. Burke is currently averaging 18.2 PPG and 7.2 APG.
