BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — We love Assembly Hall. We love the energy when it’s full of people. It’s the ”cathedral,” like Gus Johnson calls it.
It’s the place we go to feel better. That’s what Indiana basketball — with all the tradition and routines and memories — is all about.
We gathered by the thousands on Friday night for Hoosier Hysteria, the unofficial start of the 2024-25 basketball season for Indiana’s men’s and women’s basketball teams. It’s a new year.
So can we start to feel that way? Can we be happy again? Optimistic again? Can we?
For Mike Woodson’s Indiana basketball team, last year was tough. The Hoosiers lost 14 games, finished just 10-10 in the Big Ten and lost a whopping nine games by double digits, including five by 20 points or more when they were barely competitive. The season ended with a 93-66 loss to Nebraska in the Big Ten Tournament, a loss so demoralizing that Woodson declined to even talk about an NIT invitation, saying it was too important to get right out on the recruiting trail to build a whole new roster.
Fans were disgusted across the board. They weren’t alone. I’m all about bashing the whiners, but even I had to admit that last year’s team was really hard to watch at times. Those five 20-point losses were especially difficult.
I get the angst, but I also think the swill in the fan base needs to remember that that season is over. We’re on to 2024-25 now — and last year is completely irrelevant. It doesn’t mean a damn thing.
There are seven new faces on Indiana’s roster — and they can all play. Woodson needed to rebuild this roster, and he did. All the portal pickups — and five-star freshman Bryson Tucker — all have impressive resumes. They are ranked in every national preseason poll, and they’re a top-three pick in a lot of big Ten power rankings.
It’s easy to be excited in October. Everyone is 0-0 and thinking good thoughts. We should be doing that here in Bloomington, too, but there’s still a lot of negativity out there. There shouldn’t be. This is Woodson’s fourth team at Indiana, and it is by far his best. And I say that with all due respect to Trayce Jackson-Davis, my all-time favorite Indiana Hoosier.
We have to wait to see, of course, but this team has a lot of talent at the guard and wing spots, something we haven’t see here in a long time. A team that couldn’t shoot? Not anymore. Three important portal gets — Myles Rice, Kanaan Carlyle and Luke Goode — made a combined 129 three-pointers last year at Washington State, Stanford and Illinois respectively.
Indiana as a team only made 166.
That’s going to be a big change in this Indiana team. They are athletic, and can run up and down the floor. They can get open threes — and will hopefully knock them down as a better rate. They won’t be reliant in throwing the ball into the post every possession.
This team could really be a lot of fun to watch.
Small ball might be back. And that could be a whole lot of fun.
“I’d like to get to some small ball this year, like I’d had in New York, where Mack (Mgbako) and Goode can play some four, and we can still be athletic enough out on the floor with one of the bigs to compete at a high level,” Woodson said a few weeks ago. “I’ve experimented with it a little bit this summer into fall play. Only time will tell, man. That’s where I’d like to get to, where we don’t have to constantly pound the ball a lot. Play some small ball and get up and down the floor some.”
Hoosiers fans a champing at the bit for some basketball, and they got their first taste of it on Friday night at Simon Skojdt Assembly Hall for Hoosier Hysteria. It was a different format this year, with some actual basketball being played in scrimmages along with some skill competitions.
And it’s here. Next Sunday we’re off to Knoxville, Tenn. for a charity exhibition game with a very good Tennessee team. We’ll start to learn a little then. And we’ll have one exhibition game here in Bloomington on Nov. 1 against Pat Knight’s Marian team.
The opening game is Nov. 6 against SIU-Edwardsville at Assembly Hall, which is just 18 days away now., It will be here before we know it. And our calendar all winter is filled with days and nights where we HAVE TO BE at Assembly Hall.
This is a good time to be a Hoosier, it really is. There are only seven schools in all of America with nationally ranked football and men’s basketball teams. There are only five schools with ranked football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball teams. Throw in IU’s ranked men’s soccer team, and Indiana is the ONLY school in the country ranked in all four sports.
This is a fun Homecoming weekend here, with Indiana and Nebraska playing a key nationally televised football game on Saturday. Hoosier Hysteria is just a taste, but we’ll take it. It’s a start, and it gets the juices flowing.
The new-look Hoosiers are ready to go.
“I love everything about (these transfers), starting with the big guy (Oumar) Ballo,”Woodson said during his on-court interview with Hoosier Hysteria host Tricia Whitaker. “And our freshman (Bryson) Tucker, I have to mention him. He’s the only freshman on our roster, but he doesn’t play like a freshman. He’s been really good for me.”
It’s all about winning titles, Woodson said, and making fans happy.
“We’ve got the best fans in college basketball. We’ve got an opportunity to win the Big Ten title. We have been able to go out and put a team together for this basketball season. I think we’re a deeper team that we’ve been in the past and it’s my job to put it all together. They’ve been working their butts off and doing the things we need to do to win at a high level.”
We can know full well that this team had to get better. They have. So let’s get on board.
“It’s on me and my staff to push them in the right direction. When I took this job, I said it’s not about me. It’s about what Bob Knight built and one day these young guys might understand if we could do that. That’s the only thing I preach to these guys. Winning a title, that’s all that’s left for me. I learned the passion for the game from (Bob Knight) and we don’t always get it right, but that’s what we’re striving for.”
It’s almost here. There’s a lot to like.
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