Doors to Assembly Hall will open at 5 p.m. and Hoosier Hysteria will begin at 6:30 p.m., according to an IU Athletics press release. Due to renovations on the south side arena, fans will use the north, southeast and southwest entrances to enter Assembly Hall.
Admission is free but fans are encouraged by IU Athletics to bring canned goods to donate to the Hoosier Hills Food Bank.
The women’s basketball team will have a shootaround at 5:10 p.m., followed by a performance by the IU cheerleading team and the championship game of the second annual Hoosier Hysteria 3-on-3 basketball tournament.
IU alumna and E! News co-host Catt Sadler will be the emcee at the event, which will include player introductions, shooting contests, a dunk contest and scrimmages.
Hoosier Hysteria also serves as a recruiting weekend for IU. The Hoosiers’ recruiting class of 2016 verbal commits, Grant Gelon and Curtis Jones, will be in attendance, as will uncommitted high school recruits.
Most notably, Mario Kegler, a class of 2016 small forward ranked No. 32 nationally in 247Sports’ Composite rankings, and top-30 juniors Kris Wilkes and Paul Scruggs will visit IU this weekend.
Hoosier Hysteria will be the first collegiate sporting event to be streamed in virtual reality, according to an IU Athletics press release. The virtual reality broadcast is made possible through the Cuban Center. IU Athletics will work with Dallas-based company BigLook360, allowing fans to watch the action as if they were standing on Branch McCracken court. Five Samsung GearVR headsets will be set up at 6 p.m. in the North Lobby of Assembly Hall.
“We have the best and most knowledgeable basketball fans in the country, and we are thrilled that we will be able to bring them the experience of one of our signature events in virtual reality,” Associate Athletic Director Jeremy Gray said in the release. “Fans will be able to experience what it is like to have Troy Williams fly over you for a dunk, how quick Yogi Ferrell is off the dribble and what it is like to watch the action courtside. This is the future of fan experience and recruiting and we are excited that the Mark Cuban Center for Sports Media and Technology is at the vanguard of this technology.”
The streaming capabilities allow every viewer to personally interact with and control what they see and when they see it.
IU Athletics is one of the first athletic departments in the country to substantially utilize virtual reality. Students and faculty members have and will continue to independently create virtual reality content for use in athlete instruction, in-venue fan experience and to interact with fans on the Internet and social media.
Andy Wittry
