Hoosiers thrill eager crowd at scrimmage

Men's basketball coach Mike Davis said he wanted to have a good time at Midnight Madness as Friday night turned into Saturday morning at Assembly Hall. Judging by his reactions to his players' loose style of basketball, Davis at least somewhat enjoyed himself.\nAnd more important than what happened Saturday morning, Davis was more pleased with what his team didn't do, pointing out that some players last year had too much fun.\n"I want to have fun, but I don't want to embarrass the program," Davis said. "It was better than last year."\nThe fans seemed to have no complaints. A raucous crowd that filled nearly every seat except the balcony level was entertained by a spot shot competition, a three point contest and a slam dunk competition before a 10 minute intrasquad scrimmage by the men's team.\nSophomore guard A.J. Moye and women's freshman forward Me'sha Salters won the shooting competition. Freshman walk-on guard Ryan Tapak had a surprise performance, winning the three-point contest and Moye ended the games by winning the slam dunk competition.\n"I worked hard in the off-season and (Davis) rewarded me with the opportunity to display my newfound shooting touch," Moye said. "We had fun."\nThe intrasquad scrimmage was the first chance for Davis to watch his team play with referees. The white squad, led for the second year in a row by sophomore center George Leach, beat the red team, 24-21. Leach had 14 points.\nJunior guard Tom Coverdale ran the offense for the white team while freshman Donald Perry did the same for the red team. Perry had several nice moves and a couple of assists to senior Jarrad Odle.\n"The scrimmage wasn't as sharp and good as we'd have liked, but that's to be expected because we haven't had any practice time," Coverdale said.\nThere were several turnovers by both teams and the offense was never much more than one-on-one moves from the wings. Davis wasn't surprised, but said the practice went better than last season's opening scrimmage.\n"(Midnight Madness) was bad but last year was awful," Davis said. "We haven't done anything as far as structure so it was like an open-gym, pick-up game."\nSaturday morning was more of an opportunity for fans to see the individual skills developed by the players during the off-season. Sophomore forward Jared Jeffries, who sat out the scrimmage with a minor foot injury, said the team took advantage of the personal attention from the coaching staff.\n"The coaches have done a good job developing the kind of workout we needed, and we've worked hard as a team to get ready for that," Jeffries said.\nEight hours after they concluded Midnight Madness, the Hoosiers were back on the floor, holding another public practice Saturday morning in front of about 500 fans. Jeffries, who hurt his foot during a pickup game late last week, practiced.\nThe team worked on shooting under pressure, boxing out and free throw shooting, something lacking during the scrimmage.\nThe Hoosiers took the day off Sunday but begin regular practices today. \nDavis said he was pleased with the team's individual work with coaches, but he also wants his players to focus on working hard over the next month before the first game, Nov. 18 at Charlotte.\n"I thought we really worked hard the past week," Davis said. "We have some guys that need to get pushed a little bit."\nCoverdale said the team is in a better spot now than it was a year ago.\n"The most important thing is what kind of shape we're in right now and I think we're in 10 times better shape than we were in last year," he said. "Everybody's just a lot more relaxed and looking forward to the season"