Pep rally fires up pre-game crowd

Junior Bo Miller didn't even know there was a Dick Vitale impersonation contest going on Wednesday. But he won the competition at the pep rally in Mellencamp Pavillion before the men's basketball game between No. 1 Duke and No. 16 Indiana.\nIU football player and master of ceremonies Lance Bennett said he loved that Miller gave a "shout out" to Bennett in his rendition of the famed college basketball analyst.\n"I don't like getting in front of people," Miller said. "I saw Lance up there, so I figured I'd give it my best shot."\nMiller gave his Vitale impersonation in front of several hundred in attendance for the pep rally, including the IU Pep Band and the cheerleaders. IU football coach Terry Hoeppner, men's soccer coach Mike Freitag and women's basketball coach Sharon Versyp served as the judges to the contest.\n"I thought he had a lot of creative things to say," Freitag said. "He really got into it and the crowd loved it."\nWhen the doors opened at 6:45 p.m. a swarm of people rushed in to buy the remaining 1,000 T-shirts for the IU Athletics Department "White Out" promotion, in which they tried to get everyone to wear white to the game. The T-shirts sold out in 15 minutes.\nThe Vitale contest kicked things off for the evening followed by cheers started by both the cheerleaders and the band. There was also a hot chicken wing eating contest with participants from the crowd -- including IU senior and former football player Russ Richardson. Richardson dominated the competition with John Mellencamp's "Small Town" playing over the sound system, as he was the first to clean his plate of wings.\n"This contest isn't rigged," Bennett told the crowd.\nHoeppner came back out to the circle on the floor in the middle of all of those in attendance to give a pep talk of his own. The first year IU football coach got half of the crowd to chant "Give 'em hell!" and the other half to reply "Hoosiers!"\n"They think they're crazy," Hoeppner told the crowd referring to Duke's student section back in North Carolina. "Well, we're going to be crazier tonight."\nBennett and his brother Kel Spencer ended the evening's rally with a rap about the men's basketball team, mentioning each player on the Hoosiers' roster. The song played on the public address system while the two teams warmed up before Wednesday's game.\nBennett also wrote a song for this season's football team titled "Knock, Knock" and wrote songs for rapper Will Smith.\n"It's part of the college atmosphere and this is suppose to be a big party," Bennett said. "I'm all about people having fun"