Crean makes Haunted Hall of Hoops a treat for kids on Halloween

Assembly Hall has seen a lot of things – The Rolling Stones, a chair-wielding coach and The King of Rock ’n’ Roll.

But the fabled basketball arena that has housed the Hoosiers since 1971 most likely saw a few things for the first time this Halloween: a halftime costume parade, a spirited game of Chubby Bunny and a 7-foot-tall junior holding Cinderella above his head so she could make a lay-up.

These are just a few of the lasting images from the “Haunted Hall of Hoops” on Friday.

The event, culminating in an intrasquad scrimmage, didn’t have the “same type of atmosphere” as previous exhibitions this fall, IU coach Tom Crean said. But the first-year coach, sans costume, said he was more concerned with the kids in attendance having a good time.

Crean led a parade procession across Branch McCracken Court that included 88 children dressed in costumes ranging from Iron Man to Kevin Garnett to Tinkerbell. He left coaching duties to his assistants in favor of personally greeting countless children.

The crowd delivered its loudest applause of the night when Crean pulled junior center Tijan Jobe from a huddle to hoist a little girl, who couldn’t muster the ball to the rim, above his head so she could make a basket during a shooting contest.

Following the scrimmage and a few more photo ops, Crean took questions from reporters. But it was clear the crimson-clad coach wasn’t overly concerned with his team’s lackluster performance.

“You guys are talking to me like we’re 15 games in,” he said, smiling. “It’s a scrimmage on Halloween where we have all these little kids in costumes on the floor.”

Crean said he didn’t coach with “the same type of fervor” Friday night, citing the team’s long week of practice. He said he was happy to get his team playing in front of fans, under the lights and with referees but was more focused on having a good time and giving back to the fans.

“I think it was a success,” he said.

As for the scrimmage, the Crimson squad, led by junior guard Devan Dumes, led early and was never seriously challenged, winning 71-52.

Dumes finished with 19 points and was joined in double-figures by freshmen teammates Nick Williams (15), Verdell Jones (12) and Matt Roth (11).

Jones, who was traded at halftime to the Cream team, finished the scrimmage with 18 points overall, after scoring a game-high 30 points in the team’s last scrimmage.

“I think a lot of us were a little tired and worn down from the practices this week,” Jones said. “We didn’t come out with as much energy as we should have. We had a hard practice earlier right before the scrimmage. I thought overall we did OK.”

In a losing effort, junior transfer Jeremiah Rivers scored 23 points for the Cream. The former Georgetown guard shot 9-of-18 from the floor, including five 3-pointers.

Junior forward Steven Gambles, who played for the Cream, pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds. Freshman guard Daniel Moore, playing on the Crimson squad, once again led both teams in assists, with six.

Rivers said the team’s offense was more “fluid,” but Crean said his coaching staff is throwing so many new things at his players that “it’s not going to get comfortable for a long time.”

“We did some good things, we did some average things, we did some very poor things,” Crean said looking back on the scrimmage. “And (Sunday) morning, we’ll get back at building our team again.”