Hoosiers fall to Penn State in packed Hall

The view wasn’t any better, but for the first time all season Saturday, Assembly Hall’s balcony was packed.

In the 24 hours preceding the game, IU Athletics sold 1,500 student tickets for the unprecedented price of $5, leading to one of the Hall’s best turnouts of the year.

A minute prior to tip-off Saturday, a press release was sent out announcing IU Athletics Director Fred Glass had lowered balcony seats to $5 for the rest of the season.

During his time as a student on campus, Glass, who graduated in 1981, couldn’t purchase season tickets to half the games the Hoosiers played in Assembly Hall due to the demand. Now, a student can walk up to the ticket office on game day and gain admission for the price of a foot-long sandwich.

On Oct. 28, the day he was hired, Glass acknowledged the program “uncharacteristically” had student season tickets still available. It took Glass less than a month in office, and only one home game, before he decided to take action and lower ticket prices.

Noting attendance around the conference has been down, Glass said in the press release that some of the ticket problems are “likely attributable to the challenging national economic situation.”

But some of it, likely, is due to the team’s performance on the court. The Hoosiers (5-12, 0-5) have lost their last eight games, four of which have come at home. The team’s losing streak is the longest since 1964 and the team’s 0-5 start in the Big Ten is the worst opening stretch since the 1940s.

On Saturday, the program that takes so much pride in tradition continued to rewrite history in the wrong way. The Hoosiers surrendered their first loss to the Nittany Lions inside Assembly Hall ever, previously winning the first 15 match-ups.

With a packed house of 15,626 people loudly cheering every basket and providing “great support,” freshman guard Verdell Jones said he thought Saturday’s game would snap the skid.

“I really thought this was going to be the game we got a ‘W,’” he said. “Unfortunately it wasn’t. Hopefully, Minnesota will be.”

The Hoosiers never led in their 65-55 loss to Penn State. After the game, IU coach Tom Crean said his team lacked “basketball maturity” at times, which cost them in critical possessions.

“I just want to see them get a win so much right now,” Crean said. “We all come from winning, and we come from (playing and coaching) big games … but with this team, you want them as a team to feel that thrill of winning, and we still don’t understand how long the game is.”

Crean added, “A win would do a lot of things for us right now, but we don’t have it.”
Instead, the team will take some much-needed time off to regroup and prepare for Sunday’s game against Minnesota.

“We’ve won before; it’s not like we haven’t won a game yet (this season),” senior forward Kyle Taber said. “But it has been a while. We know we’re right there. We are just taking every step we can to get back to that point.”

Despite losing 10 of their last 11 games, spirits remain high around Crean and the team.

Crean said he felt a “great buzz in the building” Saturday and said the program will continue “to do everything we can to make this season better.”

Taber and Jones both said although the team isn’t winning, the students continue to offer support.

“They tell us keep our heads up, just to keep playing hard and it’s a growing experience,” Jones said. “They always tell us they have our back.”