Eamonn and I are up in Chicago now for Big Ten media day, which kicks off tomorrow morning at 9 a.m.
But, before we left, we caught a good chunk of the open basketball scrimmage this afternoon in Assembly Hall. Here are some of our notes and thoughts from the event:
- The scrimmage was pretty well attended with most of the lower level of Assembly Hall full. So, we're estimating there were around 10,000 people at the start of the event. Fans filed out here and there as the scrimmage wore on until there were only a few hundred towards the end.
- The scrimmage was much more of a cohesive effort than the one put on at Hoosier Hysteria. There were two referees officiating the game and both the cream and the crimson squad ran some offensive sets. We stayed for the first two 20 minute scrimmages, and then had to leave to go through the all-too-fun process of picking up our company car.
- Of all the IU players, Rod Wilmont looked best to us. He hit a good amount of outside jumpers and also a couple threes. Wilmont also looked good on the break, making some layups in transition. D.J. White also looked in his element, backing down teammate Ben Allen in the block and hitting some turnaround short jumpers. Newcomer Lance Stemler knocked down a few trifectas himself.
- James Hardy walked out of the bottom level of Assembly Hall and onto Branch McCracken Court early on during the event and received some applause from the Hoosier faithful. I'm sure his four touchdown performance against Michigan State had a little to do with it. He sat on the crimson team's bench for awhile and went and chatted with Coach Sampson a bit as well.
We'll throw up a post tomorrow night after we get back into Bloomington.
See you then.
