IU coach Tom Crean sensed his players were nervous during the team's walk-through this afternoon.
"It felt like everyone was carrying a 50-pound weight on their back," he said.
But the Hoosiers didn't show any pre-game jitters in the opening minutes. In fact, the team opened the game with a 21-2 run.
"After the first minute we lost all of those jitters," freshman guard Verdell Jones III said.
The Hoosiers were led by junior guard Devan Dumes who finished with 22 points, including 11-11 shooting from the charity stripe. Junior forward Tom Pritchard scored 20 points and pulled down 10 rebounds before fouling out late in the game. Freshmen Malik Story and Nick Williams had 14 and 10 points, respectively.
Overall, the Hoosiers shot 56 percent from the field, but were out rebounded 37-36 by the undersized Anderson squad. After depending on the 3-ball in their public scrimmages, the Hoosiers were trigger-shy Friday, launching only 11 3's and connecting on four.
Before and after the game, Crean stopped by the IU student section to shake hands with fans.
"I'm never going to stop doing that," he said. "(The students) are the lifeline of what we're trying to do ... They are never going to have to wonder how much I appreciate them and how much we appreciate them."
It was reported earlier this week that their are 4,000 student season tickets still unsold and the leftover tickets will be made available to the public. Dumes said he was happy with Friday night's turnout (13,973) but still wants to see the seats filled.
"We still have 4,000 seats that are not filled. I'm kind of worried. I like fan support, and they've been sold out since forever," he said. "I don't want that to change"
