A few of my takeaway points from Hoosier Hysteria:
- I beg you not to read too much into Saturday night. Whether that relates to recruiting , player performance or really anything else, Hoosier Hysteria is a fun night and not a barometer for anything. The scrimmage is a small sample of what could be and I doubt Gary Harris will rest his decision on how many chants about him echoed throughout Assembly Hall
- The crowd tonight was huge, impressive and loud -at least in the beginning. The announced attendance was 16,100 and the place was packed, the biggest crowd I've seen for Midnight Madness in the Crean era. The majority of the crowd was non-students and when a chant got started it wasn't clear where it got started, as opposed to during games when the student section usually gets the rowdiest.
- For much of the night Gary Harris was seated in the front row behind the North basket with 2013 commit Collin Hartman and 2012 commit Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell seated next to him. I watched his facial expressions, which didn't really say much. He smiled during the first chant of his name that proved to be the loudest of the evening. The attention towards him certainly wasn't as intense as last year with Cody Zeller, though. I saw zero Gary Harris signs and the chants really became weak and sparse after the initial one.
- Austin Etherington won the three-point shooting contest and Will Sheehey took the dunk contest with a pretty cool slam via a header pass from former high school soccer star Daniel Moore.
- My MVP for the scrimmage goes to Jordan Hulls. He looked dynamic on offense, consistently knocking down shots and distributing the ball for scoring opportunities. Hull definitely played aggressively and took the reigns of the offense, as he should.
- A close second was Will Sheehey. The bulked-up sophomore was strong inside and made the argument for why he should be in the starting five. With Creek out, believe that Sheehey is looking for more minutes. He led all scorers in the scrimmage with 12 (unofficially).
- Cody Zeller did not disappoint. In his debut wearing the candy stripes, Zeller ran the floor, earning transition buckets that amounted to a trio of crowd-pleasing slams on his way to an unofficial total of 10 points
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