As the name hints, March Madness doesn't come without its share of memorable moments, both on and off the court, and in Dayton, Ohio Thursday, during the IU men's basketball team's pre-game press conference those in attendance witnessed one of the best media-player face offs so far this season.
After taking several questions on Friday's opponent, James Madison, as well as questions about the weight of going in as a No. 1 seed, one member of the media asked junior guard Victor Oladipo some "James Madison trivia" in an attempt to bring about a few humorous quotes.
Oladipo took the question in stride, correctly naming James Madison's conference (the Colonial Athletic Association), their mascot (the Dukes) and where the team is from (Virginia).
"They're in the CAA. I think they're like the Dukes, James Madison Dukes. What was the other one? They're from Virginia, the DMV. Yeah, I'm from there, so I know a little somethin'\0x2011somethin' about James Madison."
And then the chuckles began.
The media member asked Oladipo if he knew who "James Madison, the figure" was, hinting at the early American politician who helped craft the Constitution.
Oladipo made it very clear that he needed a little brushing up on his U.S. history.
"He signed the Declaration or something like that. You mean the person, right? James Madison, he signed something big, like the Declaration of Independence. I'm right, right? Emancipation Proclamation, something like that. One of those big names. I know he's a big historic figure in U.S. history."
To Oladipo's defense, when he and sophomore forward Cody Zeller asked the media member what a "Hoosier" was, he didn't attempt to know what it was, and Oladipo replied with, "I think I'm 4\0x20110. I think I won that little trivia challenge right there"
As long as Oladipo and the Hoosiers did more research on James Madison, the basketball team, the Hoosiers likely won't have much of a problem taking down the Dukes tomorrow afternoon in the first round of the NCAA Tournament (or what some big-wigs want to call the second round...I refuse to believe the play-in games on Tuesday and Wednesday constitute the "first round" of the tournament).
Although, you also would hope that college students around the country would know how to correctly identify one of our nation's founding fathers. In March, I guess you just never know.
