It's That Time of the Year - Time for Hoosier Hysteria
10/20/2017 11:26:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Andy Graham, IUHoosiers.com
The harvest moon gives way to actual harvest. The fields, except those lying fallow, begin yielding their grain. There is a crispness in the air.
Just the sort of context that, in Hoosierland, breeds hysteria.
The hoops kind.
It is an annual autumnal pilgrimage as thousands of Hoosiers adjourn to Indiana University's Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall for what was once called "Midnight Madness" and is now known as "Hoosier Hysteria."
IU is one of very few programs nationwide to routinely pack its basketball venue for what is essentially a practice evolved into entertainment, a recruiting showcase serving to introduce a new team for a new season.
And in this Saturday evening's case, a new coach.
Coach Archie Miller, the native Pennsylvanian hired in March to mentor the Hoosier men after a stellar six-season stint at Dayton, is already starting to grasp the meaning behind the event's moniker.
When asked what prevailing impression he'd developed since arriving in Indiana, Miller replied this way at Thursday's Big Ten Basketball Media Day in New York City:
"It's overwhelming how many people live and die with what we do. And I think that's a good thing – it's also a bad thing – but you have to understand there are a lot of people who love what we're doing and you have to embrace that.
"That's the thing that's been the most eye-opening experience, the most overwhelming experience, just how much they really care. And for us, we're obligated to that. We're obligated to work extremely hard and give them a team they can be proud of. You have to model everything you do not so much to please people but have them take a lot of pride in what we're doing every single day. Because it matters."
Miller enters with no illusions about the competitive standards to which he and his teams will be held.
The five NCAA championship banners hanging in Assembly Hall speak for themselves. So do five new statues installed this week in the south lobby honoring those five national title teams, designed by Brian Hanlon and funded through a major gift from Bill and Juanita Beach.
Miller will naturally need time, as is the case with any coaching transition, to mold champions. IU saw three of its top four scorers depart for the professional ranks. The remaining and incoming Hoosiers are now tasked with, among a great many other things, learning Miller's pack-line man defensive scheme from the ground up.
But Miller knows this first campaign will set a tone, help forge the mold, for what is to follow.
"Beyond winning NCAA championships and Big Ten championships, what you're trying to do right now with the current team is have a team that can model things for the future," Miller said. "From the very start, they've embraced the change and have been very coachable.
"Through our off-season, we saw a lot of gains, physically, with their games. I think (our) guys have optimism that they're going to be better players just because of what we've done early-on here."
Fans will look for signs of those gains Saturday, with doors opening at 5:30 p.m. and the program starting at 7 p.m.
The event will retain many of its traditional elements while also marking Miller's debut. Attendance remains free, with attendees encouraged to bring canned goods destined for the Hoosier Hills Food Bank.
A dunk contest will again transpire, though perhaps without as many participants as in years past. Also again, the IU women will join the men in skills competitions and in signing autographs for a half-hour after the event concludes.
But the men's scrimmage will probably come sooner in the evening and likely last longer than in past years, approximating the better part of a game. Because Miller intuitively understands Hoosiers mostly want to see basketball players actually play basketball.
"At the end of the day, it's basketball," Miller said Thursday, "and we understand that basketball is No. 1 in the state of Indiana."
Johnny Jager understands.
Jager has multiple perspectives on Hoosier Hysteria. He grew up in Bloomington and began attending Midnight Madness as a kindergartener. He served as a ball boy for the program as a fifth grader, then sat in the stands as a fan, and now views it all as an IU player.
"I always remember it was hard to stay up till midnight as a kid," Jager said, "but you had to do it because it was such a treat.
"The dunk contest was always so much fun to watch, and the three-point contest was cool, but just seeing the team scrimmage for the first time was always so exciting and interesting."
Jager knows Indiana fans don't just want to be entertained. They want to evaluate.
"Especially the new players," he said. "Everybody always wants to see how the new guys fit in. Often enough, it's the first time the fans have ever gotten to see them play basketball. And a lot of them might have a big impact on the team, so it's always fun to go out and watch.
"And then, too, people can see the new wrinkles in the offense or defense – especially this year, with a new coaching staff. I'm sure everybody is excited and intrigued just to see what it looks like … Indiana fans are educated basketball fans. They know what they're talking about most of the time. They really want to see how the product looks on the floor."
Which means the scrimmage will be more than a mere exhibition.
"We're going into this like it's a dress-rehearsal," Jager said. "We're not treating it like an all-star game, with no defense. We're going to go 100 percent out there."
Not only will fans get their first look at Miller's first IU team, Miller will get his initial exposure to Assembly Hall in all its high-decibel glory.
As will some of the prospective recruits, several making official visits to campus this weekend.
Jager could tell them something about what to expect, based upon memories going all the way back to childhood.
"It's not one memory that stands out so much as I just remember being little, going in there and seeing how it was literally jam-packed, basically standing-room-only, for a glorified practice," Jager said. "Half the stuff that goes on isn't really relevant to basketball. But people take it seriously. It really gives you cold chills to see how important it is to people."
Senior guard Robert Johnson noted seriousness and intensity will be a two-way street with Miller at the Hoosier helm, evident as early as Saturday evening.
"High-intensity and a lot of energy, with whatever we're doing," Johnson said of Miller's approach. "I think it gets contagious for us. And when it's lacking, that's when it becomes a problem. I think it's been good for us."
Collin Hartman, who went through IU's Senior Day last spring after sustaining a knee injury that cost him the entirety of the campaign, opted to return for his final season of eligibility to play for Miller – and notes Miller's emphasis on aspects of the game held dear by long-time Hoosier fans.
"At the end of the day, we want our calling-card to be defense and taking care of the ball," Hartman said. "Because we feel if you do those couple of things, you put yourself in a very good position to win a ballgame."
Hartman said fans will see some Hoosiers ready to fill more extensive roles than perhaps they had in the past.
"Guys like Freddie McSwain, Devonte Green and Juwan Morgan have opportunities this year," Hartman said, "… to really step into their own shoes and really help this team."
Johnson acknowledges the Hoosiers lost some offensive firepower. But he still feels they have overt potential.
"We have the opportunity to do a lot of great things, regardless of what happened last year and the transition we've gone through," Johnson said. I still think we have the opportunity, and have the personnel, to do some big things."
Big Ten Network analyst Jon Crispin said Thursday he sees Miller as a good fit at IU. "I mean, this is a blue-collar guy who is going to get guys to play hard, whether they want to or not," Crispin said.
Miller feels his track record should breed belief.
"I feel very confident that as I sit here, you know, I think I know what we do works," he said. "I believe in what we do. I think it's going to take some time, some ups and downs … at the same time I know I'm in an unbelievable league with tremendous coaches and players. And I'm going to have to figure out how our stuff works within this conference as time goes by.
"But at your disposal is Assembly Hall. At your disposal is one of the great fan bases in college basketball."
A fan base that turns out in thousands for Hoosier Hysteria. And one that expects greatness will come.
"You have a fan base that craves success, because they're used to it and want more of it," Miller said. "… I think they want to see a prideful team. A prideful program.
"They can expect a team that's playing really hard, that plays unselfish, that plays for Indiana and for our great fans – a team that understands you have to have a lot of pride when you play for Indiana. It's got to be a prideful, purposeful approach to being a player here. Every former player, every … fan, everybody who has ever loved IU has a great pride in the product on the floor every day. And the product isn't just game day."
No, it's even Hoosier Hysteria day.
The frost will be on the pumpkin soon.
And, in Hoosierland, it's time to start putting the pumpkin through the hoop.
The harvest moon gives way to actual harvest. The fields, except those lying fallow, begin yielding their grain. There is a crispness in the air.
Just the sort of context that, in Hoosierland, breeds hysteria.
The hoops kind.
It is an annual autumnal pilgrimage as thousands of Hoosiers adjourn to Indiana University's Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall for what was once called "Midnight Madness" and is now known as "Hoosier Hysteria."
IU is one of very few programs nationwide to routinely pack its basketball venue for what is essentially a practice evolved into entertainment, a recruiting showcase serving to introduce a new team for a new season.
And in this Saturday evening's case, a new coach.
Coach Archie Miller, the native Pennsylvanian hired in March to mentor the Hoosier men after a stellar six-season stint at Dayton, is already starting to grasp the meaning behind the event's moniker.
When asked what prevailing impression he'd developed since arriving in Indiana, Miller replied this way at Thursday's Big Ten Basketball Media Day in New York City:
"It's overwhelming how many people live and die with what we do. And I think that's a good thing – it's also a bad thing – but you have to understand there are a lot of people who love what we're doing and you have to embrace that.
"That's the thing that's been the most eye-opening experience, the most overwhelming experience, just how much they really care. And for us, we're obligated to that. We're obligated to work extremely hard and give them a team they can be proud of. You have to model everything you do not so much to please people but have them take a lot of pride in what we're doing every single day. Because it matters."
Miller enters with no illusions about the competitive standards to which he and his teams will be held.
The five NCAA championship banners hanging in Assembly Hall speak for themselves. So do five new statues installed this week in the south lobby honoring those five national title teams, designed by Brian Hanlon and funded through a major gift from Bill and Juanita Beach.
Miller will naturally need time, as is the case with any coaching transition, to mold champions. IU saw three of its top four scorers depart for the professional ranks. The remaining and incoming Hoosiers are now tasked with, among a great many other things, learning Miller's pack-line man defensive scheme from the ground up.
But Miller knows this first campaign will set a tone, help forge the mold, for what is to follow.
"Beyond winning NCAA championships and Big Ten championships, what you're trying to do right now with the current team is have a team that can model things for the future," Miller said. "From the very start, they've embraced the change and have been very coachable.
"Through our off-season, we saw a lot of gains, physically, with their games. I think (our) guys have optimism that they're going to be better players just because of what we've done early-on here."
Fans will look for signs of those gains Saturday, with doors opening at 5:30 p.m. and the program starting at 7 p.m.
The event will retain many of its traditional elements while also marking Miller's debut. Attendance remains free, with attendees encouraged to bring canned goods destined for the Hoosier Hills Food Bank.
A dunk contest will again transpire, though perhaps without as many participants as in years past. Also again, the IU women will join the men in skills competitions and in signing autographs for a half-hour after the event concludes.
But the men's scrimmage will probably come sooner in the evening and likely last longer than in past years, approximating the better part of a game. Because Miller intuitively understands Hoosiers mostly want to see basketball players actually play basketball.
"At the end of the day, it's basketball," Miller said Thursday, "and we understand that basketball is No. 1 in the state of Indiana."
Johnny Jager understands.
Jager has multiple perspectives on Hoosier Hysteria. He grew up in Bloomington and began attending Midnight Madness as a kindergartener. He served as a ball boy for the program as a fifth grader, then sat in the stands as a fan, and now views it all as an IU player.
"I always remember it was hard to stay up till midnight as a kid," Jager said, "but you had to do it because it was such a treat.
"The dunk contest was always so much fun to watch, and the three-point contest was cool, but just seeing the team scrimmage for the first time was always so exciting and interesting."
Jager knows Indiana fans don't just want to be entertained. They want to evaluate.
"Especially the new players," he said. "Everybody always wants to see how the new guys fit in. Often enough, it's the first time the fans have ever gotten to see them play basketball. And a lot of them might have a big impact on the team, so it's always fun to go out and watch.
"And then, too, people can see the new wrinkles in the offense or defense – especially this year, with a new coaching staff. I'm sure everybody is excited and intrigued just to see what it looks like … Indiana fans are educated basketball fans. They know what they're talking about most of the time. They really want to see how the product looks on the floor."
Which means the scrimmage will be more than a mere exhibition.
"We're going into this like it's a dress-rehearsal," Jager said. "We're not treating it like an all-star game, with no defense. We're going to go 100 percent out there."
Not only will fans get their first look at Miller's first IU team, Miller will get his initial exposure to Assembly Hall in all its high-decibel glory.
As will some of the prospective recruits, several making official visits to campus this weekend.
Jager could tell them something about what to expect, based upon memories going all the way back to childhood.
"It's not one memory that stands out so much as I just remember being little, going in there and seeing how it was literally jam-packed, basically standing-room-only, for a glorified practice," Jager said. "Half the stuff that goes on isn't really relevant to basketball. But people take it seriously. It really gives you cold chills to see how important it is to people."
Senior guard Robert Johnson noted seriousness and intensity will be a two-way street with Miller at the Hoosier helm, evident as early as Saturday evening.
"High-intensity and a lot of energy, with whatever we're doing," Johnson said of Miller's approach. "I think it gets contagious for us. And when it's lacking, that's when it becomes a problem. I think it's been good for us."
Collin Hartman, who went through IU's Senior Day last spring after sustaining a knee injury that cost him the entirety of the campaign, opted to return for his final season of eligibility to play for Miller – and notes Miller's emphasis on aspects of the game held dear by long-time Hoosier fans.
"At the end of the day, we want our calling-card to be defense and taking care of the ball," Hartman said. "Because we feel if you do those couple of things, you put yourself in a very good position to win a ballgame."
Hartman said fans will see some Hoosiers ready to fill more extensive roles than perhaps they had in the past.
"Guys like Freddie McSwain, Devonte Green and Juwan Morgan have opportunities this year," Hartman said, "… to really step into their own shoes and really help this team."
Johnson acknowledges the Hoosiers lost some offensive firepower. But he still feels they have overt potential.
"We have the opportunity to do a lot of great things, regardless of what happened last year and the transition we've gone through," Johnson said. I still think we have the opportunity, and have the personnel, to do some big things."
Big Ten Network analyst Jon Crispin said Thursday he sees Miller as a good fit at IU. "I mean, this is a blue-collar guy who is going to get guys to play hard, whether they want to or not," Crispin said.
Miller feels his track record should breed belief.
"I feel very confident that as I sit here, you know, I think I know what we do works," he said. "I believe in what we do. I think it's going to take some time, some ups and downs … at the same time I know I'm in an unbelievable league with tremendous coaches and players. And I'm going to have to figure out how our stuff works within this conference as time goes by.
"But at your disposal is Assembly Hall. At your disposal is one of the great fan bases in college basketball."
A fan base that turns out in thousands for Hoosier Hysteria. And one that expects greatness will come.
"You have a fan base that craves success, because they're used to it and want more of it," Miller said. "… I think they want to see a prideful team. A prideful program.
"They can expect a team that's playing really hard, that plays unselfish, that plays for Indiana and for our great fans – a team that understands you have to have a lot of pride when you play for Indiana. It's got to be a prideful, purposeful approach to being a player here. Every former player, every … fan, everybody who has ever loved IU has a great pride in the product on the floor every day. And the product isn't just game day."
No, it's even Hoosier Hysteria day.
The frost will be on the pumpkin soon.
And, in Hoosierland, it's time to start putting the pumpkin through the hoop.
Players Mentioned
Guard
/ Men's Basketball
Forward
/ Men's Basketball
Guard
/ Men's Basketball
Guard
/ Men's Basketball
Forward
/ Men's BasketballFB: Kellan Wyatt Media Availability (9/16/25)
Tuesday, September 16
FB: Mikail Kamara Media Availability (9/16/25)
Tuesday, September 16
FB: Curt Cignetti Media Availability (9/15/25)
Monday, September 15
FB: Under The Hood - Week 3 (Indiana State)
Thursday, September 11