GRAHAM - The Hysteria Begins - Indiana University Athletics

Saturday, September 29

Bloomington, Ind.

4:00 PM

Indiana University

Hoosier Hysteria presented by Smithville Fiber

GRAHAM - The Hysteria Begins

9/29/2018 8:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball

VIDEO: Player Introductions VIDEO: MIller Speech STORY: Oladipo Zeller Legacy Lounge STORY: Roberts Family Team Center Photo Gallery

By: Andy Graham, IUHoosiers.com

By: Andy Graham, IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Indiana - The crimson Women's NIT 2018 championship banner arose majestically toward the Assembly Hall rafters Saturday afternoon.
And Indiana basketball partisans certainly wouldn't mind seeing banner-raising? become habitual.

Romeo Langford, part of a celebrated men's basketball freshman class, put it this way when asked Wednesday about his goal heading into the 2018-19 season:

"Win the national championship."

That's the way the 2018 Indiana Mr. Basketball from New Albany has always approached any basketball campaign at any level – shoot for the biggest available prize.

And that was echoed by women's Hoosier head coach Teri Moren while watching fans file out after Hoosier Hysteria, the annual inaugural showcase for Hoosier hoops.

"One of the things about being here in Bloomington, being at Indiana, is we're all about banners," Moren said. "So it's great we can contribute from our side."

There was a lot of buzz for both the men's and women's teams Saturday as over 13,000 fans attended to say an initial supportive hello.

Evan Fitzner, the 6-foot-10 Californian grad-transfer from St. Mary's, got his first taste of all that.

"It was an awesome event," Fitzner said. "I think everybody had a lot of fun. Hopefully, we put on a good show for them … great atmosphere."

Fitzner did his bit regarding the show. He hit 3 of 4 shots from 3-point range during the 15-minute running-clock men's scrimmage that capped Saturday's proceedings.

Earlier,the customary Hoosier Hysteria trappings held sway.

A bevy of recruiting prospects garnered a cheer as they took their reserved seats in the east stands.

Brenna Wise, having sat out a year after transferring in from Pitt, and senior Juwan Morgan won the co-ed 3-point shooting contest.

The crowd was asked to adjudicate the ensuing dunk contest. The semifinals produced a fine trio.

Sophomore forward Justin Smith, whose vertical is approaching legendary status, supplied a windmill baseline effort after Devonte Green fed him him a ball off the glass.

Langford did a cartwheel in the lane and still managed to dunk.

Fellow freshman Jake Forester followed with a 360-spin dunk.

After a couple of misfires in the finals, Langford used his left hand to send the ball off glass at point-blank range and still managed to catch it with his right during a spin and throw it down.

Smith is from Illinois. Forester is from Pennsylvania. It was close, but the crowd's cheer was loudest for the home-state kid.

"Can't say it was rigged," redshirt-freshman Race Thompson said later. "Romeo just had homecourt advantage."

And that Branch McCracken Court was part of the show, too. It essentially became a very big big-screen surface, with dazzling court-projection images displayed after the squads were introduced.

That took a while for the men's squad, which has 17 players, walk-ons included.

Having added a five-man freshman class in addition to Fitzner and Thompson to the mix, this seems a significantly deeper men's team than it was during coach Archie Miller's debut last season.

And depth breeds competition.

"That's the most exciting thing as a coach, especially for a staff like ours that aspires to have a culture of competition," Miller said on the IU radio network during halftime of the Hoosiers' football win Saturday at Rutgers. "For us, there will be a standard that what we do every day in practice matters. And the productivity there leads to your opportunities in a game, and you have take advantage of your opportunities in a game to grab more.

"You never know. There are always ups and downs, and injuries and whatnot. But the deeper you are the better. The more guys you have on a given night who can help you win, when you're not one-dimensional, that makes you really dangerous. And that's what we're going to try to be."

Fitzner's three 3s made him, unofficially, the high scorer in the scrummage. Thompson didn't miss any of his three shots, including a 3, and Forester also went 3-for-3 while adding five rebounds. Fellow freshman Damezi Anderson went 3-for-4. Another freshman, Jerome Hunter, had four boards.

While newcomers made good initial impressions, some of the returnees showed off some new stuff, too. Sophomore guard Aljami Durham looked more comfortable with his jumper, going 3-for-5, including a made 3.

"Most of the summer (I spent) just making sure I was consistent with my 3-point shot, and gaining weight and just improving my overall game," Durham said afterward. "My shooting has improved.

"I have more confidence in myself and my teammates have more confidence in me. That goes a long way. I feel a year has been the difference, and it's going to show."

Moren's women might show that, despite graduation taking away their 1-2 punch of Tyra Buss and Amanda Cahill, their season is more of a reload than a rebuild.

Jaelynn Penn, Kym Royster and Bendu Yeaney are returning starters for the WMIT defending champs. Grace Berger, Aleksa Gulbe and Chanel Wilson constitute a strong freshman class, and former Indiana Miss Basketball Ali Patberg (transfer from Notre Dame) joins Wise as a redshirt-junior newcomer.

Buss, the IU women's career scoring leader who flies to Greece on Sunday to start her professional playing career, was back to see that WNIT banner hung.

"It was super-cool to be back here on the floor with the fans, and just seeing that banner go up was definitely surreal," Buss said. "It's kind of bittersweet. I leave tomorrow, but to see that with the teammates I did it with was really special."

The Hoosier men return their scoring and rebounding leader from last season in 6-8 senior Juwan Morgan.

"I would say with Juwan's game, he's really patient," said Thompson, who has to contest Morgan in practice. "His 3-point game has improved a ton. Overall athleticism, he's gotten faster, quicker."
Miller agreed. "He's worked hard on his game," Miller said of Morgan. "He's much more explosive, a more perimeter-oriented guy this year even more than last, but he can't go away from the things that made him what he was last year – which was sort of a do-it-all, workhorse kind of a guy.

"The big thing for Juwan is to embrace his senior year, his last go, so to speak, of being able to play at a special place like IU. (Many) don't get to do that. And there are always regrets when guys try to focus on the future more than the present.

"So he has to stay in the present and understand that all the work he has put in, at the end of the day, is only going to get credit in terms of wins and losses."

Miller's first IU team finished 16-15 as it adjusted to his approach to play.

Things are different now.

"It goes without saying it's a much different feeling as we roll around toward this October than it was last October," Miller said. "It's the natural progression going from year to year, but getting that first one out of the way and now having your staff together again, there is great continuity there."

"This is when you start stringing together the uncomfortable practices and finding guys who can push through that toward a higher level than they did in the past. And hopefully, as they're doing that, they're pushing other guys to get better."

Durham was asked if the returnees had helped prepare the newcomers for what they'll start to experience when practice formally commences Monday.

"I feel like we've been getting them very well prepared for what's coming on Monday," Durham replied. "I feel like they've had a glimpse of it, but they'll get adjusted in that first day. And as we keep going, we'll keep on improving each day."

That is the sort of thing that hangs banners.