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Some thoughts from the floor in East Lansing


rbkl

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If you were fortunate enough to even find a seller, courtside seats for the Indiana game would have easily set you back a couple grand. 

The opportunity to be so close to the players and team is a one-of-a-kind viewing experience that is nowhere near reflected on national TV. How do the players respond to each other? What do they talk about on the bench? How do the coaches interact with each other, the refs, and the players? 

Unless you are Ken Nunn or close to that, the average person may not be able to afford such an opportunity season long. But it's definitely a worthwhile experience to at least do once or twice. Here are our thoughts from that experience on Saturday.

Indiana versus Michigan State - Top Five Floor Findings

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2 hours ago, rbkl said:

If you were fortunate enough to even find a seller, courtside seats for the Indiana game would have easily set you back a couple grand. 

The opportunity to be so close to the players and team is a one-of-a-kind viewing experience that is nowhere near reflected on national TV. How do the players respond to each other? What do they talk about on the bench? How do the coaches interact with each other, the refs, and the players? 

Unless you are Ken Nunn or close to that, the average person may not be able to afford such an opportunity season long. But it's definitely a worthwhile experience to at least do once or twice. Here are our thoughts from that experience on Saturday.

Indiana versus Michigan State - Top Five Floor Findings

Great article.  Does a press pass get you seats like that?

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1 hour ago, FKIM01 said:

Great article.  Does a press pass get you seats like that?

Typically not as a regular media member. You get placed usually in the higher decks. At Assembly Hall for example, the majority of media members are in the highest rows of the lower bowl. 

We were fortunate enough to get a photo pass for the game, so that's about as close to the action as you can get.

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I sat in the front row immediately behind press row for an IU @ NW game a few years ago. Was a few rows in front of Yogis mom. Got there early to be able to take in warmups. Was a great experience and I echo rbkl that you should try to experience it yourself if possible. At AH, the first few rows of seats behind the baskets would be comparable except you are further from the benches.

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Way back when I was a student (mid-late 70’s), season tickets for students gave you seats for every home game but one, however your seats were different for each game. I was fortunate to be 3 rows from the floor behind the basket to see the Magic/ Kelsey/Vincent MSU game. Awesome experience, but we got killed.

While living in Wisconsin, I worked with a huge Bucky donor who gave me his two tickets about 4 rows behind the Wisconsin bench. This was before the Kohl Center- back in their old field house. Early 90’s, so we had Calvert, the Grahams, etc and we must have been ahead by more than 20. My son and I were the only ones cheering to the point that several of the Badgers turned and laughed.

Sitting that close to the floor is like being at an entirely different game 

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Years ago me and a friend sit on the bleachers behind one of  the basket, we paid out the arse for them but it was the IU Purdue game,we were beside the Purdue bench and we rode Keady's arse the whole time,yelling for him to sit down,quit crying about calls,we got a few glares as a result,he was not afraid to uses those 4 letter words,the place was rockin...fastest 2 hrs I have ever been a part of, the cherry on top of an awesome game was Charlie Miller's dunk,it brought the house down.

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13 hours ago, HoosierJax said:

Years ago me and a friend sit on the bleachers behind one of  the basket, we paid out the arse for them but it was the IU Purdue game,we were beside the Purdue bench and we rode Keady's arse the whole time,yelling for him to sit down,quit crying about calls,we got a few glares as a result,he was not afraid to uses those 4 letter words,the place was rockin...fastest 2 hrs I have ever been a part of, the cherry on top of an awesome game was Charlie Miller's dunk,it brought the house down.

Haha the staff and players can definitely hear the taunts.... they may not respond... but it's definitely going in one ear. As a human, I think it's impossible to tune out, but I am not a player nor a coach.

And of course it impacts different players differently. Some understandably let's it get in their heads and negatively affect their confidence. There are certainly players that have proven that they play better when they get harassed.

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17 hours ago, Steubenhoosier said:

Way back when I was a student (mid-late 70’s), season tickets for students gave you seats for every home game but one, however your seats were different for each game. I was fortunate to be 3 rows from the floor behind the basket to see the Magic/ Kelsey/Vincent MSU game. Awesome experience, but we got killed.

While living in Wisconsin, I worked with a huge Bucky donor who gave me his two tickets about 4 rows behind the Wisconsin bench. This was before the Kohl Center- back in their old field house. Early 90’s, so we had Calvert, the Grahams, etc and we must have been ahead by more than 20. My son and I were the only ones cheering to the point that several of the Badgers turned and laughed.

Sitting that close to the floor is like being at an entirely different game 

Sorry to quote my own post, but this got me to thinking...

The flip side to the season ticket package when I was a student, was that for every game with seats on the floor, there was the counterbalance of having seats in the rafters.

IU played Kentucky in Assembly Hall on the Saturday after finals were over. My group of friends decided to stay in Bloomington to go to that game before heading home for the holidays. As you can well imagine, we had been drinking much the night before, and the morning of the game. Our seats that day were in the very top row of the upper bowl. If you have ever had the pleasure of sitting up that high, you know that the stairs are really steep. After having sat through maybe 10 minutes of the game, and needing a bathroom in the worst way, I started down the stairs. Fortunate for me that a kind soul was standing and stretching his legs. Had he not "caught" me, I probably would have kept going and tumbled right over the metal bars.

Since that game, I vowed never to sit up there again... a promise I have kept to this day. I did not vow never to drink again before attending a game, which was the real reason the stairs seemed so steep. Gotta have priorities.....

 

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5 hours ago, Steubenhoosier said:

Sorry to quote my own post, but this got me to thinking...

The flip side to the season ticket package when I was a student, was that for every game with seats on the floor, there was the counterbalance of having seats in the rafters.

IU played Kentucky in Assembly Hall on the Saturday after finals were over. My group of friends decided to stay in Bloomington to go to that game before heading home for the holidays. As you can well imagine, we had been drinking much the night before, and the morning of the game. Our seats that day were in the very top row of the upper bowl. If you have ever had the pleasure of sitting up that high, you know that the stairs are really steep. After having sat through maybe 10 minutes of the game, and needing a bathroom in the worst way, I started down the stairs. Fortunate for me that a kind soul was standing and stretching his legs. Had he not "caught" me, I probably would have kept going and tumbled right over the metal bars.

Since that game, I vowed never to sit up there again... a promise I have kept to this day. I did not vow never to drink again before attending a game, which was the real reason the stairs seemed so steep. Gotta have priorities.....

 

Heart sank just picturing that moment lol.... the balcony is at a very high altitude. 

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When I was in college at IU East we were able to get some tickets for the Hoosier classic around Christmas.  Our tickets were behind the band on one end of the court and that was the closes that I have been able to sit.  When we went though the entrance I couldn't believe we were right on the court and couldn't believe how much bigger the players are in person.

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So many stories from Assembly hall. One time I took our freshmen team and my son was 6 at the time and he was holding up the big brick when opponents shoot FT. It was much heavier than he thought and it fell forward and hit 2 very easy on the eyes coeds and they flirted with him all night hr was in heaven!!. That was the night Mo Creek broke his knee cap I look up and one of our knuckle head players was right in the huddle with the whole team near the basket and no one said. Expect me!

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22 hours ago, HoosierJax said:

Years ago me and a friend sit on the bleachers behind one of  the basket, we paid out the arse for them but it was the IU Purdue game,we were beside the Purdue bench and we rode Keady's arse the whole time,yelling for him to sit down,quit crying about calls,we got a few glares as a result,he was not afraid to uses those 4 letter words,the place was rockin...fastest 2 hrs I have ever been a part of, the cherry on top of an awesome game was Charlie Miller's dunk,it brought the house down.

Years ago, me and a buddy had tickets 2 rows behind the Kentucky bench for the IU - Kentucky game.  We yelled "cheater" at Eddie Sutton for the first half...no cursing only "cheater."  We were moved before the beginning of the second half at the request of Mr. Sutton.  

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I’ve been to one game at Assembly Hall. I was in sixth grade and went with my parents and a friend. The entire trip down my friend was telling us how his grandfather was really important in IU athletics. My parents weren’t really buying it, but were kind of going along with it and humoring him. 

Well, during warmups my friend starts yelling “grandpa” at this older guy on the court and he comes over. Turns out my friend was telling the truth and his grandpa took us onto the court, into the locker room, and introduced us to players and Coach Knight before the game. It was awesome!!

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On 2/4/2019 at 5:19 PM, Steubenhoosier said:

Way back when I was a student (mid-late 70’s), season tickets for students gave you seats for every home game but one, however your seats were different for each game. I was fortunate to be 3 rows from the floor behind the basket to see the Magic/ Kelsey/Vincent MSU game. Awesome experience, but we got killed.

While living in Wisconsin, I worked with a huge Bucky donor who gave me his two tickets about 4 rows behind the Wisconsin bench. This was before the Kohl Center- back in their old field house. Early 90’s, so we had Calvert, the Grahams, etc and we must have been ahead by more than 20. My son and I were the only ones cheering to the point that several of the Badgers turned and laughed.

Sitting that close to the floor is like being at an entirely different game 

I may have been at that game - Was Calbert a senior? We lived up in Madison at that time, and went to a few basketball games at that old Fieldhouse. It was a great building with a lot of character.

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1 hour ago, Steubenhoosier said:

May have been. Can't remember the exact year. 

Out of curiosity, I looked it up and it would have been 1993 for my game. Cheaney was a senior, and we definitely saw him in Madison. I know this for sure because I had instructions from Mr. Stoller to try to get an autograph from Calbert on a full-size newspaper photo of him, and when I also got Alan Henderson’s, I was chastised. 😂😂 Hey the more the merrier! 

Edited to correct the year. It was the 1992-93 team that I saw up there that day.  It’s early. I need more ️.

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I lived in Mcnutt and was in bleachers when Cal hit a little baseline jumper against NW to become Big all time leading scorer. Next day he was at the front lobby of the Quad and I was able to have him autograph the IDS from that game.i hate that so many IU  students have not been blessed like I was to see great basketball all the time.

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1 hour ago, Billingsley99 said:

I lived in Mcnutt and was in bleachers when Cal hit a little baseline jumper against NW to become Big all time leading scorer. Next day he was at the front lobby of the Quad and I was able to have him autograph the IDS from that game.i hate that so many IU  students have not been blessed like I was to see great basketball all the time.

Still have that IDS? Would love to see a pic!

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