Personal Indiana Basketball experiences or stories to share

[Billingsley99]

Lately I have been very critical of the program and pretty negative. I believe that it is warranted but some may not see it that way. Indiana Basketball has a special place in my heart and from the early 90's until 2017 I was very very blessed to have very close connections to the program. I would like to share some of those over the next several days and was hoping others would share some great stories about why you love IU basketball or just a great time you had watching etc... Hoping to bring some positivity back to my posts.  Here is the story of the day that I knew I would attend Indiana University!!

 

Every year in high school my basketball coach would load us up in the van and we would attend an IU practice. Most of the guys hated it but I loved it. Prior to High school I had never been on campus, never to a practice or a game but Coach Shannon took us every year to practice and 1 game. This particular Saturday practice was during Damon Bailey's freshman year. Coach Knight opened up practice on a fairly regular basis to teams and we were always lucky enough to get to be court level during practice. Coach Knight stopped practice and screamed," GD Bailey why in the F is your ass posting up? Get in and out this is not FING Heltonville for Christ's sake. Get the F in and out only 1 guard has been good enough to post up that long and he plays for the FING Bulls and I promise that you are not FING Jordan understand?? Coach then turns to me grabs me by the arm and says," Does he look like FING Michael Jordan to you" I said no sir he slapped me on the back of the head and said you and I FING geniuses!! At that very moment I knew I wanted to go to IU and somehow be a part of the program no matter what.  A minute or so later Coach came back by and said "he may not be Jordan but he is pretty damn good." 

I was never a great player but had opportunities to play college ball but after that day there was no doubt where I wanted to go to school. 

I will add more stories and hope to hear some from you.

[jefftheref]

34 minutes ago, Billingsley99 said:

Lately I have been very critical of the program and pretty negative. I believe that it is warranted but some may not see it that way. Indiana Basketball has a special place in my heart and from the early 90's until 2017 I was very very blessed to have very close connections to the program. I would like to share some of those over the next several days and was hoping others would share some great stories about why you love IU basketball or just a great time you had watching etc... Hoping to bring some positivity back to my posts.  Here is the story of the day that I knew I would attend Indiana University!!

 

Every year in high school my basketball coach would load us up in the van and we would attend an IU practice. Most of the guys hated it but I loved it. Prior to High school I had never been on campus, never to a practice or a game but Coach Shannon took us every year to practice and 1 game. This particular Saturday practice was during Damon Bailey's freshman year. Coach Knight opened up practice on a fairly regular basis to teams and we were always lucky enough to get to be court level during practice. Coach Knight stopped practice and screamed," GD Bailey why in the F is your ass posting up? Get in and out this is not FING Heltonville for Christ's sake. Get the F in and out only 1 guard has been good enough to post up that long and he plays for the FING Bulls and I promise that you are not FING Jordan understand?? Coach then turns to me grabs me by the arm and says," Does he look like FING Michael Jordan to you" I said no sir he slapped me on the back of the head and said you and I FING geniuses!! At that very moment I knew I wanted to go to IU and somehow be a part of the program no matter what.  A minute or so later Coach came back by and said "he may not be Jordan but he is pretty damn good." 

I was never a great player but had opportunities to play college ball but after that day there was no doubt where I wanted to go to school. 

I will add more stories and hope to hear some from you.

Thanks for sharing and please give my hero a big ole Hoosier hug for me.

[Billingsley99]

2 minutes ago, jefftheref said:

Thanks for sharing and please give my hero a big ole Hoosier hug for me.

Of course I will. Thank you. Asking for some prayers for Ayden. A recent Dr visit indicated some hearing loss in his left ear. May have been a bad test we are going to retest end of the month. He gets tested every 6 months because many Mito kids eventually lose hearing. There are 3 options right now of what is going on.1 is a bad test, 2 is some hearing loss due to Mito or something far worse. Many kids with Mito has some severe issues that begin once they hit puberty. Please pray that its nothing more than a testing issue. 

[jefftheref]

1 hour ago, Billingsley99 said:

Of course I will. Thank you. Asking for some prayers for Ayden. A recent Dr visit indicated some hearing loss in his left ear. May have been a bad test we are going to retest end of the month. He gets tested every 6 months because many Mito kids eventually lose hearing. There are 3 options right now of what is going on.1 is a bad test, 2 is some hearing loss due to Mito or something far worse. Many kids with Mito has some severe issues that begin once they hit puberty. Please pray that its nothing more than a testing issue. 

Will do. Ayden is always in my thoughts and prayers. Please keep us posted. 

[JABBATHEHOOSIER]

My wife and I were driving through Bloomington on September 21st, 2013. I decided I wanted to stop in to see if I could get a peak of Cook Hall as I had not had a chance to see it. Coach Crean happened to be coming out of the office with a recruit (Lourawls Nairn who ended up at MSU). He immediately stopped and came over to us and struck up a conversation. He signed a few autographs for us and posed for pictures all while talking to us. After a few minutes he asked us if we were going to the football game that night(they were playing MIssouri) and we told him no. He asked us if he could get us tickets, would we want to go? Obviously, we said yes. He calls somebody out from the office and directed them to get us tickets to the game. A lady walks out and hands us an envelope with tickets and the rest is history.  I realize Coach Crean had his faults, but I was always in his corner because of this experience. He could not have been nicer to my wife and I and I think he was a great ambassador for the School. Plus, he brought this program back from the depths of hell and that is worth something in my book. 

[IU Scott]

When I was a senior in high school my best friend recruited me to play on the schools AG basketball team.  To play I had to take an AG class and have never taken a class and have no clue about AG.  I took Parliamentary procedures but the teacher didn't make me go to the competitions because I was just taking the class so I could play basketball.  At the end of the year they have an awards banquet for the AG department.  the teacher also was the coach and he brought me and my best friend up to the podium.  He knew that both of us were huge IU fans and loved RMK so he gave us both an envelop.  Inside was a signed autograph picture of RMK.  When the teacher was in college(PU) he wrote for the newspaper and interviewed RMK so he had his contact get ahold of RMK for the picture.

[Sea Turtle]

My cousin saw Kent Benson naked in a locker room back in the 1990's.

It doesn't get much more personal than that. 

[5fouls]

4 hours ago, Billingsley99 said:

Lately I have been very critical of the program and pretty negative. I believe that it is warranted but some may not see it that way. Indiana Basketball has a special place in my heart and from the early 90's until 2017 I was very very blessed to have very close connections to the program. I would like to share some of those over the next several days and was hoping others would share some great stories about why you love IU basketball or just a great time you had watching etc... Hoping to bring some positivity back to my posts.  Here is the story of the day that I knew I would attend Indiana University!!

 

Every year in high school my basketball coach would load us up in the van and we would attend an IU practice. Most of the guys hated it but I loved it. Prior to High school I had never been on campus, never to a practice or a game but Coach Shannon took us every year to practice and 1 game. This particular Saturday practice was during Damon Bailey's freshman year. Coach Knight opened up practice on a fairly regular basis to teams and we were always lucky enough to get to be court level during practice. Coach Knight stopped practice and screamed," GD Bailey why in the F is your ass posting up? Get in and out this is not FING Heltonville for Christ's sake. Get the F in and out only 1 guard has been good enough to post up that long and he plays for the FING Bulls and I promise that you are not FING Jordan understand?? Coach then turns to me grabs me by the arm and says," Does he look like FING Michael Jordan to you" I said no sir he slapped me on the back of the head and said you and I FING geniuses!! At that very moment I knew I wanted to go to IU and somehow be a part of the program no matter what.  A minute or so later Coach came back by and said "he may not be Jordan but he is pretty damn good." 

I was never a great player but had opportunities to play college ball but after that day there was no doubt where I wanted to go to school. 

I will add more stories and hope to hear some from you.

Great story.  But, I can't help but wonder how entertaining it would have been had you said "I don't know Bob, he does kind of look like Jordan to me."  

[Billingsley99]

Just now, 5fouls said:

Great story.  But, I can't help but wonder how entertaining it would have been had you said "I don't know Bob, he does kind of look like Jordan to me."  

At that point I valued my life quite a bit and up to that point I just did not realize just how large of a man he was giant hands were a little too close to my neck

[Joe_Hoopsier]

As a kid, 12-13 ish, my dad farmed for a Judge in Monroe county. He would take me and my little brother to a couple IU games a year. This was in the 78'-82' ish time frame and we lived, eat, breathed IU Basketball. I knew they family that loaned the "Purdue Mule" to CBK for his Sunday morning TV Show. Anyway one game Judge took us to a game, and as I recall, it was my very first time being to the Assembly Hall. I was pumped, my eyes twinkled as we walked up to the doors, taking it all in, I was SOMETHIN!

We get just inside the doors and Judge hands me my ticket and tells me to just follow the numbers on the signs that are on my ticket, and he would take my 7yr old brother with him to his other seats. I was shaking like a prostitute in church. Meandered my way through the hall, up and down stairs and ramps it seemed, and ended up walking down a hallway, towards a light. ... I had a court side seat right behind the bench. That feeling of walking out of that hallway, looking up from where magic happens that I had watched on WTTV 4 so many times... Dreaming.

 

[BADGERVOL]

short funny one...

Visited Bloomington for the first time ever a few years after The Wat Shot. Was with my wife and younger kids walking around campus day before the game. Saw Kelly’s and remember the videos from inside that bar when Wat made the shot. I remember reading they literally made a shot you could buy by called “The Wat Shot” so I told my wife I have to go in and take “The Wat Shot.”she rolled her eyes.

I went in and went to the bar and some young good looking co-Ed asked me what I’d like (it was empty middle of the day) and I said “I’m visiting first time ever and I can’t leave here without nostalgically having a Wat Shot so I’ll have one.” She looked totally confused and said “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

A guy in his 30s (assume manager) walked up and said “you said Wat Shot right? I got him, you don’t get it (to the girl). I apologize for her she doesn’t represent Hoosier Basketball she’s from out of state.” She rolled her eyes and walked away.

As he made the drink he said “tell me where you were and how you experienced it?” We talked that shot and game for 10min and then I joined my family after he said “no charge.”

THAT is IU Basketball...

 

[Zuckerkorn]

3 mundane ones for me:

- IU has never lost a game in AH when I was in attendence, as long as you exclude the fiasco exhibition against the russians.

- I could be seen in the crowd on the intro during the intro of the Bob Knight show during the '89 or '90 season.

- I had a summer job in the late 70's working with a couple of guys that were around the team during the '75-'76 season.  They had some interesting, if not earth shattering stories, particularly about B. Wilkerson and S. May.  Incidentally, another co-worker was big Jim Wright, father of Pancho Wight of UL fame.  Jim was strong as an ox.

 

Edit: Just remembered one more.  My buddy and I always hung around in AH for quite a while before leaving (let the parking lot clear).  When we were leaving on game, we were right behind Calbert Cheaney and his mom (it was a game prior to the Christmas break).  You could tell she was the "momma" and Calbert did what she said.  Kinda sweet.

Edited February 6, 2021 by Zuckerkorn

[Coach1K]

My brother in law got an old jersey signed for me that I went to Michael's to have framed my parents have it hanging on a wall in the garage. My brother in law had a class with him at IU and had him sign it after class.

[mrflynn03]

This just popped up on my YouTube feed. My dad took me to this game. We were directly behind the basket halfway up the upper balcony on the cream and crimson side.  Duh. 

Will be nice to watch it again. We won btw.  

[IU Scott]

6 minutes ago, mrflynn03 said:

This just popped up on my YouTube feed. My dad took me to this game. We were directly behind the basket halfway up the upper balcony on the cream and crimson side.  Duh. 

Will be nice to watch it again. We won btw.  

I watched that game about a month ago.  IU came off a season opening loss to Butler and no one gave us a chance to beat #1 UK.  Bailey played great and led us to a victory

[Parakeet Jones]

8 minutes ago, mrflynn03 said:

This just popped up on my YouTube feed. My dad took me to this game. We were directly behind the basket halfway up the upper balcony on the cream and crimson side.  Duh. 

Will be nice to watch it again. We won btw.  

I was there too. Maybe my favorite game I ever attended. It’s hard to pick just one though. 

[mrflynn03]

13 minutes ago, Parakeet Jones said:

I was there too. Maybe my favorite game I ever attended. It’s hard to pick just one though. 

Yeah, Assembly Hall is great but I miss the Hoosier Dome. 

[mrflynn03]

2 hours ago, IU Scott said:

I watched that game about a month ago.  IU came off a season opening loss to Butler and no one gave us a chance to beat #1 UK.  Bailey played great and led us to a victory

I just rewatched that game. Man they moved so well in transition and the offense moved so freely. And the rebounding. 

[IU Scott]

2 minutes ago, mrflynn03 said:

I just rewatched that game. Man they moved so well in transition and the offense moved so freely. And the rebounding. 

Especially when I was quarantined both times I watched a lot of older games on YouTube.  It is night and day when it comes to the product we saw back then compared to what we see now.  There are a lot of reasons why the college game today is far inferior to back then.  

[mrflynn03]

2 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

Especially when I was quarantined both times I watched a lot of older games on YouTube.  It is night and day when it comes to the product we saw back then compared to what we see now.  There are a lot of reasons why the college game today is far inferior to back then.  

Yep for sure. 

I understand the reason for the shot clock, Dean Smith rule, but 45 seconds is the sweet spot. What we have today has really diminished the quality of the game. 

Rewatching that game both teams scored so fast in transition the clock was irrelevant.  

[13th&Jackson]

1) The summer of 81 I was a junior at IU. I took a summer session to have enough credits to graduate the following spring. I was walking past the HPER building, when a brown, four-door Mercedes pulled up out front. Isiah Thomas got out, fresh from the NBA draft, and he went in to shoot some hoops at the HPER.

2) I was on campus when IU won the title in 81. Early that day, I was in downtown Bloomington and the bars were nailing plywood over their windows like they were preparing for a hurricane. After they won, everyone poured onto the streets to celebrate. Several statues at Showalter Fountain were destroyed. People climbed the large Sycamore trees around the fountain, some guys were probably 30-40 feet in the air. Cars were driving down Kirkwood with 20 guys piled on top and all four tires were flat. It was insane.

[IU Scott]

1 minute ago, mrflynn03 said:

Yep for sure. 

I understand the reason for the shot clock, Dean Smith rule, but 45 seconds is the sweet spot. What we have today has really diminished the quality of the game. 

Rewatching that game both teams scored so fast in transition the clock was irrelevant.  

I loved the 45 second clock because it eliminated holding the ball.  The thing is that back then most of the shots was in the first 15 seconds of the possession.  Even before the shot clock most teams played a a faster pace and scored more points.  Today they start their offense to late and then you have to force shots at the end of the shot clock.  Back then you didn't see a bad force shot because of the clock.

[Coach Robby]

Great idea for a thread. My parents had season tickets from 1990-2003. I started going when I was 8. Had no clue. Thought they were pros. 😂 couldn’t see where Todd Lindeman’s pizza was from, I was that short! Loved getting autographs, even got coach Knight’s after waiting 2 hours after a game. 
 

favorite Hoosier I’ve ever met is Michael Lewis. Phenomenal guy and even better beer drinker 😂 

[Muddy River]

I have a ton of stories from my time at IU, from friendship with Calbert to playing basketball with Anthony Thompson (I had him by a good 3 inches, but nobody was moving that guy off the block). But I will share a somewhat more recent story.  The Derby Festival folks used to host a high school all star game.  They would practice at a local high school and have an autograph session the night before the game.  One year my middle son was maybe 11 and when he met Robert Johnson he asked if he could have his shoes after the game.  Rob was unaware that this was somewhat of a tradition, but he said sure.  Next night, after the game my son raced down to the side of the court.  Rob was busy with interviews but he acknowledged my son and said he would get back to him.  He patiently waited, but eventually the players were herded down the tunnel, as Rob went by, he said he'd be back.  So we waited, and waited, until Freedom Hall security told us we had to leave.  My son was crushed.  As we were walking, there was a large crowd of people gathered by a door and yelling, players were coming out and heading to the bus.  My son pushed his way to the front, and as Rob came out he locked eyes and he stopped and unzipped his backpack.  Coaches were yelling at him to get on the bus, but he took out his shoes, and as people stated pushing in and trying to grab one, he made sure my son got both.  He could've just gotten on the bus, he could've give one of the shoes to someone else, but he did a two handed hand off to ensure my son got both.  That's why Rob will always be one of my favorite Hoosiers.

[IU Scott]

4 hours ago, mrflynn03 said:

I just rewatched that game. Man they moved so well in transition and the offense moved so freely. And the rebounding. 

I am watching the 1998 first round game vs Oklahoma.  This was just an average IU team but at the half they was winning 46-35 and shot 65 percent.  That game does not even look like the same game we see today