IU Style: Introducing Hoo-Bans
Introducing Hoo-Bans, makeshift Ray-Ban sunglasses with IU’s trademark candy stripes in the lenses.
Coming into this season, it seemed the most likely NBA draft prospects among the current Hoosier lineup were Cody Zeller (duh!) and Kentucky-killer Christian Watford. But two games into IU’s Big Ten campaign, with today’s tough matchup against eighth-ranked Minnesota looming (noon, Big Ten Network), another player is getting all the buzz: Victor Oladipo.
Indiana University basketball coach Tom Crean was busy over the weekend, and not just game-prepping for today’s Big Ten opener against Iowa (4 p.m., ESPN2). Early Saturday morning, while driving home from Assembly Hall after the Hoosiers’ 93-59 win over Jacksonville, Crean stopped to help a motorist who was stranded at the side of snow-covered State Road 45, just outside of Bloomington.
Even Indiana fans must have known this day was coming. Rarely do teams run the gauntlet of a season without losing. But judging by the way Jordan Hulls angrily wrenched away from a teammate offering to console him following his failed (wide left) last shot in Butler’s upset of Indiana Saturday, I believe that Hoosier thought his team was going to win every game.
To mark the 75th anniversary of March Madness, the NCAA today announced its picks for the Top 75 Players in the history of the men’s postseason basketball tournament—and among teams from Indiana, IU had far and away the best showing.
When you’re an IU alum watching nationally televised basketball games, like Tuesday’s against North Carolina, it’s fun knowing the rest of the nation is exposed to little things so familiar to Hoosiers. But it’s even cooler when something you have a close personal connection to gets time in the limelight.