Ebbets Field
On the ball
First night, Senior Night
By DAVID BULLA
Ebbets Field Editor
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Attending a basketball game at Assembly Hall is a ritual for many Hoosier fans. The pilgrimage begins with a pre-game meal, perhaps at Nick�s, Janko�s or Yogi�s. Then the fan finds a parking spot near 17th Street, perhaps at St. Paul Catholic Center, Briscoe Quad or the Alumni Center. If it is Senior Night, one arrives a bit early. Electricity is in the air. It just so happens arch-rival Purdue is the opponent on this night. One already has a ticket, but it�s worth a few minutes to test the open market to see if one can move up. Or perhaps a student or alumnus will happen to be in a good mood and will sell a ticket for face value. An hour before tipoff, the price of a lower level seat hovers between $125 and $250, depending upon the location of the seat. Balcony seats are between $75 and $100. Those prices are too steep for a starving student and writer. Best to enter the arena and take one�s seat. After all, this will be the last time for nine months to hear IU�s Pep Band doing its full show. Thus, one finds his seat and begins the routine of clapping during �Indiana, Our Indiana� and screaming every time the refs make a bad call or the action goes against the Hoosiers.
What, though, if this is one�s first visit to the Concrete Cathedral on 17th Street? What, indeed, if one has never seen an American college basketball game in person before? Such was the case last Tuesday night when three fellow Indiana University graduate students accompanied me to Assembly Hall. No, it was not my first game at AH. I had purchased a season ticket when I got to town the first week of January. No, I had not missed a single home game during Big Ten play. Rather, this would be the first-ever college game for one of my friends and the second for another. �I didn�t even know we were the Hoosiers� is a pretty good introduction to Kalpana Ramgopal, an IU master�s candidate who hails from Madras, India. �In the fall I didn�t know if we were a big football or basketball school. My brother (Karthik Ramgopal), who went to Oklahoma State, knew more about Indiana basketball than I did. When we talked about basketball, we would get into an argument about ratings. He would try to tell me that OSU was better than Indiana this year. He would go on and on about the rankings. I didn�t know what he meant, but I knew enough to say that IU was better.�
Of course, the Hoosiers and Cowboys are fairly close in the ratings. Before Sunday�s action, Jerry Palm�s RPI had IU 14th and OSU 20th; Jeff Sagarin had it reversed, with the Cowboys seventh and the Hooisers ninth.
�I wanted to go to at least one game before I finish here,� the graduate student continued. �I decided I wanted to go to this game because it was an important game that should be close.�
As it turned out, it was only close once - early in the second half. Indiana jumped to a 17-2 lead and led by 17 at halftime before the Boilermakers briefly got as close as seven. Yet a three-pointer by Indiana�s A.J. Guyton put the lead back in double digits and the Hoosiers never looked back.
Ramgopal had also heard plenty about Indiana coach Bob Knight.
�I was very curious to see him because of all the things people say about him,� she said. �He�s brash and I like that about him. He�s not fake. He says what�s on his mind. I like that.
�At one point during the game he was very agitated about something. He went to the end of the bench and began shouting. I thought he was going to hit somebody. I don�t know what that was all about, but I liked his passion.�
The Hoosier coach was lecturing the students in the north bleachers not to say �Brian, Brian� to Purdue forward Brian Cardinal.
�He comes across as a very interesting person,� Ramgopal continued. �He was so involved with the game. He�s very vocal. You know when he�s upset by the way things are going in the game. Most coaches try to act so cool on the bench. He shows his emotions. He seemed genuine to me.�
The IU journalism student also enjoyed seeing the players.
�I like Kirk Haston,� she said of the Hoosiers� sophomore forward. �He�s awfully tall and got to shoot a lot of free throws.� Haston had 16 points, four rebounds and two blocks on the night. He got most of his help from Guyton, who had 17 points, and Lynn Washington, who had 13 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks.
Ramgopal, whose family now lives in the United Arab Emirates, could identify with the PU-IU rivalry. In her native country cricket is the main sport. India and neighboring Pakistan are rivals. She also understands Indiana�s late �90s futility with the Boilers -- IU is 3-9 against PU since Calbert Cheaney graduated in 1993.
�You ask any Indian, we never win on Friday against Pakistan,� said the graduate of Madras University. �That�s because Muslims have prayer on Friday. It�s like their Sabbath. It�s their day off. Pakistan seems better rested, better prepared. India always seems to have more talented players, but does not play well together as a unit. We last won the World Cup in 1983.�
Rafat Ali, a Knight fellow in the IU School of Journalism who has spent most of his life in India, says that Indian cricket has one major similarity to Indiana basketball.
�Cricket is a religion in India,� said Ali, whose nun-coached high school team back home won a state championship. �It�s probably the only factor which holds together India as a country, though a lot of people would not admit to it. If the Indian team wins, they are the best biggest heroes. If they lose, they are the biggest enemies. What else can sway the collective emotions of 950 million people?��
The spirits of Indiana fans rise and fall with their basketball Hoosiers. Beat Michigan State and Purdue and everyone is sky high. Lose a tough contest at Wisconsin and everybody feels the blues.
Still, Ali will not long forget this team, especially its senior all-conference guard.
�When I watch Guyton, it is the most sensual thing,� Ali said. �He has such a lot of rhythm in his play. It almost is like he is dancing on the floor. Guyton�s performance is like Marvin Gaye singing �Let�s Get It On.� At times he is reckless, but I guess that�s OK. That�s raw talent and it�s the coach�s job to put him on the right track.�
Ali, who had attended his first IU basketball game the previous Saturday, got into the rhythm of the night early. Having attended the overtime win over Michigan State, Ali was ready to stand and clap with the fightsong and to stand on key offensive and defensive plays. Ali, who was born in England, grew up in Denver and settled in Aligrah, India, was a bit confused by the racial composition of the crowd.
�The team has four or five African American players,� Ali said, �but the crowd is almost all white. I was about the only Asian in the crowd and there were absolutely no African Americans in the crowd, except family members of the players. That seems incongruous to me.�
I tried to explain that Europeans settled the Midwest and that African Americans in this region of the country are massed in big cities like Indianapolis and Chicago.
Ali also was surprised that Americans tolerated ticket scalpers.
�I never imagined things like this happening in America or at least in a pristine, clean town like Bloomington,� he said. �This sort of thing is very common in India, but you first have to bribe the police to let them allow you to do the illegal selling. We call it �getting the ticket in the black.� This refers to the black-and-white money. It has nothing to do with race.
�I was surprised at both games by the apparent lack of interest on the part of the police - or they don�t see it as an illegal activity, just part of the spirit of the game.�
Ali, Ramgopal and Greg Barlett paid $23 each for their tickets.
"I thought the ticket prices were pretty reasonable since it was the final home game, Senior Night and Purdue," said Bartlett, a native of Corydon. "They weren't much more than face value.
"I was born and raised a Hoosier, and I'm a lifelong IU fan (I bleed red), so it's been pretty embarrassing that I had never been to an IU game before Tuesday night."
One Assembly Hall ritual Ramgopal could have lived without were the long lines to the women�s bathrooms.
�Even before the game there was a long line,� she said. �I had to go and I got out just in time for the match to start.�
All three said they would go back to another Hoosier game.
�I had difficulty getting to sing along when the fightsong ends with the �Go Big Red� routine, and I was either too early or too late in shooting the words,� Ali said. �By the end of the Purdue game, I think I had gotten the hang of it. I also was stunned seeing all the people jumping around me and trying to be angry and emotional and happy all at the same time, without mouthing profanities. Of course, I will continue to watch the Hoosiers, if not in person, then certainly on TV.�
"I'll probably be done with school in December and that's going to be early in the season," Bartlett said. "If I'm around in the spring, I would almost bet on going to some more games."
�I would prefer that the game was significant or going to be close,� Ramgopal said of her next IU game.
I told her that there are no guarantees. That�s the nature of sports. Still, she liked her first American college basketball outing.
�I screamed so much that my throat�s bad,� she added. �I haven�t screamed that much in ages - back in school on sports day. That� when we had one day a year in middle and high school where we would have sports and cultural competition. We dressed up in House uniforms and competed. It was very big.�
Her scratchy throat was still with her five days later.
Of course, Senior Night at IU meant the game was followed by speeches from Knight and the five seniors - Guyton, Washington, Michael Lewis, Luke Jimenez and Richardson, who brought tears to many fans as he broke down thanking his mother for sticking by him even though she had her son when she was 16. Jimenez injected a moment of levity as he thanked the powers that be in the IU athletic department for putting a sign out front of the arena congratulating the seniors for their contributions to Hoosier basketball. He also made a minor correction: his name had been misspelled on the sign. �It�s J-I-M-E-N-E-Z.� Sounds like Luke might have a career ahead of him as a teacher and coach.
After watching their first game, Ramgopal, Ali and Bartlett joined their classmate to walk back to Ernie Pyle Hall and a couple of them later went to Steak-�n�-Shake for the post-mortems. Thus, another round of game-day rituals came to an end.
Welcome to Indiana basketball, my friends.
Back to Ebbets Field homepage
| Disclaimer | About EF | Staff | Contact EF | Production | Search |
� 2000 Ebbetts Field
[email protected]
Get your own Free Home Page