Indiana

IUPUI (57) vs. Indiana State (96) 11/14/2023

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Game #121 of 362 33% complete

Welcome to Larry Bird country! As a Knicks fan, I was not a Larry Bird fan in what he did to my Knicks but I do recognize him as the second best NBA player ever behind Jordan. Terra Haute is a quiet city and I can see why Bird was attracted to this area coming from a small town.

This game was another blowout on my trip. I do have to take umbrage with the name “IUPUI” for a school which stands for Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. Seriously, couldn’t’ve they come up with a better name perhaps like Central Indiana University?

Robbie Avila was the star for the Sycamores tonight. His glasses give him a Clark Kent appearance. I always wonder when a basketball player who wears glasses chooses to or he has to because of his inability to wear contacts. He does posses an high BB IQ and looked like an old soul out here. His 16 points tied teammate Isiah Swope for game high points.

Isiah Swope was a transfer the University of Southern Indiana. He made some long three pointers and was the quickest player out there. The Sycamores completely overwhelmed the Jaguars and the game was over early on.

More Larry Bird memorabilia if you need some more.

If I have some free time, I enjoy going for a walk on the home campus before the game. On my travels, I came across a robot carrying food for delivery to one of the dorms. This was another “first” moment for me.

I try to get some walking in on my trip to offset the gluttonous approach to food on these trips. I visited the Griffy Lake Nature Preserve in Bloomington before the hour trip to Terra Haute.

Goodbye Indiana! On to Cincinnati for my next trip.

East Tennessee State (47) vs. Butler (81) 11/13/2023

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Game #120 of 362 33% complete

The Hinkle Fieldhouse is on the “you got to see this arena” list whenever great arenas are brought up in conversations about my journey. Referred to as the “Indiana’s Basketball Cathedral”, its main claim to fame among non college basketball junkies is the home of the movie “Hoosiers”. It was the site of the site of the 1954 championship game between Milan High School and Muncie Central featured in the movie. Hinkle has also hosted numerous political rallies with presidential candidates and served as barracks during World War 2. The fieldhouse lives up to its reputation with padded seats in the lower section along with the sight lines unparalleled in other arenas.

Butler completely outplayed the Buccaneers from Tennessee. I was particularly interested in Posh Alexander the transfer from St. John’s. I have seen him play multiple times in the Big East and was always puzzled by his decline over the past two years. He was the 2021 Big East Freshman of the Year and 2021 Big East co-defensive player of the year as well. The past two years were not as successful. Posh dazzled tonight with all facets of play especially his defensive presence so it is hopeful that the change to Butler will be for the good.

I was impressed with the play DJ Davis a transfer from UC Irvine. He was the high scorer for the Bulldogs with 15 points. He is super quick and possesses a lethal three point shot. Butler will be improved from last year but every team with the exception of Georgetown and DePaul can say the same.

The Butler live mascot Blue IV made an appearance tonight much to the delight of the fans. Poor Blue suffered a tear in a knee ligament in October. He is on the mend after an operation and is back on the sidelines cheering on his team.

The fieldhouse much like the Palestra offers up a plethora of memorabilia in its concourse. High school basketball takes on a whole new level here more than most other states.

If you are in Indianapolis and love history, be sure to checkout the home the 23rd president Benjamin Harrison. An interesting trivia item is that William Henry Harrison and Benjamin formed the only grandfather/grandson team in the White House. Benjamin declined to run for a second term because the death of his wife in the White House during his first term left too many sad memories.

Of course, my followers know that a visit to the zoo is must for every visit. Here are some of the residents at the Indianapolis Zoo.

Day 2 is complete.

Army (64) vs. Indiana (72) 11/12/2023

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Game #119 of 362 33% complete

I start off the 2023-2024 season with a road trip to great state of Indiana to see Indiana, Butler and Indiana State on three consecutive nights.

Parking is sometimes a challenge with big schools. I was unclear whether I had to purchase a parking pass ahead of time. I received an email from the university concerning the purchase of parking tickets, traffic flow and other rules concerning pre game activities. I browsed the Indiana web site to purchase a parking ticket. I am not a naive techy who is baffled with web pages but I found no place to buy a parking pass other than some outrageously priced passes on Stub Hub. Based on past experiences, I learned that to find answers like this, one should drive to the university and find a person in the know. There sitting in a parking lot was a woman who played such a role. She said that I could park in Lot 9 or 10 and pay there with a credit card. Problem solved!

I have been to 118 arenas and this Indiana gym wins the prize for the steepest seats. The pre game introduction for Indiana was proceeded by a video on the main screen. There was a woman cleaning the floor of the arena and singing a song. Soon others started singing along. I am guessing this was the Indiana fight song. The sound quality was not great.

Army almost pulled off an upset for this game. They are currently at 325 on the KenPom rating. Indiana could never get break away into a commanding lead. Had Army hit their fouls shots, the Hoosiers would have suffered an embarrassing defeat. Kudos to Army guard Ryan Curry who scored 20 points mostly on 3 pointers. Curry was a star last year for the Army’s prep team and was on fire tonight.

Given Bobby Knight’s association with Indiana and Army as a coach for both, I was surprised that there was no mention or recognition of this before the game. I don’t know if the Hoosier fans celebrate Knight’s time there or do they want to forget about his troubling past?

Kudos to Indiana center Kel’El Ware the 7 foot transfer from Oregon. Indiana got wise in the second half by using their superior height advantage. Ware became unstoppable underneath leading the Hoosiers with 20 points. It was surprising that Army who was hitting three pointers all night long was terrible at the foul line.

Xavier Johnson was a spark plug for the Hoosiers tonight. Retuning from an injury filled season last year, he looked like a return to his old self. His penetration and energy on the court was a welcome sight for the Hoosier fans.

Credit to the many Hoosier fans wearing these red and white “pants”. I have never seen a fan base to date that wore matching pants to the warmups of the players.

I highly recommend Mama Bear’s Pizza in Bloomington. The small deep pan pizza is making my mouth water just by looking at it now.

No trip to Bloomington would be complete without a walking tour of the Indiana campus. The architecture as can be seen in the movie “Breaking Away” was stunning.

Day 1 in Indiana is complete.