IU grad brings the ‘cheeseburgers-and-bus league’ to Bloomington

After IU’s 72-54 victory against Bemidji State, IU coach Tom Crean talked about the importance of his team playing with energy – something the Hoosiers will prepare for before their regular season opener.

Conversely, Bemidji State coach Matt Bowen talked about preparing for the 16-hour bus ride home awaiting his team tomorrow.

Bowen, a 1995 graduate of IU and former student manager under Bob Knight, said long bus rides are a regular occurrence in the less-than-glamorous world of Division II basketball.

“Life in D-II is just different,” Bowen said. “Kids are playing for the love of the game. There’s not as many amenities.”   

One of those privileges the Beavers lack is a plane to take them to faraway venues. Instead of a chartered flight, Bowen and his team rode two buses to get to Bloomington.

And the first one broke down.

Bowen shrugged off the travel complications, saying it was just another day for him and his team.

“This is Division II,” Bowen said. “We are a cheeseburgers-and-bus league.”

Bowen’s self-described cheeseburger and bus league gave the Hoosiers fits for most of the evening. Trailing by 11 at halftime, the Beavers went on a quick 10-0 run to start the second half.

It was as close as the Beavers would come to retaking the lead, but it was enough to make the crowd uneasy and force Crean to go to his bench for a spark.

After pulling away to an 18-point victory, Crean said he appreciated the lessons his team learned from the game. Most notably, teams like Bemidji State have talent and cannot be taken lightly.

“The competition level goes up. It doesn’t go down,” he said. “We’re playing against very talented teams, very talented players.”

Crean added that once the first TV time-out was called, he knew the game would be a grind-it-out battle. It’s the type of play Bowen said he wants his team to play with and a style he learned from watching Knight and IU while in college.

“I came to learn here from Coach Knight,” Bowen said. “I take what I kind of learned from him, and hopefully we represented that pretty well.”

Bowen said he was pleased with his team, and the Hoosiers simply wore them down toward the end of the game.

Despite losing, he said the mere fact his team played at Assembly Hall is an asset to him in trying to land recruits.

“When we had our first team meeting in the fall I put a picture of this place up, and it was full, and I said ‘This is where we’re going to play,’” Bowen said. “And I’m not sure they heard another word I said the rest of the meeting.”

Even though Bowen’s trying to lead a different team to prominence, he still closely follows his alma mater and believes Crean will turn the program around eventually.

“Coach Crean is going to grind it. He’s going to find a way to put them in the best position they can,” Bowen said. “He’s going to find a way.”