Hoosiers prepare for Hysteria

Less than a month until the season begins and the IU men’s basketball team is ready to show their improvement.

The team will debut their new look Oct. 16 at Hoosier Hysteria, the official start of the basketball season.

The evening will begin with IU volleyball competing against Iowa. The women’s basketball team will come on after the game, and the men’s team will follow. Both teams will sign autographs before their respective scrimmages.

According to IU Athletics, the price of admission is a canned food item. They are also asking students to create their own “Big Heads.” IU coach Tom Crean will select four designs, and those students will get to be guest coaches during the scrimmage.

The night will be the public’s first chance to see the squad play together, with seven new players and nine returning players. Five of the freshmen, Christian Watford, Maurice Creek, Derek Elston, Jordan Hulls and Bawa Muniru, are listed on Rivals.com’s Rivals150 Prospects for 2009.

The Hoosiers finished 6-25 last season and 1-17 in the Big Ten.

“This night is so important to us on many levels,” Crean said in a press release. “We have six outstanding young freshmen who will get the opportunity to run onto the Assembly Hall floor for the first time, we have 10 guys who have worked tirelessly since last season to help rebuild this program from the ground up, and hopefully you have an 8 year old in the stands who comes with his family and decides one day his dream is to be an Indiana Hoosier. That is what Hoosier Hysteria is all about.”

The first exhibition game will be against Grace (Indiana) on Nov. 4, and the first regular season game will be Nov. 13 against Howard.