IU plays in Halloween-themed scrimmage

Superman, Optimus Prime and Hannah Montana came to Assembly Hall on Saturday.

At the Haunted Hall of Hoops, children trick-or-treated with the IU men’s basketball team. Dressed in costumes, children came with their parents to meet the team and watch a scrimmage afterward.

Junior guards Jeremiah Rivers and Brett Finkelmeier sat at one table together signing autographs, handing out candy and talking to children.

One father asked his little girl who Rivers was, but she didn’t know.

“It’s a religion in our house,” he said. “You should know all their names.”

Snow White, Harry Potter and Peyton Manning also came on Saturday. Most of the children were hesitant to approach the players, so their parents encouraged them.
A medieval knight no more than eight years old came up to Rivers sucking his thumb.

Rivers asked him, “You all right? You want some candy?”

The former redshirt player answered many parents who asked him if he is ready to start the season this Wednesday.

“It’s been a long time,” one fan said.

“Too long,” Rivers replied.

Rivers said he enjoyed interacting with the children, a different group of fans than the team usually sees.

“It brings back the days when I was a little kid,” he said.

Rivers and Finklemeier were the last ones to sign autographs, down to the last fairy princess with butterfly clips.

The Halloween atmosphere continued on Branch McCracken court, where holiday music played during timeouts. There were also shooting contests between ninjas, jokers and little devils who later took the court for a parade.

Outside of the Halloween antics, IU played a fast-paced scrimmage with dressed referees and a crowd of scattered Hoosiers on hand.

Missing from the contest between the red and white teams were a number of IU guards who were all out with injury.

Rivers was hurt in practice for a second time, senior Devan Dumes rested a sore knee and sophomore Matt Roth had his nose patched up on the sideline. He was recovering from surgery, Crean said.

On the court, sophomore guard Verdell Jones and freshman Jordan Hulls shone alongside one another.

The tandem ran the team by finding open players and hitting layups and 3-point shots of their own. Crean said Hulls was one of the more steady players in practice and performed well on Saturday.

“He did a nice job,” he said. “He made shots and he ran his club. And I think he’s definitely been a big part of practice already, but with injuries to four guards it’s even turned the microscope up on all the other guards in practice, including Jordan.”

The teams traded buckets for the entire intrasquad scrimmage, but a late surge by freshman guard Maurice Creek changed that.

He scored layups, made passes and converted pull-up 3-point shots while leading the white team to a 46-40 win in the 20-minute scrimmage.

Freshman forward Bobby Capobianco was one of the players running the floor with Creek. He scored outside shots and paced in front of the crowd to score in fast-break situations.

While the game wasn’t an official contest, the IU men’s basketball players played as if their season record was on the line. Capobianco was one of the players leading that effort, and he said any time spent on the court is important to his young team.

“Every time you walk out of the locker room, it’s an audition,” he said. “You’re fighting for a spot.”

Crean said the day was another step for an IU team still trying to find its way.

“It’s just another day in the process of this program getting built back up,” he said.