Fans show support, yell profanity during white-out

For a moment, it was back.

Assembly Hall had not been this loud this season.

Statistics can measure the attendance level – 17,039 fans. They can measure points – IU’s 68 to Maryland’s 80. But if they could measure decibels, Tuesday’s crowd against Maryland would have hit a season-high.

The noise generated by the crowd was not typical of the second year of a rebuilding process.

The game, one of 11 scheduled as part of the Big Ten/Atlantic Coast Conference Challenge, was a loss for IU, but a marker of where the team is and where it can go.

Maryland coach Gary Williams became head coach at his alma mater in 1989, after the Terps were on probation and three years after the cocaine overdose death of Len Bias, Maryland star and second pick in the 1986 draft.

Williams led Maryland to its first national championship in 2002 – against the Hoosiers. That was also IU’s last appearance in the Final Four.

A Big Ten coach at Ohio State from 1986-89, Williams said Tuesday’s crowd was similar to what he experienced coaching against IU. He credited IU coach Tom Crean for beginning the rebuilding process for the Hoosiers.

“No difference in that crowd,” he said.

It took Williams 13 years to win a title after becoming Maryland’s head coach.

“You have to be patient,” he said. “But at the same time, Tom’s going to max whatever
he can out of this year’s team.”

Crean was also happy with the fans’ intensity. The game was scheduled to be a white-out and was mostly successful.

“I love the energy they brought us tonight,” Crean said. “We never matched the energy of our fans.”

But Crean also said he was disappointed in the fans’ profanity. At times they shouted “asshole,” as well as “go back to Cuba” for senior guard Greivis Vasquez and “USA” chants for Jin Soo Choi, the South Korean forward for the Terps. There were also chants of “still a pussy” for Vasquez.

“Nobody deserves that,” Crean said.

But freshman guard Jordan Hulls said he and his teammates appreciated the crowd’s support.

Sophomore guard Verdell Jones said he’s only heard a home crowd that loud a couple times last year, against Illinois and Michigan State.

He credited the foul language to it just being a college environment.

“It was uncalled for, but at the same time that’s what helps create the top-10 atmosphere in college basketball,” Jones said.

With their next two games coming against Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden in New York and a home contest against inter-state rival Kentucky, the Hoosiers can rely on big crowds.

“If we keep getting that fan support,” Jones said, “we’ll definitely get some big wins.”