Column: How the other half lives

Savannah State forward Rashad Hassan and his teammates knew their place.

“Left! Right! Left! Right!” the IU student section chanted as he walked to his seat on the bench after fouling out with 1:50 minute to go.

“Sit down!”

The Tigers were just making another stop on their tour of major conference schools, where they would be paid big bucks to put another feather in their opponents’ caps.

When the undersized and outmatched squad walked off Branch McCracken Court into the cool Indiana night, I — like all of you — couldn’t care less about where Savannah State Head Coach Horace Broadnax and his team were coming from or where they were going.

IU got the blowout win that was expected — a merciful 29-point shellacking.

That’s what mattered after the final buzzer sounded, at which point the Tigers became an afterthought.

It didn’t matter that Broadnax led the Tigers to their first winning season in more than 20 years just four seasons ago.

Nor did it matter that Savannah State was in its first season with the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, giving the Tigers their first chance to play in a conference championship since 1998, a title that could lead to an automatic NCAA Tournament berth.

After all, the hired entertainment clad in orange and blue was another faceless non-conference opponent for the Hoosiers to beat up early in the season.

Savannah State was no different from Northwestern State, North Carolina Central, Mississippi Valley State or Chattanooga, all of which IU has played in the past two years.

The only thing the Hoosiers and Tigers shared Saturday night was the court.
While IU Coach Tom Crean’s team proudly wore the usual adidas gear, Savannah State donned apparel outfitted by Russell Athletics. Kudos to anyone who can name me another college program outfitted by Russell.

The Tigers tried to shoot free throws with the noise of an announced attendance of 16,613 in Assembly Hall, compared to the 1,445 that attended Savannah State’s home opener.

Say “IU basketball,” and the first thoughts to come to most people are five national championship banners, Bob Knight and tradition.

Savannah State has authored itself into a far different chapter of the record books.
The Tigers set an NCAA record for fewest points and worst field goal percentage in a half during the shot-clock era on Jan. 7, 2008, against Kansas State during another punching bag charade. In the second half, Broadnax’s woeful bunch was outscored 48-4 and shot 4.3 percent from the field.

But nine minutes into the game against the Hoosiers, it seemed Savannah State forgot it was supposed to roll over, lose convincingly and collect the hefty check that might help bridge the $719 million gap that separates its 2010 endowment from IU’s.

At that point, the score was tied at 14 until the Hoosiers went on a run that would put their lead at double-digits for the rest of the game.

For some reason, even after a loss was a forgone conclusion, the Tigers still didn’t learn their place.

In a game in which fouls seemed to be called for merely looking at the opposition the wrong way, Savannah State’s players protested the questionable calls, which amounted to the most free throws attempted by a Hoosier team since 2000.

Broadnax even had the audacity to argue with the referee enough to incite a technical foul with his team down by 28 with 9:05 left in the game.

Although the Tigers already lost to Georgetown by 29 this year, with road trips to Butler, Wisconsin and Arkansas still to go, they were not acting as an obedient, small-conference opponent.

Big-time programs paying small schools to play them in revenue sports is nothing new. It’s been done for as long I have been watching sports and spans every BCS school. By no means do I mean to single out IU.

After all, it’s duck-hunting season, and the Hoosiers didn’t want to be left without their fair share of easy wins.

Savannah State’s leading scorer, Hassan, sat in his small, red chair on the bench with 10 forgettable points to his name.

He, Broadnax and the rest of the Tigers would board a bus en route to their next game at Butler, where there will be another opponent, another check and probably another defeat.

­— azaleon@indiana.edu