Stetson home game to honor 1987 team

Off to its best start since 2002, the 7-0 IU men’s basketball team welcomes Stetson to Bloomington for a 4:30 p.m. tip on Sunday.

Sandwiched between a pair of ESPN televised games, Stetson — a team picked to finish last in the Atlantic Sun Conference — won’t draw the national attention of North Carolina State or Kentucky, but fans will have their eyes on Assembly Hall for other reasons Sunday.

Members of IU’s 1987 National Championship team will attend the game to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the last Hoosiers team to win a championship and raise a banner in the south end of Assembly Hall.

IU Deputy Director of Athletics Scott Dolson, a manager on the ’87 team, said he is expecting 12 of the 15 players to attend this weekend’s festivities, including Keith Smart, the man who hit the game-winning shot in the national title game against Syracuse.

“It was kind of our fraternity, so when you are that close and you spend so much time with those people in school, and then not see them for this long, to get back together I think will be really good,” Dolson said.

“It’s kind of ironic, too, because I can tell by talking to the players and managers they are really excited because the team is doing so well and Coach (Tom) Crean has been so open in welcoming back former players and friends of the program back. I don’t think there could have been a more perfect time to get this done.”

IU is coming off its first win in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge since 2007, as it beat N.C. State 86-75 Wednesday thanks to a second-half comeback.

Last season, the Hoosiers also took a 6-0 record on the road in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, but it was Boston College that made the plays down the stretch and earned the victory.

The loss to the Eagles started a 3-6 month of December for the Hoosiers with their wins coming against the likes of Savannah State, SIU-Edwardsville and South Carolina State.

However, signs of a different IU team were evident Wednesday evening, as the comeback was the first time since 2008 that the Hoosiers overcame a halftime deficit to earn a win.

“We just learned that when we stick together, we can accomplish anything,” junior forward Christian Watford said after Wednesday’s game. “At that point when we were down seven, we didn’t give up. We just kept fighting.”

The players now return home with an undefeated record and a chance to interact with the last National Championship team at IU.

Following the game Wednesday night, Crean thanked the fans back in Indiana for their constant support through the past four years, and he wants to make sure that support is seen Sunday afternoon.

“We need a packed house for the ’87 team coming back because I know that we are going to know that there’s royalty in the building, and we haven’t been here that long, and I know all of them will know that royalty is in the building,” Crean said.