He stopped just before walking off Branch McCracken Court and looked up into the general admission section at Assembly Hall.
He raised both arms and pointed toward the students, applauded and stopped in his tracks. He smiled as he repeated “thank you, thank you all.”
Then he disappeared into the tunnel, underneath the scoreboard that read “Indiana 89, Maryland 70.”
The fans weren’t the ones scoring 89 points or shooting 60 percent from the field. So why make a point to thank them?
“Why not?” Crean said. “Those people come in with that energy from start to finish. You’ve got to applaud that .... That’s Indiana basketball.”
No. 23 IU (15-4, 5-1) played one of its most complete games of the season in beating No. 13 Maryland (17-3, 5-2) to take a share of first place in the ?Big Ten standings.
IU once again put on a 3-point shooting clinic, converting on 15-of-22 attempts from long range. At the same time, the Hoosiers limited Maryland freshman Melo Trimble to just 10 points, his lowest output since Nov. 20.
IU led by three points at the halftime break, but a dominant second half saw the Hoosiers outscore the Terrapins 51-35.
With just over three minutes left, chants of “overrated” began pouring onto the floor as ?Maryland took free throws.
Members of the home crowd were already heading to the exits. The students left in attendance began singing “Hey, hey, hey, goodbye” in the closing seconds as IU finished off a 19-point drubbing.
“It will be fun film to watch because I think we were really good in the second half,” ?Crean said.
IU shot 9-of-11 from 3-point range in the second half. The consistent shooting didn’t allow Maryland a chance to catch its breath.
“I thought we did a lot of things well,” Maryland Coach Mark Turgeon said. “They just kept hitting shots.”
IU junior guard Yogi Ferrell hit many of those shots whether it be squaring up for a 3-pointer, connecting on a step-back jumper or just finding a teammate with a pass along the baseline.
Ferrell finished with a game-high 24 points on 8-of-10 shooting. He was 7-of-8 from 3-point range.
He had entered the game shooting just 5-of-25 in his previous three games, but said the basket looked bigger Thursday night.
“After making a couple, the rim just kind of opens up a little bit more,” Ferrell said. “It just gets easier to get the basketball in the hoop basically. I was just letting it go and it was all up to the ball from there.”
Crean said Maryland was as good as advertised and that it was a team IU was excited to play.
He sensed the players’ eagerness in shootaround.
They knew it was a test. It was an opportunity to see where they stood against one of the nation’s best teams.
Where the season goes now is unknown.
IU will hit the road again Sunday to play Ohio State in Columbus in a rematch from when IU beat Ohio State earlier this month.
But at least for a few days, the Hoosiers stand on top of the conference.
“We’re excited,” Crean said. “We played well against a great team. We had to be that good to beat them.”
