Roc on Assignment – Bloomington, Indiana

We’ll once again I drew the short straw and “had” to go on another assignment. It has been a great year as I was fortunate to hit The Masters, Red River Rivalry, college games at Berkley and Boulder and NFL games in Denver and Oakland. But my last stop for 2007 was perhaps my most enjoyable - Bloomington, Indiana, the home of the Indiana Hoosiers.

When I am not mispronouncing players’ names on the radio or helping run my sports marketing company with my business partner Dave Huebner, I am a volunteer for the Insight and Fiesta Bowls.

For the third consecutive year I am a team liaison for the upcoming Insight Bowl in Tempe and this year I am working with Indiana. The team liaison is basically a care taker who with others is responsible for making sure their team is totally looked after. It includes just about everything like transportation, lodging, practice facilities, family support, and hospitality and of course the game day experience.

Last week the official announcement came down from Bowl President John Junker that Indiana University and Oklahoma State University were invited to play in the Insight Bowl. Both schools accepted and the bowl committee was elated. The game will be played on December 31^st 3:30pm at Sun Devil Stadium followed by the world famous block party on Mill Ave in Tempe. The Bare Naked Ladies are the featured band.

Administrators from IU visited our great city earlier last week to go over all the details as they bring their Hoosiers to Arizona. They had so many nice things to say about the city! Mother Nature even threw out the Indiana Crimson Red welcome carpet with about 70 degree weather. That was bonus!

Part of the Insight Bowl’s responsibly is to visit the each team’s campus and hold a press conference as well as continue to meet and discuss details for their arrivals to Arizona.

This is where the short straw comes into the picture. It just happened that Indiana basketball was hosting their dreaded rival - Kentucky Wildcats. Well, the game is traditional held on the second Saturday of December but not on campus. National television on CBS was there with their “A” team calling the game with Billy Packer and Vern Lundquist. Tickets were going for as much as $1400. It was the first time that these two times played on each other’s campus in 16 years. Over the past 16 years the game has been played on a neutral site – either the RCA dome in Indianapolis or Freedom Hall in Louisville. Entering Saturday’s contest, Kentucky had won 13 of those 16 games and held a 28-22 overall series edge.

This is where it got fun. The fine folks in the Hoosier Athletic Department gave us a tour of their fine facilities – indoor football practice, where the team was practicing getting ready to face the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Assembly Hall, where a bunch of incredible players have suited up in the crimson red like George McGinnis, Steve Alford, Isiah Thomas, Damon Bailey and of course Bobby Knight. Knight coached at Indiana for close to 25 years. He is still so huge in Indy.

The athletic department allowed us to go on the court and actually shoot some hoops. What a treat to shoot baskets on the famous Assembly Hall floor! I shot 5-for 8 from the field!!!

The game was even better. We got totally hooked up with front row seats right behind the scorers table. Unbelievable! Pinch me! It is amazing to watch a game with such magnitude from that level – front row! You hear everything from the coaches yelling and screaming to the players’ trash talking! It’s great!

The crowd was absolutely nuts! The arena was 99% full of Hoosier fans dressed in red and white.

At halftime, Indiana honored some of their award winning football players as well as Anthony Thompson, who was elected into the National Football College Hall of Fame last week. They even brought us Insight Bowl yellow jacket folks onto mid-court as our chairman Dick Stemple welcomed head coach Bill Lynch and his football team to the Insight Bowl. The close to 18,000 fans went nuts! It was a really cool feeling.

Indiana hasn’t been to a bowl since 1993. They have overcome so much this past season as their Head Football Coach Terry Hoeppner (Coach Hep) passed away on June 19 and Coach Lynch took over with the motto, “Play 13” – The 13^th game is the Insight Bowl!!

Getting back to the game, I was bummed that superstar freshman for Indiana Eric Gordon was injured and did not play. Gordon entered the game averaging over 23 points a game is a sure lock to play in the NBA.

Some sidebars to the game were the sibling rivalry between Indiana’s freshman guard Jordan Crawford and Kentucky’s senior guard Joe Crawford. The younger got the better of the two, leading the Hoosiers in scoring with 20 points while the older brother struggled mighty shooting 4-for-15 from the field, 1-for-6 behind the 3-pt arc and scoring just 10 points. Oddly enough, Jordan was returning from a three-game suspension.

Jordan Crawford stole most of the headlines from the game; however I was very impressed by the senior leadership of forward D.J. White who had 16 points and grabbed 13 boards.

I do have to give some credit to first year head coach Billy Gillispie and his depleted Kentucky team. They were without a three of their top guards, however I did get to see freshman forward Patrick Patterson. This kid can jump out of the gym. He netted 15 points, 6-for-9 from the field and five boards to lead the Wildcats. The kid looks like an NBA player.

The game itself felt like a blowout. Kentucky really never challenged Indiana with the exception of early in the first half. The Wildcats were within four 17-13, then the Hoosiers went on a 12-2 run and never looked back.

I noticed Cleveland Cavs General Manager Danny Ferry was in the crowd most likely scouting all the touted freshman. He needs to find some help for Lebron James as the last time I looked, the Cavs had lost six straight (James out with an injury).

The #15^th ranked Hoosiers (8-1) won 70-51 holding the Wildcats (4-3) to their lowest point total against Indiana since 1940. Second year head coach Kelvin Sampson is now 21-0 at Assembly Hall.

Well it looks like my assignments for 2007 are coming to end. 2008 looks to be a huge year for Roc and Manuch as we hope to make a major, major announcement in the next few weeks that will definitely affect my assignments.

Stay tuned!

written by Roc