November 1, 2009

Mike Pegram
Peegs.com & Inside Indiana Staff Writer

For the second year Indiana hosted a Halloween themed Haunted Hall of Hoops scrimmage and festivities at Assembly Hall. Yesterday a crowd of 1,800 including a heavy dose of costumed children were on hand for the last look at their 2009-10 men's basketball team before Wednesday's home exhibition opener against Grace.

This wasn't a typical or serious Cream vs. Crimson scrimmage as the contest only lasted one 20-minute half. Three key players were out with injuries -- Jeremiah Rivers (concussion), Devan Dumes (tweaked knee) and Matt Roth (nose). After the game Coach Tom Crean was non-committal as to whether the ailments could keep any of the trio out of the Wednesday opener. The coach just mentioned the injuries before the game and added that his young team had practiced earlier in the day for about an hour.

"I had no intentions of going a long, long way today with just six players on each team," said Crean. "But I thought this was very good and I am excited about the people that came out. I think there is a lot of happy children right now getting the chance to meet what I hope will be their future heroes."

Despite the tired legs and depleted numbers, the Hoosiers did get up and down quite a bit as evidenced by a 48-43 final score. The prevailing White team was led by freshman Bobby Capobianco's 15 points and seven boards.

Capobianco's roommate Christian Watford also showed his quick progress in October with a 12-point effort. In fact all three top white team scorers were true frosh as Maurice Creek tossed in nine for the winners. Tijan Jobe made a couple nice plays that brought applause from the crowd and had five points. Walkon soph Daniel Moore hit a nice trey and also had five while fellow soph Kory Barnett added two points.

The red team was led by a 11 points each from Verdell Jones and Jordan Hulls. Power forwards Tom Pritchard and Derek Elston added eight points apiece. Walkon senior Steven Gambles added five and Bawa Muniru did not score but did have one impressive offensive rebound.

The red team had actually jumped out to a quick double digit lead and led by five with three minutes remaining. But the freshman Creek, after struggling throughout the first 3/4 of the scrimmage, found his range and hit back to back baskets including a long three to help get the white team over the hump. Watford was also strong late as he had success driving the basketball. Capobianco was steady throughout getting a lot of points by running the court well and also hit a pair of jumpers, including one from beyond the arc. Later he talked about getting up and down the floor despite practicing earlier in the day.

"It is something we are getting used to," said Capobianco. "We have had a lot of days where we have had a morning practice and a late practice and that is something Coach (Crean) has been really focusing on, sustaining our level of endurance and intensity throughout."

Until a late three, most of Hulls' 11 points came early as he controlled the first few minutes of this game. Later he became more of a distributor and Jones become more aggressive offensively and after a slow start, Tom Pritchard was able to put together a series of baskets.

Crean downplayed the significance of any of the on court action.

"It was an opportunity to get the into Assembly Hall in front of some people, a lot of kids, some that may not be able to see them play during the year---I think that is what it is all about," said the coach. "I do think it is good for everybody to see just how young we are. Just how far we have got to go. How many things we have to learn."

The team's exhibition opener will be 7 p.m. Wednesday against Grace (Indiana). The game will not be televised but can be watched over the internet on the Big Ten Network. It costs $2.99 to watch it in that manner. Click here for more info.

"I think everybody is looking forward to taking all the things that we have worked on and I wouldn't call it a finished product yet because we have so much more that we have to learn---but to put something out on the floor and show people what we are bringing to the table this year," said Capobianco.

But his head coach made it clear that fans shouldn't be looking to set a bar, especially this early in the season.

"We are not in any position yet to be having expectations or trying to be in a position to where we are doing this or doing that," said Crean. "We are not there yet. We have a lot of very young guys that are getting better and I thought that did come out."

Recruiting notes

Sitting on the last seat of the scorers table yesterday afternoon was top 10 ranked senior Jelan Kendrick from Marietta (Wheeler), Georgia. The 6-foot-6 prospect is one of the few top Class of 2010 players still uncommitted. Another available top 10 ranked prospect will be at Indiana in two weeks as the mother of Josh Selby indicated to Rivals.com that her son plans to visit Bloomington the weekend of November 13-15.