The road to Vegas...

I was about two miles away from Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind. making my first road trip of the season. I had been going 85 or so the whole way from Edwardsville, and was making great time, considering I didn't leave until roughly 12:30 CST for SIUE's game against Indiana to open the Las Vegas Classic.
As I approached Bloomington I turned on the radio, surfing through the AM dials hoping to find some game-day talk. I was out of luck, besides an off-mention of the hometown Hoosiers 7 p.m. EST tilt with Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. AM 1700, a station out of Indianapolis was sharing some of the most in-depth high school basketball coverage I have ever heard in my life. They were criticizing a kid from Indiana for opting to play his college ball at Illinois State, as opposed to somewhere else, preferably in Indiana.
Everything I had hoped for was dashed. Immediately, I became nervous as I ran into bumper to bumper traffic two and a half hours from tip time approaching the arena. It was a much different feeling from just an hour or two earlier, when I was in Terre Haute, home to Indiana State University. All of a sudden, I felt as though SIUE would be able to shock the college basketball world. It was as though the energy of collegiate Larry Bird, who played at Indiana State was channeling through me. The Cougars were going to do it. Nobody could tell me we were not going to do it, not even the Hoosier's 7-2 record.
When I found myself in game-day traffic, all alone it hit me.
This was going to get ugly.
The state I was in is ruled by the basketball gods. There is enough small-school glory to go along with power-conference supremacy.
For every moment for David, (Milan High School, Larry Bird and Indiana State, Butler) there has been a moment for IU.
Enter one of the most intimidating arenas in the country, even at not-so-full capacity, as it was Friday night.

After some crappy media room salad and Papa Johns Pizza (Illinois' Assembly Hall feeds you way better, just to throw that out there) the lights dimmed, and some intimidating music played. Tom Crean addressed the crowd telling them "How exciting it is to be at Assembly Hall for our game against SIU Edwardsville, they are a great school and it will be a great challenge, so I'm really really excited!" or something along those lines. They played some traditional song thing that confused me, and made a spectacle out of player introductions.
The Big Ten Network was doing their usual thing down at court level, being extremely biased, (as I am, but the other way around,) and it was time to play basketball.
Just like SIUE did in their other game against a Big Ten team, Anthony Mitchell decided to be the early hero. He had an airball, and two turnovers I believe in the span of what seemed to be 10 seconds. Before Mitchell was taken out, it was already too late. The Cougars were taking horrible shots, while Indiana was feeding off its home crowd and draining all of theirs. SIUE's shots rattled off the front, back and sides of the rim. Some didn't even make it to the rim. It was the longest nine minutes of my life.
The score was Indiana 24, SIUE 0.
From there on, the Cougars tried to fight, and they just couldn't do it. They managed to play with Indiana, and cut the deficit to 47-20 at halftime. That was acceptable in my mind given the start. When it was over, freshman Michael Messer led the Cougars with 15 points, and SIUE was onto Northern Iowa with an 88-54 loss.
I could live with the final result. We were beat by a better basketball team, and although it was close, I couldn't say we were flat out embarrassed.
With Indiana's basketball tradition comes a sense of entitlement. A little girl had an "All I want for Christmas is Cody Zeller" sign. You can't get him til next season sugarplum.
SIUE was mocked profusely by those in the crowd and watching at home. In unison, IU's fans clapped when the Cougars finally notched their first points of the game from the free-throw stripe.

@apmarot: 

Now we know why so few people showed up. #Hoosiers open game on an 11-0 run. Don't think #SIU-Edwardsville is playing its 3rd OT in 4 games. [via Twitter]

@AndyHDavis: 

Why on earth is #indiana playing SIU Edwardsville? #hoosiers[via Twitter]

@IndyWes: 

@IUSportcom can #iu schedule #siue in football too??? [via Twitter]

eCougarzone.com:  Bundalo hits both, kid yells DAMN YOU!!! at Nick, real classy

@AllanjLewis: 

THAT'S IT. SOMEONE CALLED US A 1A HIGH SCHOOL TEAM. I'M GOING TO KICK SOME ASS. [via Twitter]

 And they had a seat-upgrade promotion? yeah, that's cool.

I may seem bitter about it, but games in the Big Six conference just anger me to no end. In a 40 point game fans were giving the refs hell. If we were winning by 40, we would just be rooting for Dob and Alex Newlin to get playing time.

@heyericiscool: @Allanjlewis sorry u made the drive all the way there. I'm regretting the drive to bull and bear from my house. Can't imagine how u feel.[via Twitter]  I felt like this.  And this too. The Cougars continued their pre-Vegas tuneups earlier today at Northern Iowa.  The Panthers, fresh off the Sweet 16, held SIUE to 47 points in a 68-47 victory in Cedar Falls.  Don't worry about it. We have victories coming in Las Vegas.  It's a guarantee. LAS VEGAS CLASSIC PRELIMINARY RESULTS: SIUE 54, Indiana 88 New Mexico 91 Longwood 54 South Carolina State 52, Northern Iowa 68 Colorado 89 The Citadel 61 SIUE 47, Northern Iowa 68 Indiana 102 South Carolina State 60 New Mexico 84 The Citadel 58 Longwood 59, Colorado 104 *SIUE plays Longwood Wednesday and either S. Carolina State or the Citadel  Thursday in Vegas.

Posted in: Archives,Men's basketball