Asked & Answered: 10 Things To Know about Hoosier Hysteria on Saturday at Assembly Hall

The unofficial start of the Indiana basketball season is Saturday, with Hoosier Hysteria taking place at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall for both the men's and women's teams. Here's everything you need to know about the event, including how to watch it at home.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The unofficial start to Indiana's much-anticipated basketball season has arrived, with Hoosier Hysteria taking place on Saturday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall 

Here's everything you need to know:

1. What time does Hoosier Hysteria start?

Hoosier Hysteria starts at 4 p.m. ET at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The gates are opening at 2:30 p.m., and fans attending are asked to donate a canned food item to benefit the Hoosier Hills Food Bank. Parking is free and fans can enter via Gates 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. ADA parking available in Gate 13.

Starting at 2:30 p.m., fans will have access to The Varsity Shop, the concession stands and the IU ticket office to buy women’s basketball tickets and men’s basketball mini-series tickets.

2. How do I get tickets for Hoosier Hysteria? 

No tickets are necessary. Seats are first come, first served. Fans started lining up at 7 a.m. ET for the best seats. 

3. What are the mask and/or vaccine requirements?

Because of the Indiana University and Monroe County Health Department protocols currently in place, all fans are required to wear a face-covering inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Just trying to keep everyone as safe as possible, so please don't complain or get political about it. Just be grateful you can be inside Assembly Hall, It's the first time fans have been in there for a basketball event since March of 2020. That' a long 19 months.

Also, because of the pandemic, there will be no autograph sessions with the players, either before the event or after.

4. Who is all involved?

Both men's and women's teams are involved in Hoosier Hysteria. Indiana women's coach Teri Moren and her team, coming off a first-ever Elite Eight appearance a year ago, will be introduced first, and then new men's coach Mike Woodson will introduce his players and staff. That will all start at 4 p.m. 

From 3:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., the Student Athletic Board Candy Stripe Classic 3-on-3 Championship will be held on McCracken Court and performances by the Redsteppers Dance Team and the IU Cheerleading squad will take place prior to the official start at 4 p.m. 

5. Are there any special guests this year?

Yes there is! Basketball Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas is back in Bloomington for Hoosier Hysteria. The two-time NBA champion played two years at Indiana from 1979 through 1981 and was a teammate of Woodson's during his freshman year. Thomas was the leader of the 1981 team that won a national championship, and he and Woodson have remained close friends through the years during all their time in the NBA

Woodson was hired in part to unify the Indiana fan base, and that starts with welcoming home the former players. This is the first step, with Thomas coming home, and there will be many more former players around all year, too. 

Being the head coach at Indiana, his alma mater, has meant a lot to Woodson already.

“It kind of touched home after sitting up here (at the podium in the Assembly Hall media room), accepting the job and going through a few months of work on the job, I mean, it just hadn’t set in,” Woodson said. “But when all the players came back (at French Lick) that we brought back, I believe it was about 150 players, it kind of touched home, man. 

"A lot of those guys have paved the way before I was even thought of. Some of the younger guys after me probably looked at me as a guy who paved the way for them. It was one big family reunion, man.”

6. Can I watch it on TV?

It's not on regular TV, but it can be watched on the BTNPlus package. IU students Derek Decker, Will Trubshaw and Grace Ybarra will provide commentary.

BTN Plus is a Big Ten Network subscriber service that offers programming for hundreds of Indiana athletic events during the year, including a couple of the noinconference basketball games early in the season. 

A subscription to BTN Plus does not require a Big Ten Network TV subscription with a TV provider. A season pass is $79.95. A monthly IU pass is $9.95. Usually each season, two to three men’s basketball regular season games will air on the service and five to six women’s games also are shown.

To order, click here https://www.bigtenplus.com/en-int/page/payment

There is no radio broadcast of the event.

7. What kind of events will be going on?

There will be a scrimmage at the end of the event, which is the only time fans will see the Hoosiers in a full-court setting before the season starts on Tuesday, Nov. 9 against Eastern Michigan at Assembly Hall.

There are no exhibition games this year, just two closed-door scrimmages before the opener.

There will be a few contests as well, with players from both teams pairing up for the competition. Here are the teams:

3-Point Shooting Contest

• Tamar Bates/Caitlin Hose
• Miller Kopp/Ali Patberg
• Anthony Leal/Aleksa Gulbe
• Parker Stewart/Grace Berger

Skills Competition

• Logan Duncomb/Nicole Cardaño-Hillary
• Xavier Johnson/Kiandra Browne
• Rob Phinisee/Mackenzie Holmes
• Race Thompson/Chloe Moore-McNeil

Dunk Contest

• Trey Galloway
• Jordan Geronimo
• Trayce Jackson-Davis
• Khristian Lander

8. How long is it supposed to last?

About 90 minutes, so there should be plenty of time for everyone to get to a TV to watch the Indiana-Penn State football game on Saturday night. That game starts at 7:30 p.m.

9. Will there be a lot of recruits there too?

Absolutely! Two of Indiana's commitments, C.J. Gunn of Lawrence North and Jalen Hood-Schifino of Montverde Academy in Florida, will be at the event.  Hood-Schifino is on his official visit, and he's been in Bloomington all weekend. The third commit, Kaleb Banks of Fayetteville, Ga., can't make he because he's at a top-150 camp in Texas this weekend. 

There's talk that as many as a dozen recruits in the 2023 and 2024 classes will be in attendance, too. According to Jeff Rabjohns of Peegs.com, here's the list of recruits besides Gunn and Hood-Schifino who are expected to attend the event:

• Gabe Cupps, 6-foot-2 point guard, Centerville (OH), class of 2023.
• Sam Orme, 6-foot-8 small forward, Carmel (IN), class of 2023.
• JQ Roberts, 6-foot-6 power forward, Bloomington (IN) North, class of 2023.
• Joey Hart, 6-foot-3 shooting guard, Linton-Stockton (IN), class of 2023.
• Joey Brown, 6-foot-5 point guard, North Central (IN), class of 2023.
• Cooper Koch, 6-foot-7 small forward, Peoria (IL) Notre Dame, class of 2024.
• Jacob Theodosiou, 6-foot-3 point guard, Western Reserve (OH), class of 2024.

10. Can I get the basketball schedule posters there?

Yes!! They will be for sale at the Varsity Shop, which is at the west entrance to Assembly Hall. You can also by clothing there, and books too, of course. I still always enjoy seeing my book "Missing Banners'' there on the shelves.

The posters are $2.95 each. You'll be able to order them online later this month. Here's our story on that, and how the players are benefiting from the sale of the posters this year, too. CLICK HERE

Complete coverage on Sports Illustrated Indiana

Come visit our HoosiersNow.com site at 2:30 p.m. and we'll have a live blog going throughout the event on Saturday, with news and views, commentary, pictures and videos in the blog. To visit our site, CLICK HERE