Earlier in this NIT, when there were a lot of games each night to break down the next day, we would list them according to how much they stirred my soul. Often, that soul was very stirred by the proceedings. But for as moving as it was to see Cornell dig in and try to hold back Ohio State with AK Okereke’s tooth on the floor, those early rounds couldn’t hold a candle to the magic last night at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Here was the scene as the seconds ticked down and the buzzer sounded.
We said it yesterday. Hinkle Fieldhouse is a sacred place. Part of what makes it sacred is that it doesn’t only matter to Butler and its people. It matters to every person in the state of Indiana. It matters to every basketball fan in the world. If you opened basketball’s history up to its center, there in the beating core would be Hinkle Fieldhouse, daylight flowing through the glass in the morning, shadows swallowing the tops of the bleachers as the nighttime falls. Day after day, decade after decade, the temple has stood, teams and their people filtering through, their own historic path intersecting with this monument to the bouncing-ball game.
Last night, two more storied college basketball souls welcomed Hinkle to their respective histories. First, of course, the NIT. NIT games have been held at Hinkle before. There was one there two weeks ago. But the NIT Final Four and Championship are a different creature. They are the centerpiece of the NIT. The NIT revolves around them. With these rounds at Hinkle this season, this NIT revolves around Hinkle Fieldhouse. It’s an honor for the NIT.
Second, Indiana State.
We can talk about the basketball: These days, Indiana State is a second-half team. Josh Schertz has been resting Robbie Avila and turning to the bench mob for a long first-half stretch when he can, adjusting at halftime and turning up the gas from there. Utah came out with Branden Carlson on Jayson Kent and Lawson Lovering trying to guard Avila. Avila quickly hit three threes. Craig Smith made his adjustment. A pivot to a 1–3–1 slowed the Sycamore attack, and both Ben Carlson and Hunter Erickson provided good energy off the bench as the Utes went smaller. Utah rallied to keep up with the effective hosts, getting to halftime tied. But then Isaiah Swope made his run in the second half, and with Julian Larry distributing and local kid Ryan Conwell excellent, there was only so much the Utes could do. Deivon Smith, who dealt with a little first-half foul trouble, was money from beyond the arc, as were all Utah players, in sum. It wasn’t enough. Indiana State hit 100. The rafters echoed with the triumph of the Trees.
Having talked about the basketball, let’s talk about Indiana State.
That building was bursting with Indiana State fans. They were lined up well before doors opened, and doors opened a full hour and a half before tip. They were impassioned. They were noisy. They were often on their feet.
Indiana State is the least pretentious of the five big Indiana schools (and yes, there are five again now). Notre Dame is prone to scoffing. Indiana is cool, and so it scoffs at Purdue. Purdue is full of cost-conscious engineers, and so it is uptight. Butler is a Goldilocks zone, but being a city school, its edges are rather polished. Butler can err on the conscientious side. Indiana State? Devoid of inhibition. Friendly and happy, but ready to party. The sheer variety of Robbie Avila merchandise on display at Hinkle Fieldhouse pointed to a lot of people spending a lot of time with t-shirts in their garages or online at Custom Ink. Indiana State was ready for this. Indiana State has been ready for this.
There are few things like the roar of a crowd. It was one of the things we missed most during Covid. The roar of a crowd at Hinkle is another level of special. Last night’s approached perfection. It wasn’t requested by a jumbotron, bouncing letters telling people to “Get Loud” like a bowling alley’s strike graphic from 2007. It simply was. It arose organically. And with no real student section, at least that I could see from my corner of the building, it wasn’t coming only from the fans who are encouraged to be unhinged. This was parents with children. It was suburban empty-nesters. It was the old ladies Josh Schertz has made his friends, and the old widowers carrying oxygen tanks, guided by their adult children. It was triumphant, exultant, the unabashed expression of joy that sports are so good at drawing out of our self-conscious hearts. I will attend hundreds or thousands more basketball games in my life. I will always remember last night at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Credit should be given to Utah, to the program and to its fans who made the trip (the building basically had six sections—a small family section for Georgia, a small family section for Seton Hall, a small family section for Utah, and two sections for the band, with the eight thousand remaining seats unofficially reserved for the Sycamore faithful). From all we could tell this week, Utah is great people. We had a similar experience in 2018 in New York, but that was more with fans. This was with the program itself. Craig Smith is a joy to be around. After a season-ending loss in front of a hostile crowd at a “neutral” court, the sort of thing that might send some famously sensitive college basketball coaches spiraling, Smith emerged from the tunnel to say hi to Gabe Madsen’s family, a wistful but easy smile on his face. Soon, that smile grew to a grin. A young Seton Hall fan had approached and asked for a picture, elated to get documentation of himself meeting a real, live college basketball coach. Smith readily obliged.
Credit should also be given to Georgia, who made a heck of a run to get here and faces a bright future but was no match for a Seton Hall team that was playing possessed. Georgia will be back to the grind immediately, if our impressions of Mike White are correct. They never really left the grind. It would have been easy to fold last night, playing late into the evening as the fans filtered out and Seton Hall refused to let the Bulldogs get close. But Georgia did not quit. The shots weren’t falling, but Noah Thomasson kept pushing, and RJ Melendez was there to provide some sparks, a role player stepping up like so many different role players did for Georgia at so many times this year. Ultimately, it wasn’t enough. Because Seton Hall was just too much.
Seton Hall is in an awkward place here. By historic rights, this should be their home crowd tomorrow night. They are the New York City-adjacent team. The NIT was long a New York City tournament. They’re also the team that was closer to NCAA T*urnament inclusion, by the selection committee’s own list. That’s why they’re the top seed in the NIT, while Indiana State is the second. (We’ll have to go back tomorrow and try to find the last time the top two seeds both made it to the NIT Championship.) They are the veterans, the senior-heavy lineup playing for each other and for themselves when a notable rival decided they’d rather not play.
Does Seton Hall feel disrespected by this? I’m not sure. But in front of his hometown crowd, Dre Davis was an active force, while Al-Amir Dawes did work from beyond the arc, especially early in the game. Seton Hall made it boring, and it did that fast. Indiana State fans stood around, doing that circular chat people do with many goodbyes before they actually leave, a departure accompanied by the realization that they’re heading the same direction, at which point they repeat the process in the parking lot. When these fans looked up at the first TV timeout, Seton Hall was already ahead 10–2. With five minutes left in the first half, the Pirates had stretched that lead to 22. It was a beatdown. Seton Hall isn’t going to go lightly tomorrow night. We cannot wait.
**
Where the NIT Bracket Challenge stands:
- Austin Roberts and Sean Reardon are currently tied for the lead, with 47 points apiece.
- Fargo currently leads the celebrity scoreboard, with 37 points.
- Fargo clinched the celebrity championship. Good girl.
- The overall NIT Bracket Challenge podium is very much up for grabs.
If Seton Hall wins…
- Boxwithnoedges wins the bracket challenge, while Dylan Heinrich and Jack Navarrete tie for second.
- For tiebreakers, Dylan chose Robbie Avila to be the tournament’s leading rebounder, while Jack left that slot blank. We admire Jack for embracing the cosmic uncertainty, but second place would go to Dylan.
If Indiana State wins…
- There’s a two-way tie for first, and it’s between our current leaders, Austin Roberts and Sean Reardon. One will finish in first place. One will finish in second.
- There’s a four-way tie for third place, one which will be decided between HokieDan’s NIT Bracket, King_Aidan47, cream abdul-jabbar, and Pete Tut.
- The third-place tiebreaker should be straightforward. If Jayson Kent is the leading rebounder among these three players, King_Aidan47 takes third. If Jaden Bediako leads the trio, third goes to HokieDan. If Robbie Avila leads the trio, Pete is our third-place finisher. If there’s a tie, there’s a tie.
- For first place, it gets more intriguing. Because while Austin picked Robbie Avila, Sean picked Robert Avila, and after consulting with Indiana State’s Associate Athletic Director for Communications and Digital Content, we’ve confirmed that Robbie Avila was born Roberto Avila, not Robert. We are only enforcing this because we need to break the tie (HokieDan called Jaden Bediako “Jason,” and that’s ok). But we are enforcing this. Austin’s in the driver’s seat for first. Sean’s in the driver’s seat for second. Robbie Avila goes by Robbie and is named Roberto. Robert is unfortunately not among his names. Honest mistake, no criticism from us. But because we need to break the tie, Austin leads Sean.
Full scoreboard here.
