Hoosier Hysteria Recap: Indiana Basketball Officially Underway

The 2011-2012 Indiana Hoosiers basketball season is officially underway.  Tonight's "Hoosier Hysteria" tipped off the upcoming season.

Normally the season is started on a Friday, but the school moved it to tonight in an effort to help recruit Gary Harris attend.

Harris plays football for a local Indianapolis area high school, Hamilton Southeastern, and wouldn't have been able to attend if Hoosier Hysteria took place on its normal night last night due to his last regular season football game.

During every break in action on the court the "Gary Harris" chant was chanted among the 16,000-plus fans in attendance at Assembly Hall tonight.

The women's team kicked off the action tonight with a three-point contest and a scrimmage.

At 8:00 p.m. locally the madness started for Hoosier nation with the men's season getting underway.

The Hoosiers announced fellow Hoosier, and the Big Ten's all-time leading scorer, Calbert Cheaney, to a raucous applause.

After the announcement of Cheaney and the coaching staff, the Hoosier faithful was humored by sophomore Victor Oladipo's version of Usher's "U Got It Bad," as his freshmen teammates performed as his back-up dancers.

The team introductions came next, as the biggest applause went to 2011 Indiana Mr. Basketball and highly-touted recruit Cody Zeller.  He was brought out last, and the roof could have came off with how loud it was in Assembly Hall.

Following the intros, head coach Tom Crean made a great speech and introduced former Hoosiers Eric Gordon and D.J. White as guests along with emcee Bill Raftery, who is an analyst on ESPN and CBS.

Raftery gave a speech and got the action started with the three-point and long ball contest, which was won by freshman Austin Etherington.

After a brief intermission and the announcement of judges for the dunk contest, Eric Gordon, D.J. White, Tijan Jobe and Jack Harbaugh, the dunk contest begun.

Sophomores Will Sheehey and Victor Oladipo stole the show with Sheehey eventually coming out with the win.

A scrimmage capped off the night and ended the 2011 version of Hoosier Hysteria.

The Hoosiers open the season with an exhibition game against the University of Indianapolis on Saturday, Nov. 5th at 7:00 p.m. ET at Assembly Hall.

The regular season for the Hoosiers kicks off  Friday Nov. 11th with a home game against Stoney Brook at 7:00 p.m. ET.