INDIANAPOLIS — Yogi Ferrell felt no need to explain the Indiana-Purdue basketball rivalry to those Assembly Ball teammates who never experienced it.
The crowd in Hinkle Fieldhouse for Sunday’s The Basketball Tournament Butler Regional semifinal handled that. Those in crimson backed Ferrell and his squad, and the ones in black cheered for Men of Mackey.
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One of the night’s biggest ovations rewarded an IU fan on the scoreboard video screen wearing a gray T-shirt with red letters spelling out “I had a nightmare I was a Purdue fan.”
“These guys already know about the Indiana-Purdue rivalry — and they heard it tonight,” Ferrell said.
The night’s other big outburst came with a little under five minutes left in regulation, when Ferrell’s 3 put Assembly Ball up by 13 en route to a 68-55 victory. The contingent of (mostly) former Hoosiers plays Eberlein Drive on Tuesday for the regional championship. Their pursuit of the winner-take-all $1 million prize continues.
Men of Mackey’s 13-man roster included only five who played home games there. David Jenkins scored 13 points and hit a couple of late 3s to try to spark an Elam Ending eruption. Former Boilermaker Jon Octeus — who once “baptized the masses” with a memorable dunk at Assembly Hall — added nine points and six rebounds.
With Lewis Jackson and Rapheal Davis also on the bench as coaches, though, the squad overflowed with rivalry experience.
“Especially when you walk in the arena and you see all the fans and the red and black and everything like that — it's pretty cool to be a part of,” said Sahsa Stefanovic, who faced IU eight times and now serves as Purdue’s director of player personnel. “And guys that weren’t a part of it, it’s kind of like a mini version of it.”
Both teams relied on players from outside the alumni base. Former Oklahoma forward Kristian Doolittle led Assembly Ball with 14 points and seven rebounds. Former Miami center Julian Gamble posted a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Assembly Ball needed a bit more from them as some of the former Hoosiers are either still coming together or working through injuries.
Miller Kopp, coming from his NBA Summer League experience with the Oklahoma City Thunder, got caught up in the weekend’s myriad nationwide travel delays. Coach Adam Ross did not expect to see him tonight — until Kopp walked up to him during the night’s first semifinal and said “I’m ready to go.”
Juwan Morgan suffered a right shoulder injury Sunday which forced him to shoot a pair of free throws left-handed. That limited him the rest of the night, with Ross preferring to lean on players with two working arms.
Neither team shot well, combining for 24.6% from 3. Assembly Ball pushed through with a free throw advantage (19-of-28 for them, 2-of-4 for Men of Mackey) that would have lit up social media had it occurred in Big Ten play.
“I’ve got to get in the lane and create, and we’ve got a great group of guys that love to share the ball and they feel confident in themselves,” said Ferrell, who contributed 13 points and four assists. “It’s actually been pretty easy to create chemistry with these guys.”
Stefanovic played in the tournament for the first time — and only because the regional was held in Indianapolis. It allowed him to sneak away from his day job on Matt Painter’s staff to practice and play in the games. Other alums had a tougher time getting away from professional commitments overseas or in the NBA Summer League.
“Being a part of it, whether you’re a player or coach, you still want to beat them all the time — then it sucks when you don’t,” Stefanovic said. “But it’s really cool to be playing again and in a setting like this, playing against high-level people as well.”
Ross said this is as talented of a team as he has coached in TBT. The goal is to reach Philadelphia and the final four of the million-dollar tournament.
Ferrell was reminded his IU career ended in Philadelphia, with an East Region semifinal loss to North Carolina in 2016.
“I gotta get redemption man — and try and get the million dollars,” Ferrell said. “It’ll be fun. We’ve got to get there and take it a game at a time.
“We’ll watch film. We’ll get better. We’ll be a lot better next game.”
Just like any other season — IU and Purdue players trying to knock each other out in pursuit of a bigger prize.
