Oct. 31, 2005

As unveiled at this year's 2005 Hoosier Hysteria on Oct. 14, basketball fans will now watch the Hoosiers at Branch McCracken Court at Assembly Hall in 2005-06 from literally a new perspective. The Indiana Athletics Department and its multi-media partner, IU Sports Properties, a division of Learfield Communications, have completed the installation of the $1.99-million scoreboard-video board.

The state-of-the art scoreboard-video board includes four video screens, four video/scoring/statistics screens, one center-hung ProAd ring, five ProTable scorer's table units, four auxiliary portal scoreboards, as well as three-sided shot clocks and a new game timing system.

The only other major program in the country that utilizes similar ProTable technology is North Carolina, while Wisconsin is the only other Big Ten program that was a center-hung ProAd ring in its facility.

The scoreboard-video board system is a significant upgrade from the scoreboard and timing system that has been in use for the past 11 seasons, which cannot show video highlights or individual/team statistics. Additionally, the current shot clocks do not display hundredth of a second, and replacement of parts for the entire timing system is difficult due to the unit's age.

Indiana men's basketball coach Mike Davis and women's coach Sharon Versyp feel that the new scoreboard -video board brings a positive boost to their respective programs.

"One of the biggest recruiting tools we have at Indiana is the atmosphere here during a big game," Davis said. "This new scoreboard is a great resource in helping us continue to build our significant homecourt advantage."

One of Versyp's many goals in her upcoming debut campaign is to help cultivate a solid fan base, and the new scoreboard-video board is a major tool in that cultivation.

"Very few programs in the country have this type of technology in their on-campus facility," Versyp said. "IU women's basketball is a sleeping giant. It has a ton of potential. There is just so much tradition here. We need to build it. We need to have character and build a foundation. We need to get the state excited about IU women's basketball. When it has that much potential, it is exciting. We can always go up, and we are going to do it and do it in great fashion."