Loudest Moment in Assembly Hall

My ears were ringing, my body was shaking, I thought Assembly Hall might topple over.



It was that dunk. With 7:43 to go in the game, all 300+ pounds of Marco Killingsworth trucked down the court for a dunk that gave IU their first lead. It was the final piece of an 11-0 run that got IU back into the game. It was a thing of beauty.

It’s hard to put into words what it was like. I was a freshman at IU at the time, it was my first big IU basketball game as a student. I had been to plenty of games over my life, most notably the Haston 3 pointer vs Michigan State, but nothing compared to this. To this day I get chills just thinking about that play. IU fans know how loud it was, the players knew it, and Duke knew it.

Coack Krzyzewski called it the loudest environment he’d experienced… (outside of Cameron Indoor, which he probably only included so the Cameron Crazies wouldn’t commit suicide.) He said after, “Wow! What a great game. What an amazing atmosphere.” It was incredible.

I actually had a friend on the Duke team at that time, after the game the next day I called him to see what he thought. He said he couldn’t even describe how loud that was. It was the loudest thing any player on Duke had experienced. He said during timeouts, they couldn’t hear Coach, they couldn’t even hear the ball bounce. If you wanted to call a play on the floor??? FORGET it. Their ears were ringing ON the court while they were playing.

As we all know, IU couldn’t hold on. They let the momentum go away. For all of the games I’ve seen, this game is still my most memorable moment. It trumps all other sporting events I’ve been to in my life. Considering we lost… that speaks volumes about how loud it was that night.

With #1 and undefeated Kentucky coming to town on Saturday, many fans are asking if the Hall will be that loud again. For that to happen, IU is going to have to keep this game close and make a run similar to the 11-0 run they made vs Duke back in 2005. I hope for all the fans attending, that Assembly Hall is rocking like it did that night in 2005. For those of you who didn’t experience Duke in 2005, it’s something that you will NEVER forget.

Posted in: Kentucky,Student Section