IUP men’s basketball stands as bright spot in dreary winter

There have been a number of hassles for students during the first half of this semester. The weather has been terrible. The temperatures have been unbearably
low. Classes are difficult by themselves no matter what the weather is.
But amongst all of these hassles, there has still been something to look forward
to — an escape from the daily grind of classes and trots through the snow. That escape has been the uber-successful men's basketball team.
Expectations were high coming into this season, following an NCAA tournament
bid and win in the first round and the addition of Division I transfer Akida McLain. The Crimson Hawks have lived up to those expectations and are considered amongst the best in the nation and are a favorite to win their region and advance to the Elite Eight.
With the newfound success of the program, people began to take notice and proceeded to pack Memorial Field House to the rafters to get a glimpse of what the big noise is all about surrounding this team.
So far, the fans have not been disappointed.
The fans have showed their undying support and have even earned themselves
a nickname — the Crimson Crazies.
The attention did not stop within the city limits of Indiana, however. The attention has even reached as far as Bristol, Conn. — the headquarters of ESPN. On Feb. 10, IUP forward Darryl Webb had not only one, but two plays on SportCenter's Top 10 plays.
Those two plays put the rest of the country on notice that something special is going here at IUP.
All of the hype, attention and praise came to a head Saturday night at Memorial Field House when the Crimson Hawks won its first outright PSAC West division championship since 1995. That was 15 years ago. So much has changed in Indiana let alone the world since then. The nickname of the school and the names of the buildings have changed or don't exist at all and the people in charge of things here at IUP have changed as well.
Although their journey is not done, winning the division is a big step in the right direction from where the program was just a few years ago.