Red Wolves - IU East

RICHMOND, Ind. - The real winners were the fans.

And the only number that really counted was the impressive number of people in the stands.

The Indiana University East men's basketball team had a large and vocal following during a scrimmage Oct. 25 at Earlham College.

The fans of the two schools filled most of the bleachers across from the teams' benches. Even Rufus the Red Wolf made an appearance in the IU East contingent.

"We had a lot more people than I thought we would," said sophomore forward Will Madison (Fishers, Ind./Fishers High School). "It was cool to look in the stands and see that many people showed up."

The city of Richmond's two college basketball programs had hoped to stage an exhibition game on Oct. 25, but NCAA rules prohibit exhibitions between NCAA Division II schools and NAIA programs. IU East is an NAIA Division II men's basketball program. Earlham is an NCAA Division III school.

The teams could not keep official scoring or statistics during the scrimmage. The teams played two 20-minute halves, followed by a pair of 10-minute sessions.

NCAA rules prohibit Earlham from publicizing the scrimmage. IU East is not bound by the same restrictions.

"They could very well have had the biggest crowd they'll have all year at this scrimmage, and that made a big statement, that we're capable of bringing in big numbers," said IU East coach Mark Hester, who hopes the schools can play regular season games in the future.

"If the game had a chance to be hyped like a real game, the amount of people we would draw would be tremendous."

The scoreboard, by rule, showed 0-0 at the end of the evening, but Hester said he saw plenty of positive points.

"It was entirely different from last week (an exhibition loss against Athletes In Action) because we were playing against kids our age, and last week we were playing against professionals, grown men," Hester said.

"We executed better. It wasn't perfect but a million times better. And I thought our defensive intensity was much better. We weren't intimidated like we were last week."

IU East has not played against Earlham in men's basketball since the Red Wolves joined the NAIA in 2007. The schools did play in 1994.

The Red Wolves open the regular season Oct. 30 at Southern Oregon. IU East plays at two-time NAIA Division II champion Oregon Tech on Oct. 31.