New Aaron White Interview - Hilton's court was shaking

[DP5555]

Check out this Aaron White interview... he said the floor was shaking while Gesell was shooting those final free throws against Iowa State in 2013. Makes ya realize how tough that had to of been. White was one of my favorite Hawks. Glad to hear he's doing well, and bought a house back in Iowa.

 

[bogeyman]

Check out this Aaron White interview... he said the floor was shaking while Gesell was shooting those final free throws against Iowa State in 2013. Makes ya realize how tough that had to of been. White was one of my favorite Hawks. Glad to hear he's doing well, and bought a house back in Iowa.

I was there, it was the loudest I've ever heard an arena and that includes a couple trips to Allen Fieldhouse. I'm pretty sure I saw the rim actually moving back and forth too. It was pretty ridiculous.

 

[DP5555]

I was there, it was the loudest I've ever heard an arena and that includes a couple trips to Allen Fieldhouse. I'm pretty sure I saw the rim actually moving back and forth too. It was pretty ridiculous.

Yeah that's nuts. Helps me put this in perspective. It's easy to criticize a kid for missing free throws like that, but good lord. I can't imagine that kind of pressure. I can pretend like I'd be able to handle it, but who am I kidding? There's nothing like actually being in that situation with everything on the line.

 

[bogeyman]

Yeah that's nuts. Helps me put this in perspective. It's easy to criticize a kid for missing free throws like that, but good lord. I can't imagine that kind of pressure. I can pretend like I'd be able to handle it, but who am I kidding? There's nothing like actually being in that situation with everything on the line.

Mike missed his fair share of free throws over the years at key times, but that was a pretty tough moment and can't blame him. My ears were ringing, and I was sitting near the top. I can only imagine how hard it was on the floor with all the volume directed at you, the sound alone would make my head pound and be hard to focus. Add in the rim and floor shaking and students right behind.
If I remember right, we blew a pretty big lead that game which is what cost us.

 

[DP5555]

Mike missed his fair share of free throws over the years at key times, but that was a pretty tough moment and can't blame him. My ears were ringing, and I was sitting near the top. I can only imagine how hard it was on the floor with all the volume directed at you, the sound alone would make my head pound and be hard to focus. Add in the rim and floor shaking and students right behind.
If I remember right, we blew a pretty big lead that game which is what cost us.

Hawks were up 7 at half, and pretty much had the lead the entire game until the end. White had a monster game. I think he had 25 pts and 17 rebounds. I believe that's the game where he said afterwards "I'm just tired of losing to teams that I know we're better than". Had to be a tough loss for him when he performed so well, and they led the entire game.

 

[99topdawg]

Is that because the cheerleaders were stunting?

 

[DP5555]

Is that because the cheerleaders were stunting?

I see what you did there.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

Queue the "loud crowd doesn't matter" group in 3... 2... 1...

I know it doesn't control who wins and loses, but I just have a hard time believing that it's NO benefit to the home team.

 

[DP5555]

Queue the "loud crowd doesn't matter" group in 3... 2... 1...

I know it doesn't control who wins and loses, but I just have a hard time believing that it's NO benefit to the home team.

Agreed man. When a player like White specifically remembers a memory like that... you know it matters.

 

[tksirius]

Agreed man. When a player like White specifically remembers a memory like that... you know it matters.

But, we've already established that it was caused by their cheerleaders.

 

[PCHawk]

That's why the Carver environment sucks so bad. We could probably average another win or two a year if we had fat cheerleaders too.

 

[BryceC]

Queue the "loud crowd doesn't matter" group in 3... 2... 1...

I know it doesn't control who wins and loses, but I just have a hard time believing that it's NO benefit to the home team.

There was a guy at the time on this board that argued incessantly that the crowd had zero effect on Mike at that point in the game.

 

[1hawkeye1]

There was a guy at the time on this board that argued incessantly that the crowd had zero effect on Mike at that point in the game.

That guy is a troll or has never played any organized basketball in his life.

 

[DP5555]

There was a guy at the time on this board that argued incessantly that the crowd had zero effect on Mike at that point in the game.

Well to be fair Mike missed a lot of late game free throws. At least it felt that way, but clearly he didn't handle clutch situations well. The ones in the ISU game were by far the most memorable for me though. It's naive to say the crowd doesn't have an impact... or just plain stupid.

 

[Chickenlounge]

Sounds like they have some structural issues with Hilton. Maybe they should hire a structural engineer from a better university to check that out.

 

[SteveGarvey1]

Hawks were up 7 at half, and pretty much had the lead the entire game until the end. White had a monster game. I think he had 25 pts and 17 rebounds. I believe that's the game where he said afterwards "I'm just tired of losing to teams that I know we're better than". Had to be a tough loss for him when he performed so well, and they led the entire game.

We should have won 4 of the last 5 against them instead of only 2 really. But for a lack of clutch play, hefty cheerleaders, raucous crowd, whatever, we failed to do so.

 

[mopkins]

There was a guy at the time on this board that argued incessantly that the crowd had zero effect on Mike at that point in the game.

meh, Gesell shot 67% from the free throw line that season...which is pretty pathetic for a PG. I liked Mike as a player, but he was the last player I'd ever want to see with the ball in his hands before half or at the end of the game. Dude just crumbled in those situations.

 

[WinOneThisCentury]

I liked Gesell too, and he was much much more athletic than people give him credit for. He played tough hard nosed defense. That being said...he had some end of game moments that were awful. I remember praying it would end up with SAP distributing or get it to Uthoff.

 

[AIRBHG]

...but does JoBo miss those FT's? I think the outcome is very different if he's at the line instead of Gesell.

 

[PCHawk]

Well to be fair Mike missed a lot of late game free throws. At least it felt that way, but clearly he didn't handle clutch situations well. The ones in the ISU game were by far the most memorable for me though. It's naive to say the crowd doesn't have an impact... or just plain stupid.

The ISU game was also his first late game collapse. I wonder how it affected the rest of his career. Did it completely destroy his confidence at the line? If so, them damn cheerleaders cost us a lot of games over the next 3 years.