Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you were as pumped as I was for the start of basketball season with the first game on Friday versus Morgan State. The Hoos came out with a 86-48 win for the home opener. Not too shabby, Hoos.

The stands were a veritable sea of orange and the sense of community solidarity incredibly high. The line for Group 5, the latest entry time for the game, was incredibly long, clearly demonstrating school spirit.

While the team seemed a little psyched out at the beginning (the first point was scored by Morgan State), they rallied very quickly to achieve this great win. As soon as we scored, orange and navy streamers erupted over the student section.

It’s great to still have fifth-year vets to the team, Malcolm Brogdon and Anthony Gill. It’s also always fun to see 7-foot tall (!) Mike Tobey dunk, because he basically just casually drops the ball into the basket. Tobey played a great game, with 15 points and 8 rebounds. He had quite a few impressive dunks, and an alley-oop performed made the stands erupt. To anyone who watched the game, it was pretty clear that we had an advantage on height to Morgan State that can’t be overlooked in basketball.

Redshirt sophomore Darius Thompson, who transferred from Tennessee, is also off to a solid start. Thompson scored 12 points in his debut as a Cavalier. It will be interesting to watch him as the season progresses.

After a great first half with a high lead of 40-23, the home team scored 17 points in the second half before Morgan State made their first. This led the stands to empty somewhat when it was abundantly clear we had the win, but there’s always the truly dedicated who stay until the last moment before celebrating the big win out on the Corner.

If for some reason you missed the game, you can catch the highlights here.

Up next is an away game at George Washington on Monday. I for one will definitely be watching. Go Hoos!