Hoosiers’ Sweet 16 loss ends Yogi Ferrell era in Indiana
PHILADELPHIA – On a night when North Carolina shined brighter than any team in the NCAA tournament has thus far, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who wasn’t thinking about Indiana’s Yogi Ferrell.
Ferrell, the Indianapolis kid who went on to become one of the greatest players ever for one college basketball’s most-storied programs, bid farewell to the Hoosiers as Indiana fell to North Carolina 101-86 in the Sweet 16.
“Yogi is leaving here as one of the great winners, and it’s really no way anybody’s going to be able to take that away from him,” Indiana head coach Tom Crean said. “He’s won two outright [Big Ten] championships in four years. And he leaves obviously with the accolades, was a part of our two Sweet 16s in the last five years.”
From the outset, truth be told, the writing was on the wall for Ferrell and the Hoosiers. In what would be Ferrell’s final game, Indiana (27-8) never led and trailed by as many as 22 in a drumming that showed how dominant North Carolina (31-6) can be.
“[When you’re] going up against such a great team as North Carolina, can’t come out to a slow start,” Ferrell lamented following the game. “[You have] got to be clicking on all cylinders. We couldn’t stop them to start the game.”
As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Crean called timeout and pulled Ferrell from the game with 23.3 seconds left. As head coach and player embraced one last time in front of television cameras, the Indiana fans who made the trek to the Wells Fargo Center serenaded their star.
“Yo-gi Fer-rell, Yo-gi Fer-rell,” the crimson-clad crowd chanted.
It was an emotional moment for Ferrell, too.
“[I was] just reflecting back on all the four years I’ve had at [Indiana], had a lot of accomplishments, and I felt I gave my all to IU,” Ferrell said. “At the end of the day I’m glad that Coach Crean told me to come to this university. I met a lot of people. Learned a lot of great things, and it’s just something that I’ll remember.”
Despite the lopsided scoreboard, Ferrell, who will go down in the annals of Hoosier history as the school’s leader in assists, second in 3-pointers and top 10 in scoring, did what he has done all season long – lead by example.
Ferrell scored a game-high 25 points and led Indiana with four assists in 36 minutes of non-stop action.
“He’s just done a tremendous job of kind of being the motor for this team, making sure all of our heads are in the right places,” Max Bielfeldt said. “We have that mental toughness we need to have, and when you find that in a point guard and a guy that can lead your team like that, it’s something special.”
There will be more basketball for Ferrell – whether in the NBA or abroad – and his legacy will continue on in Bloomington for years to come.
“Yogi is just a great guy in general, on the court and off the court. Since I first got here, I seen the hard work that he put into this program,” Troy Williams said. “I seen how much it meant to him. I mean, throughout these years I’ve been with him always, everything I did is for the program, is for our seniors, and it’s always been for Yogi as well.”
And while he won’t go down as the most famous Yogi – that honor is reserved for cartoon bears and baseball legends – Kevin Ferrell Jr. undoubtedly earned the iconic moniker.
