THE FINAL SAY
By Zach McCrite
Follow @BigEZ
on Twitter
Exhale: The Romeo
Era Has Begun In
Bloomington
I AM THE FAN that will temper all excitement and
expectations when my team’s season starts or before
they have a big game.
Why? Because I’ve long subscribed to the theory of
“the lower the expectations, the happier you will be.”
But here I am, watching Indiana University men’s
basketball (full disclosure: I’m a fan) ... and I’m getting
pumped.
I went to Assembly Hall for the season opener for
the Hoosiers. Now, I’m well aware IU was going up
against a completely undermanned, well-below-average
opponent in Chicago State. It was also election night
for, arguably, the most contentious midterm election
cycle in our nation’s history. Needless to say, the Hall
wasn’t sold out.
But, you could still feel an energy in the building not
felt since Indiana hung a Big Ten championship banner
after their last regular season game in 2016.
Stop me if you’ve heard this guy’s name before:
Romeo Langford.
His 6-foot, 6-inch, 19-going-on-25 frame was the
curiosity of almost every one of the 17,222 crimson-clad
spectators. It was almost a nervous energy.
What will Romeo do? Will he dominate? Will he be
a passive freshman? Will he still be the same hardly-
stoppable force he was when he was hanging 30+ points
per night down on Vincennes Street in New Albany the
last four seasons?
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For the first 7:42 of the game, he didn’t do much. He
missed one field goal attempt and one free throw. He
had one point.
Langford came off the court, got some instruction
from Archie Miller, and gave the same stoic demeanor
that New Albany head coach Jim Shannon knew
well, even if the Hoosier diehards in attendance,
and maybe even Miller himself, weren’t quite sure
what the expression meant.
Because, let’s be honest, it was the same stoicism
fans drooled over when he scored a NAHS record
63 points at Jennings County earlier this year,
and the same stoicism we all experienced when
Warren Central’s buzzer-beater in the IHSAA Final
Four sent Romeo inside the locker room to tear
off his now-retired No. 1 jersey for the last time
as a Bulldog. Rarely had he worn his on-court
emotions outwardly.
“I’VE LONG SUBSCRIBED TO
THE THEORY OF ‘THE LOWER
THE EXPECTATIONS, THE
HAPPIER YOU WILL BE.’ ”
Surely, we weren’t going to see a passive
Romeo Langford at the collegiate level, right?
Nah. Expectations were a little higher this time
around, remember?
And, it was at that moment, almost midway
through his first half of basketball in an Indiana
uniform that I remembered that Langford is a kid. A
baby, even. It’s his first official collegiate basketball
game. He’s eight months removed from playing
in gyms as small as 2,100 (even if those gyms sold
an amount of tickets that would make any fire