The alternate uniforms Indiana wore Sunday against Northwestern drew plenty of conversation.
As part of a collaboration with adidas and Fear of God, an American luxury brand founded by Jerry Lorenzo in 2011, the uniforms featured black or dark grey jerseys and shorts with red numbers and letters in a unique font. They're vastly different from the style of uniforms Indiana has worn for most of its history, and were polarizing among fans across generations at Sunday's game.
On Monday's 'Inside Indiana Basketball' radio show, hosted by play-by-play announcer Don Fischer, Indiana coach Mike Woodson said the decision to wear these uniforms was not his.
"I have no control over that," Woodson said. "You know, I'm about wearing our white uniforms at home, like we've done for 40-some years when I was here. But again, that was kind of out of my hands. We won't wear that uniform again the rest of the season. But I had nothing to do with it, and I'm the head coach, so."
Stephen Harper, the Deputy Director of Athletics and Chief Operating Officer at IU Athletics, shared more insight into how the uniforms came to fruition.
"Why the uniforms? You know, that's a great question, Don," Harper said. "We're as traditional as the fans are. We like traditional uniform. adidas has been a good partner for us and the department, and from time to time they do like to bring special products that they think will excite the players, excite recruits, those kinds of things, and that was an example of that yesterday. So obviously beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We heard a lot from fans that didn't necessarily love those, which we understand. We don't play on moving away from the traditional look of Indiana basketball, which, again, means a lot to all of us."
"I was there when they had the unveiling to the players. And again, the Fear of God brand that adidas is partnering with is I think very hip and cool with students right now, college-aged students," Harper continued. "I meet with a lot of our recruits as they come in to tell them about the opportunities we have in the department and you'll see a lot of our recruits wearing that brand, so I think it's meaningful to them, even though maybe it's not meaningful to everybody out there."
The Indiana women's team will wear the same alternate uniforms for Thursday's game against Iowa, which tips off at 8 p.m. ET at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
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