Ted Cruz panders horribly to Indiana basketball fans -- and gets slam-dunked on Twitter

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) didn't just receive a drubbing at the polls on Tuesday night; he was also raked over the coals online on Tuesday for attempting to invoke the seminal basketball film Hoosiers.

As Gawker reported, the Tea Party lawmaker was campaigning in a Knightstown, Indiana high school gymnasium when he attempted to re-enact a scene from the film, asking a staffer to measure how high one of the basketball rims was -- an homage to a famous scene in the movie where coach Nathan Dale (Gene Hackman) inspires his team.

"The amazing thing is that basketball ring here in Indiana, it's the same height as it is in New York City and every other place in this country," Cruz said, botching the most basic of basketball terms. "And there is nothing that Hoosiers cannot do."

Cruz, who would go on to lose all five Republican Party primaries during the evening, was also mocked by Twitter users, as seen below: