IU 74 Charlotte 57

A nice win for the Hoosiers tonight. This week's poll responses had all 10 responses picking the Hoosiers to win by 4-14 points, so I would say they exceeded expectations tonight. Thanks to those who placed their votes on the poll questions. I will be updating the questions regularly so check back often. While we are on the subject, I found the answers to the other poll question quite humorous and most likely honest. 4 of 7 respondents admitted that their spouse got upset with them because they are a complete lunatic while watching IU games. Another 2 repondents said their spouse got upset, but they were wrong do so -- that's a gutsy move, but the nice thing about the poll questions is that you remain anonymous. And 1 respondent said they keep their cool, so there is nothing to worry about. Again, I can't see the respondents, but my money is that one goes to Papa D. Back to the game....Sampson stuck with the 2nd half players from the Duke game as his starters for this one -- Suhr, Bassett, Shaw, DJ, Bendeman. IU played horrible the first 5 minutes of the game. Suhr hit a 3 on the first possession, but then they followed that up with 4 straight turnovers which led to an 8-0 Charlotte run. However, A.J. Ratliffe entered the game on his 21st birthday and had a great half. 16 points for Ratliffe in the 1st half helped the Hoosiers build an 11 point halftime lead. IU again came out sluggish in the 2nd half and allowed Charlotte to make it a 5 point game after IU was leading by 13. This stretch was starting to look like another double-digit lead would be completely wiped away. However, the turning point of the game was that IU came out of a timeout with a 7-0 run of their own to push the lead back to 12 with about 12 minutes to go in the game. The lead would never fall back below double-digits and IU cruised to victory from here. Turnovers were again a problem for IU with 18. I'm not actually looking up this stat, but I believe IU has been right at the 18 - 20 turnover mark in all 6 games this season. On the plus side of the 17 point victory was outstanding defense and rebounding. Add in a break-out night for Ratliffe and improved FT shooting (12-16) and you have your recipe for a nice win. Overall Team Performance: B+ Tonight, they were able to overcome a slow start and the key was that they were able to weather the storm on the one serious Charlotte run before it became too much of a threat. Actually, not only did they weather that storm, but they answered right back with their own 7-0 run to push the lead right back over double-digits. Charlotte was not at all a deep team, but they have some solid players on their starting five, so I thought this was a nice win for IU. Speaking of depth, IU continues to impress with their depth. IU's bench outscored Charlotte's 49-5. D.J. White: B+ Did he still look rusty and even awkward at times? Yes. But you give me 13 points on 4-6 FGs and 12 rebounds any night and I will gladly take it. D.J. was a monster on the boards tonight and his post moves looked better. I believe he got one easy garbage bucket and converted on 3 of 5 true post moves. I like being able to say that there is still room for improvement after a guy has 13 pts & 12 rebs. For the second time this year, D.J. gave Hoosier fans a big scare. After landing awkwardly, he came up limping, left the game, and went back to the locker room. He came back shortly and looked fine, but this guy seems to have a lot of problems with his feet and legs. You can tell be the way he is moving that he is not 100% healthy. I don't think it's anything serious or damaged, but it looks like he is playing with pain. Ben Allen (aka Bendeman): B- Had a B+ going until he missed a point-blank layup. Bendeman was feast or famine tonight -- he had one nice post move, a couple nice boards, two very impressive hi-lo feeds, and even managed 2 blocked shots. But then he missed a wide-open layup and did some other bonehead things that I can't even remember. All in all, it could have been far worse. Armon Bassett: C+ Armon came back down to earth tonight. 4 turnovers and only 2-7 shooting. He did have a killer cross-over pull-up 17-footer that was outstanding though. Errek Suhr: B- Hit a 3 on the first possession, but didn't really do a whole lot after that. For the most part, some solid minutes, but never really got that spark ignited. Joey Shaw: B- Got the start, but only played 9 minutes. The fact that Ratliffe came in and had a great 1st half was probably the biggest factor of his limited minutes. Roderick Wilmont: B Shooting: F, Heart: A+. Wilmont was 0-4 from 3-point land and none of them were even close. However, instead of getting down about his shooting stroke, he chips in with a modest 10 rebounds, including 4 of them on the offensive end. You have to love Wilmont. The box score shows 0 assists, but I specifically recall 1 offensive rebound that he kicked out to Ratliffe for a made 3-ball. If I can log this by memory, why can't a statistician do this when it is their actual job? Must be a rough life to be the statistician for IU games. I digress. A.J. Ratliffe: B+ It was great to see A.J. light it up in the first half and fuel the Hoosiers to a double-digit lead. Trust me when I say that I will take this type of performance out of A.J. any day of the week -- he was aggressive, he was looking for his shot, etc. However, this really could have been a 30 point night for A.J. He went 4-11 from the arc and at least 5 of those 7 misses were WIDE OPEN. Also, he had 16 points at half and only manage 2 in the second half. But all in all, he was much more active tonight and was finding holes in the defense to get his shots. I'd like to start to see this every time out from Ratliffe. With Wilmont, we know he is going to be hot and cold, but I think Ratliffe is the type that could elevate his game and stay there. Sampson has talked a lot about getting Ratliffe to the next level, let's hope that tonight was a break-through and not just the one good half that he had last year against Kentucky that was never to be seen again. Lance Stemler: B After missing the Duke game with a concussion and not practicing for a week, Stemler came back into action with 5 minutes to go in the first half. To be honest, in the first few minutes of action, he still looked "concussed". A few early mistakes and a missed layup had me telling the TV to take him out and rest him until the next game. Of course, the TV never listens and that was probably a good thing because Stemler improved from there and managed a quiet 10 points, including another 2-4 from 3-point range. I believe that is now 12-18 from the arc in his last 3 games. The phrase "chics dig the long ball" isn't just for baseball. Mike White: B+ This fella needs a nickname -- something like "the garbage disposal" but much more clever and witty and tough sounding. Consider it an open forum for the Mike White nickname. I really like the way this guy mixes it up. 5 points and 5 rebounds in 16 minutes. Heck, he even went 1-2 from the line. He also had 2 steals, including one near half-court where he fed Calloway for a....well, let's not get ahead of ourselves, let's save this for the Calloway section. Earl Calloway: B+ Continued from the Mike White section....where he fed Calloway for a left-handed dunk! That's right, Earl threw one down tonight. Granted, it was one of those where he was gliding in for the finger-roll and then turned it over for a dunk. I played it back several times in slow-motion on Tivo to confirm it was dunk. In fact, after watchin in slo-mo, I then played it back in full speed and it even had that sound of a dunk (oops, I'm sorry, Laskowski was doing the game so it was a "stuff shot"). After some pretty poor performances, Earl played pretty good tonight. He took a couple really bad shots (seemed to be pressing to try to get some playing time back), but then he settled in and played well. Hit a big 3 during the stretch to put the game away and tallied 12 points, 5 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block with only 1 turnover. In case you were tracking for this year: Calloway dunks - 1 Bendeman dunks - 0 I have a feeling this is how we will end the year in this statistical category. Kelvin Sampson: B+ He seems to do a really good job of giving minutes to the guys who are playing well and deserving to play. Nobody is playing just because they are a senior or just because they are "supposed" to be one of the best players. Also, this guy coaches, he really coaches. Thus far, he doesn't go balistic just for the sake of it and he doesn't just sit there with a confused look on his face....he coaches. I know it's a crazy thought but I think it is a good thing for a coach to coach. For those dedicated readers, this is similar to my in-depth analysis of what I think a play-by-play announcer should be. Notes: Just before tip-off, we had to re-live the painful memory of the Plavich half-court shot that beat the Hoosiers. They showed what the officials saw on the replay monitor which was the super-imposed TV clock, followed by the alternate angle (that the officials did not see) that showed the scoreboard clock at zero and the red light on while the ball was still in Plavich's hands. Still pisses me off. OSU's 34-year old freshman made his debut today. There is no way that dude is 18 years old. I'm no Greg Oden, but when I was 18, I was shaving once a month and didn't have wrinkles on my face. Anyway, 14 points, 10 rebs, and 5 blks off the bench in his collegiate debut....uh-oh. We'll still beat them though. Go Hoosiers!