A slammin' start

Nothing could stop the Hoosiers on Sunday at Assembly Hall against Athletes in Action. \nAt one point, sophomore forward Jared Jeffries grabbed a rebound and put it back to extend the IU lead to 72-42 midway through the second half. What's impressive about the play is Jeffries made it with one arm; Eric Dunn of Athletes in Action was holding the other one.\nLed by Jeffries' 23 points and eight rebounds, and with contributions from nearly every player on their roster, the Hoosiers whipped Athletes in Action, 105-59 in front of 11,553 fans in the team's pre-season opener.\nIU got out to a quick lead by scoring the game's first 19 points. Representative of the balance that would pace the Hoosiers all day, those 19 points came from five different players. \nAthletes in Action would not score until a layup by Josh Hall put them on the board just more than six minutes into the game.\nMen's basketball coach Mike Davis could not have been happier with the offensive effort. Junior forward Jeff Newton had 17 points, senior Jarrad Odle scored 16 and junior guard Kyle Hornsby added 14 points, including four three-pointers.\n"I wanted to get off to a good start offensively," Davis said. "It was great to see that. I thought the ball movement was great."\nDavis had said he has been looking for someone to step up and replace the offensive void left by Kirk Haston's departure for the NBA. Judging by Sunday's offense, there are a number of places for Davis to look.\n"People questioned how we would do without Kirk," Jeffries said. "I think this shows that with Kirk being gone, a lot more players have a chance to step up and take new roles."\nJunior guard Tom Coverdale had nine points and 12 assists. \nThe Hoosiers were known last year as a defensive team and that appears not to have changed. But now there are more offensive options. Coverdale pointed to the defense early in the game as being the key to the game and the spark that ignited the Hoosiers' offense.\n"I just think it's all based on momentum," he said. "I thought our defense was really good in the beginning, and it kind of carried over to our offense, and that's what we were able to do in the beginning to get out to such a big lead. \n"We know as a team everything's based around our defense."\nDavis singled out Newton's and Odle's performances as impressive. Newton was 8-for-12, shooting from several spots on the floor while grabbing eight rebounds. Odle was 7-for-8.\n"Newton's really played hard," Davis said. "He's improved his effort. With Jeff Newton playing the way he did (Sunday), we're a good basketball team.\n"Odle, right now, is the first guy off the bench."\nFor the game, IU held AIA to just under 39 percent shooting for the game while the Hoosiers hit at an impressive 66.7 percent clip. AIA turned the ball over 18 times while IU committed only nine turnovers and had 31 assists.\n"I thought we ran and executed our offense really well," Coverdale said. "We're going to get better and better."\nSophomore guard A. J. Moye did not play. Davis said Moye broke a team rule by being out past midnight Saturday night.\nFreshman guard Donald Perry saw 25 minutes of action, scoring 10 points and distributing four assists. Freshman walk-on Ryan Tapak put the Hoosiers over the 100-point mark with two three-pointers at the end of the game.\nAfter falling behind by 19, AIA never got closer than 12 points and went to halftime trailing 56-26. Six quick points after the break cut the Hoosiers' lead to 24, but AIA would never get closer than that. Hall led AIA with 15 points. Forward David Fischer added 12. \nIU would get its biggest lead of 48 points late in the second half at 103-57 on a Perry layup with just more than three minutes left in the game.\nFor most of the game, the Hoosiers played with three guards on the floor and all were effective shooting from the outside. Jeffries said that will only help the team if it can get consistent scoring from different players.\n"It takes pressure off me," he said. "I don't have to press. I can just go out and play my game"