Sampson's new workouts test Hoosier players

It didn't take long for IU coach Kelvin Sampson to make a strong impact on his new team. The first-year coach, hired in March, has already created an impression that his players have felt mentally and emotionally -- but mostly physically.\nUnder the direction of their new coach, the Hoosiers' offseason workout regimen consisted of timed mile runs, 5:30 a.m. weightlifting sessions and the "ultimate suicide," all a new experience for both returning and first-year players. The new-look IU team will make its debut Friday night at Hoosier Hysteria, an opportunity for fans to see the players' showcase their skills in the first official practice of the season. \nSophomore center Ben Allen said Tuesday he and the rest of the team see the purpose to all the running and drills, but that doesn't mean they enjoy them.\n"They've been pretty horrible," said Allen, who put on nearly 30 pounds of muscle in the offseason. "Some of the court sessions (strength and training) coach (Jeff) Watkinson has had us doing have been pretty intense, but it's all relevant to what we're going to do. Most of it has just been straight-up sprints. That's definitely what we need."\nAside from the usual weightlifting and agility drills, Sampson kept one drill in his pocket that tested the Hoosiers' minds and bodies. The "ultimate suicide" made its debut during the team's offseason conditioning, and many of the players -- including junior forward Mike White -- said they'd never seen anything like it before.\n"It's crazy because they push the bleachers back, and you have to use not just the full court, but the whole court. It's just crazy," Mike White said. "I don't like it. ... Pretty much everybody on the team knows what conditioning does, so I'm sure nobody is questioning the things we do."\nJunior guard A.J. Ratliff said the team members rarely knew what to expect from Sampson and Watkinson in their workouts but that in the end, the drills helped bring the squad together.\n"Some days you walk in and (Sampson will) tell you what we're about to do," Ratliff said. "You'll see it on guys faces like, 'Man, I can't do that. I can't do it.' And at the end, guys are hugging and high-fiving because we did it. It makes a man out of you. I've never done anything like that before in my life."\nRatliff, Allen, Mike White and several other Hoosiers made strides with their conditioning and added more weight to their bodies. Freshman Joey Shaw, one of the thinner players on the team who redshirted last season, added nearly 25 pounds.\nJunior forward D.J. White attributed the Hoosiers' improvements in conditioning to Sampson and said that while many of the drills are difficult and exhausting, he sees the benefits that will come in the long run.\n"I'm a morning person, but you're not going to find too many people that wanna get up at 5:30 (a.m.) and go lift weights and do agility and conditioning (drills)," D.J. White said. "It was good for us. We feel that not many teams were doing what we were doing three days a week. It was tough at the beginning, but once your body got used to it, it was fine."\nSampson's conditioning drills have even evoked a new philosophy for the Hoosiers, D.J. White said.\n"That's our team motto: 'Touch every line,'" D.J. White said. "It's on a lot of our shirts. It's more than just touching every line when we run; it's from the classroom to when we're not at basketball, just being a good person on and off the court. That's what that motto stands for. And that's what we try to do"