Ratliff academically ineligible for first semester

IU men’s basketball senior guard A.J. Ratliff is academically ineligible to play during the first semester, coach Kelvin Sampson said at a press conference Saturday. The former Indiana Mr. Basketball cannot play with the Hoosiers until they host Western Carolina University on Dec. 15, the day after final exams wrap up for the first semester.\n“As I told him, this has a chance to be a great success story for him,” Sampson said. “We’re disappointed, but I’m not into reliving the past or anything else about that. I said ‘A.J., if you graduate from Indiana University then you have a chance to have a productive life,’ and that will be our goal for him and that will be his goal.”\nRatliff was not made available to the media during Saturday’s press conference, which was held to discuss the team’s upcoming training trip to the Bahamas.\nThe timing of Ratliff’s absence could be worse. During that span, the Hoosiers will play just one game against a team that finished last season ranked in the Top 25 – a Dec. 1 contest at Southern Illinois. Four new guards, including top recruit Eric Gordon, add more depth at the position and will soften the blow of Ratliff’s loss. The absence should also give Ratliff time to heal a sore right wrist and his left wrist, which he broke this summer. \n“Poor A.J. If it weren’t for bad luck he wouldn’t have any luck,” Sampson said of Ratliff’s injuries.\nRatliff will still be able to practice with the team during the first semester. If he regains eligibility, he will be able to play for the entirety of the Big Ten season and all postseason contests. \nLast year, Ratliff played in 30 of IU’s 32 games and averaged 9.3 points per contest – the third highest of all returning players. He started 12 games last year. Ratliff was key in the Hoosiers’ upset of then-No. 2 Wisconsin when he scored 20 points against the Badgers at Assembly Hall. His career high came in 2005 when he put up 21 against rival Kentucky at the RCA Dome. \nSampson confirmed Ratliff’s ineligibility just two days after the school announced forward Ben Allen's departure from the program.\nWhen IU takes the floor for its season opener against University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Nov. 12, only six of 13 eligible players will have played on last year’s team. Senior forward D.J. White will be the lone eligible Hoosier to have played under former coach Mike Davis as a scholarship player. \nThis is the first time in Sampson’s 25-year coaching career that one of his players has become academically ineligible. \nTwo of the three seniors from last year’s squad, Earl Calloway and Rod Wilmont, have already graduated, and the other, Errek Suhr, will earn his degree once he finishes his student teaching requirements. \n“Thus far we’re 100 percent,” Sampson said of his graduation rate at IU, “and we intend to keep it that way.”