A.J. Ratliff latest casualty of '04 class

And then there was one.\nWith the sudden departure of A.J. Ratliff, only one player remains from Mike Davis’ promising 2004 recruiting class. This was the class that was supposed to vindicate Davis and bring in plenty of hardware, too. As so often happens in sports and in life, however, things just didn’t work out the way they were planned. \nJosh Smith went pro before ever enrolling; James Hardy fell for football; Robert Vaden defected with Davis; Lucas Steijn ... well, who really knows what happened to Steijn. Now, Ratliff has succumbed to “personal issues.” Like a creature out of Darwin’s evolutionary theory, only the Leviathan formerly known as D.J. White remains on today’s Hoosier squad.\nAnd it’s too bad. It shouldn’t have been this way. D.J. shouldn’t be the last man standing, although he’s proven he can handle the load. This wasn’t supposed to play out like a hoops version of “Survivor,” but that’s exactly how it did.\nPerhaps Ratliff is the most tragic casualty of IU’s 2004 class. He came to IU as the reigning Indiana Mr. Basketball, having beat out the likes of A.J. Graves and Hardy for the honor. Ratliff had already overcome a childhood without a father and, with the aid of family friends, developed the kind of work ethic that makes coaches count their lucky stars at night.\nHe was supposed to be the glue guy, the guy that could shut down the best team’s player on defense and make them pay for forgetting about him on offense. He had the Dumbo ears and the Laffy Taffy arms, but what really threw opponents off was that cock-sure smile like he knew he was going to save the day and get the girl. \nHe had his flashes of brilliance: a 21-point explosion in the second half against Kentucky his sophomore year; a 20-point performance off the bench last year during the toppling of No. 2 Wisconsin. Even during this season of anarchy and academic ineligibility, Ratliff came up with a crucial block and strip in the closing seconds of IU’s home win over Illinois. More often than not, however, people left Assembly Hall muttering, “What’s up with A.J.?”\nIt’s a fair question. What happened to the guy who wore his basketball celebrity like a loose pair of jeans? Where did he go wrong?\nThere are rumors, of course. There have always been rumors with A.J. \nThey’ve shadowed his basketball career like vultures over a sickly animal. Even this past semester when Ratliff was supposed to be dusting off Merriam-Webster, he couldn’t quiet the whispers. But in the end, it’s not the rumors that got to A.J. – it’s the kernels of truth within the rumors that ultimately led to his departure. \nSo it comes to this: A mutual agreement between coach and player “to focus on himself and to work through his personal issues.” Doesn’t sound like the end of the career, at least if you ignore the echo of the locker room door slamming shut.\nThe Hoosiers will move on without Ratliff – they embark on the toughest three-game stretch of the season today – and Ratliff will move on without the Hoosiers. Here’s hoping he clears his head, now that the stage isn’t so big, now that the lights have dimmed. Here’s hoping he picks up the pieces. Here’s hoping the story of this college basketball casualty doesn’t end in a mutual agreement.