IU hosts Wisconsin to start pivotal homestand

Maybe growing up’s not so bad after all, at least if you’re an IU basketball fan. \nThe No. 13 IU men’s basketball team hosts No. 15 Wisconsin in a battle of two of the Big Ten’s top teams tonight at Assembly Hall.\nDespite the loss earlier in the season, several Hoosiers said they’re not the same team they were when Wisconsin badgered IU 62-49 in Madison, Wis., a couple weeks ago. \nIU coach Kelvin Sampson said the team grew up in one night when the Hoosiers survived a hostile crowd and a persistent Illinois team to beat the Illini in double overtime last week.\n“I just think our team is coming together,” Sampson said Monday during a teleconference. “We’re progressing as a unit. We’ve been slow to develop this year for odd reasons, different reasons, actually. But now that we’re hitting a really tough stretch in our season it’s encouraging to see our kids starting to play better now.”\nLance Stemler, IU senior forward and team co-captain, agreed. \n“I think we grew up a lot at Illinois,” Stemler said. “I think we learned to trust each other more.”\nSampson said the Hoosiers have developed a lot of trust in senior forward D.J. White, a Big Ten Player of the Year candidate. \n“D.J. is such a strong leader for this team,” Sampson said. “These guys do a great job of following him. D.J., he has the mindset of ‘Just follow me. I’ll help you get to where you want to go if you just follow me.’ And those guys are really doing that now.”\nWhite, a four-time Big Ten Player of the Week honoree this season, has helped the Hoosiers (20-3, 9-1).\nStemler said the Hoosiers have improved their team defense since the loss to Wisconsin (19-4, 9-2) and said the Hoosiers need to start the game with a little more intensity.\n“I think we just need to play with more energy than we did last time,” Stemler said. “We just came out flat and we weren’t playing well as a team.”\nIU hasn’t lost since its trip to Madison, and picked up two big road wins at Illinois and Ohio State within the past week. \nThe Hoosiers enter the Wisconsin game tied with Purdue for fewest losses in the conference, and they can keep Big Ten title hopes alive with a win against the Badgers.\nLast time the two teams met, IU freshman guard Eric Gordon was nursing a fresh injury to his left, non-shooting wrist. \nGordon shot 6-of-14 in the contest and 2-of-7 from the 3-point line. \nGordon’s wrist is still injured, and he’s still wearing a brace. Sampson said, though Gordon is now more accustomed to playing with the protective padding. \n“He still doesn’t go to his left as well as he did prior to his injury, but I think he’s blocked all that out,” he said. “He’s one of those kids that if he wants to go right, you are going to have a hard time keeping him from going right.”\nOne thing that impressed the coach was Gordon’s recent “attack mentality,” especially against the Illini and the Buckeyes.\n“One of the things that Eric does great, when he decides to go, he goes,” Sampson said. “He goes strong. Sometimes that results in a charging call. He’s a kid that will attack the basket fearlessly.”