POSTGAME - FINAL SCORE 74-57: IU looked like a different team in the second half. The offense ran much more smoothly, and the Hoosiers continued to control the boards. They played well enough in the second half to nearly allow Xavier Keeling, Kyle Taber and Adam Ahlfeld to check into the game. Unfortunately for IU's bottom-of-the-bench trio, time expired before they could step out onto the court.
A.J. Ratliff celebrated his 21st birthday by dropping 18 points, 16 of which came in the first half of play. Earl Calloway and Rod Wilmont made strong cases for their spots in the starting lineup: Calloway scored 12 points with 5 boards while Wilmont scored just 4 points, but grabbed 10 rebounds. The two players pushed the Hoosiers down the court on fastbreaks and had a minimal number of turnovers.
Lance Stemler, who sat out the Duke game Tuesday night with a concussion, got himself back into the swing of things and knocked down a few 3-pointers. The Hoosiers will need to utilize their inside-out game much more when he is on the floor with D.J. White.
Mike White proved how powerful he truly is. The IU bench erupted when "King Kong" muscled his defender to the basket and scored on a hookshot. He tallied 5 points and 5 rebounds on the night with 2 steals, all in just 16 minutes of play.
Overall, IU desperately needed this win at Assembly Hall to get back on track. Eamonn is currently working on his story and should have it up on the web in just a bit.
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HALFTIME: So we're going to completely stop trusting Coach Sampson's prospective lineups, because they're never what actually happens. We don't blame IU, we blame ourselves. Hey, we're student media types. We're learning.
Anyway, Errek Suhr DID see the starting lineup in the first half to little avail. He played until the 11:03 mark until he was replaced by Earl Calloway ... who promptly led a more athletic, quicker Hoosier squad to a 36-25 halftime lead.
Most of the first half credit goes to A.J. Ratliff, who nailed a series of open threes, scored 16, and helped propel IU to the lead. Charlotte's defense has yet to respond to Ratliff's shooting, and he continued to get open looks until the end of the half.
Though his scoring is down again (six), D.J. White had eight boards in the first half. There's no one on Charlotte's side who can really contend with White for high rebounds. It shows.
We'll be back after the game to post some quick thoughts. Let's see if the Hoosiers can close out a home game against a team not named Chicago State. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here we are, the first game of the post-2006 Duke game era. We'll see how the Hoosiers bounce back from a disappointing but encouraging loss in Durham.
Charlotte (2-3) has been a pesky opponent for IU in the past. Last year's game was an easy Hoosier victory in Charlotte, but everyone remembers the last time these two teams met at Assembly Hall, when the AH's own clock managers screwed the Hoosiers on a half-court shot at the buzzer.
Prospective IU starters are D.J. White, A.J. Ratliff, Ben Allen, Armon Bassett, and Earl Calloway. But hey, you never know. Maybe we'll see Errek Suhr pre-tipoff tonight too. But probably not.
This won't be a live blog like Tuesday, but we will be updating at halftime, so feel free to leave us your comments and questions and we'll work from there. See you then.
