Final: Indiana 71, Iowa 64

It didn’t look like they were shaving points, but it did seem as if the Hoosiers were doing everything they could to blow their once-sizeable lead.

The score doesn’t do justice to how lopsided the game was. If you were watching Kelvin Sampson, it looked as if every Hawkeye bucket in garbage time was taking a year off his life.

Even with the minor collapse at the end of the game, Indiana’s performance was still impressive. Paticularly the play of junior D.J White who had 23 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks. White dominated the boards all game and was aided by strong play from Lance Stemler (seven rebounds) and Rod Wilmont (five).

Once again the Hoosiers weren’t trigger-shy, launching 21 three-pointers and connecting on eight. For the game, the team shot 46.3 percent from the field and went 13-17 from the free throw line.

The duo of Armon Bassett and Earl Carlloway proved successful once again — the two point guards combined for 18 points and nine assists.

The Hoosiers only bench points came from A.J. Ratliff, who had eight. Kelvin Sampson tightened his rotation versus the Hawkeyes, playing all of his starters over 30 minutes.

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1:02, second half: Indiana 66, Iowa 56

Slop. That’s what this is. Nobody is sharp right now, not even the officials.

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1:44, second half: Indiana 65, Iowa 54

Haluska just stole a pass intended for White and went the other way for a pull-up jumper. The Hoosiers couldn’t will themselves to stay in this game at the end and now Iowa has gotten a little too close.

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3:55, second half: Indiana 64, Iowa 50

Sampson had the backups in and had to yank them when Iowa pulled within 14. Ben Allen looked like he thought he was in Australia. Crikey!

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8:04, second half: Indiana 60, Iowa 41

D.J. White has taken over. He’s got 33 points and is probably into double digits on rebounds by now. He looks almost graceful out there…a far departure from earlier this year.

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11:32, second half: Indiana 49, Iowa 35

Iowa’s working hard to get switches on Haluska, running him off screens and through traffic. He twice got the ball low in the paint after gaining separation and hit a lay-in and was fouled.

A.J. Ratliff’s got four fouls and is on the bench for Indiana.

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13:33, second half: Indiana 44, Iowa 30

Haluska just got open and buried a deep 3. Even up 14, that’s not a good sign for Indiana. I think Sampson just called this time out to discuss that fact. Iowa’s going to start shooting from all over the place and he’s worried that his team has been lulled into a false sense of superiority. Iowa’s just been more sloppy.

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15:48, second half: Indiana 39, Iowa 23

The tempo has picked up here. Armon Bassett opened the scoring with a running 40-foot 3-pointer and the D.J. White swooped in for a dunk.

Rod Wilmont hurt his right arm trying to make a steal just a moment ago. He stayed on the floor but eventually shrugged off help from the doctors.

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Half: Indiana 29, Iowa 17

A sort of mundane little half there. Wilmont is still shooting and rebounding well. He 3-of-7 3-pointers and has 11 points and four rebounds.

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3:58, first half: Indiana 24, Iowa 13

Tough start for Haluska. He’s had a few open shots that have rimmed out. Indiana is dominating on the boards.

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7:30, first half: Indiana 19, Iowa 10

Gorney missed a dunk — how is that even possible at his height — and Lance Stemler countered with a 3-pointer as the Hoosiers defense has been tight and offense varied.

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11:58, first half: Indiana 10, Iowa 10

The first “Stand up, old people” chant came at the 14:19 mark, and a few obliged. I can’t imagine anyone being too thrilled about being called and old person. The students need to come up with a kinder, gentler way to persuade them.

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15:14, first half: Iowa 8, Indiana 5

Calloway is handling Halusku and has allowed him only one open shot, which he missed.

Wilmont got the ball for the first time and wanted to shoot right away. It slipped out of his hands.

He got it seconds later and shot right away. It feel. He’s still feeling good from the trip to State College.

Seth Gorney has hurt the Hoosiers with two mid-range jumpers. They’re having trouble guarding him because he’s a 7-foot post who drifts a bit. Might we see Ben Allen out there to guard him?

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Starting for the Hoosiers, the usual: Calloway, Wilmont, Bassett, Stemler and White.

Iowa’s Adam Huluska is going to be a tough match for whoever guards him. The Hoosiers found a way to limit Geary Claxton, the mid-sized and multi-talented forward for Penn State. Let’s see what they do here.

If you can’t wait until Saturday afternoon to watch the Hoosiers, there will be a teaser made available on tape-delay the night before.

IU basketball recruit Eric Gordon and his North Central team will take on Lawrence North Friday night. For your viewing purposes, the game will be shown on tape-delay at 10:30 p.m. on Channel 40.

Check out Indiana’s latest football recruit by clicking here.

Newsflash after watching the video: I think this guy just might play a little bit at Indiana.

The talk on Michigan football message boards today is that the Wolverine coaching staff is making a push to get Jerimy Finch to reconsider his decision to play football at Indiana.

In his public statements since switching his verbal commitment from Michigan to Indiana Sunday, Finch has said he won’t change his mind again. But with a recruit of this caliber, the Hoosiers won’t be able to consider it a done deal until Finch signs a letter of intent on Feb. 7.

Assuming Finch does stick with the Hoosiers, he is the Eric Gordon of Indiana football, a high-profile recruit who has made a splash by changing his mind. The question then becomes whether the Hoosier coaching staff will be able to cash in on the publicity from Finch’s decision to lure other highly sought recruits.

Indiana has only about 3-5 spots left in its 2007 recruiting class, but filling those spots with higher potential athletes, particularly on defense, could make a big difference in the quality of the class as a whole.

Three national recruiting analysts I spoke with Monday said Finch can make this kind of difference for Indiana. They said he’s not only a much-needed athlete for the Indiana defense, but also a recruit who will make other players take a closer look at the Hoosiers. Here’s my story from today’s H-T with those comments:

By Doug Wilson
331-4227/[email protected]

Jerimy Finch’s decision to play at Indiana could mark a turning point for the Hoosier football program, three national recruiting analysts said Monday.

The recruiting analysts said most winning football programs get many of the top recruits in their state year after year, but the Hoosiers haven’t been able to do that in at least a decade.

“I don’t care who you are or where you are,” said Jaime Newberg, national recruiting director for Scout.com. “You’ve got to have a grasp on your state. You’ve got to put a fence around it.

“You have to get the top in-state players to win. But you also typically have to win to get the top in-state players. At some point, there has to be leap of faith.”

In picking Indiana over Michigan and other top programs, Finch has taken that leap, Newberg said.

“We’ve seen some signs that this is a program on the rise,” Newberg said of Indiana. “How far they will ascend, nobody knows. But this is huge for them.”

Finch, a safety from Warren Central, is the top-rated in-state high school player in the class of 2007, according to Scout.com, which also ranks him as the 71st-best senior in the country and the eighth-best safety.

Tom Lemming of College Sports Television (CSTV) has Finch as Indiana’s highest-rated recruit since running back Levron Williams of Evansville Bosse, who committed to the Hoosiers in 1997.

“I knew they were recruiting strong, but I never thought they’d be able to take somebody away from Michigan,” Lemming said.

According to Scout.com East/Midwest regional recruiting manager Bob Lichtenfels, Finch’s decision will help the Hoosier coaching staff attract other top in-state players.

“When the kids in Indiana see a Jerimy Finch go to Indiana, that’s definitely a big deal to them,” Lichtenfels said. “They say if he can go there, why can’t I? I don’t have to leave.”

The recruiting analysts said Indiana also has to succeed in recruiting outside Indiana to have a winning program, but in-state players need to serve as the base of talent for IU’s program.

Even after the commitments of Finch and Warren Central defensive end Jeff Boyd Sunday, Scout.com still has Indiana’s 2007 recruiting class ranked among the bottom half in the Big Ten, along with Northwestern, Michigan State, Minnesota and Purdue.

Newberg said Hoosier fans shouldn’t worry about those rankings because Indiana looks like a team that’s ready to turn the corner and is getting players that fit its needs.

“(Recruiting) rankings are meaningless,” he said. “You’ve got to trust your coaches.

“It’s not just about recruiting. It’s also about coaching and developing the kids.”

Next season will be critical for the Hoosiers, Newberg said, because they need to build on the progress of last year’s 5-7 campaign if they are to maintain their momentum in recruiting.

Kelvin Sampson met with members of the media today to discuss Tuesday’s game against Iowa. Here are some of the highlights of what he said.

He said that what fans are seeing from this year’s Hoosiers in terms of level of effort and style of play is the same as how his teams played year in and year out at Montana Tech, Washington State and Oklahoma. “What’s new to a lot of people here is how my teams have played for 20-some years,” he said.

Joey Shaw didn’t play much against Penn State, Sampson said, because his defensive effort wasn’t adequate.

“There are some young kids that base their existence on whether they are making shots,” Sampson said. “You can’t do that. You have to play hard.

“We met this morning before we worked out. I pointed certain things out. He knows why he didn’t play, and he will be better next game.”

Lance Stemler didn’t have a good game against Penn State. Sampson said he’s not worried about that, but he does think Stemler needs to get tougher and play with the same intensity in every game.

“I don’t worry about Lance,” Sampson said. “Lance is a pretty smart kid. He didn’t play well the other day. He’s had some other games he hasn’t played so well in, but he bounced back, and he will bounce back. He will be fine.”

Rod Wilmont knows he can’t keep putting the ball up like he did after he got hot against Penn State, Sampson said.

The Hoosier coach said he doesn’t have to tell Wilmont to dial back his shot attempts after launching 17 3-pointers Saturday because Wilmont already knows not to keep shooting so much.

The IU wrestling team’s woes continued Monday when Bloomington police arrested IU sophomore Jose Escobedo on prelimnary charges of battery.

In addition to Escobedo, police also issued a warrant for Escobedo’s teammate, freshman Eric Cameron. Cameron was hospitalized last semester after he jumped from a downtown parking garage while running from the police.

Cameron faces misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief, resiting law enforcement and minor in a tavern.

For more on this story, go read the H-T’s Marcela Creps’s report.

Escobedo is a 133-pound wrestler from Griffith, IN whose cousins Angel Escobedo and Andrae Herndandez are also on the team.

Cameron is a 174-pound freshman from Cincinnati, Ohio. In high school, he finished third in the state in his weight class in 2006, and fourth in 2005.

In the biggest recruiting news to hit the Hoosier football program in many years, Warren Central football standouts Jerimy Finch and Jeff Boyd both gave Indiana verbal commitments Sunday evening.

Finch, a 6-foot-1, 203-pound safety, is rated the No. 1 player in-state player in the high school class of 2007 by Rivals.com. Boyd, a 6-3, 275-pound defensive end, is the No. 7 player in Indiana, according to Rivals.com.

Indiana has not been successful in landing the top in-state football players in recent years. Finch’s decision, after he had previously picked Michigan, could be a turning point for IU coach Terry Hoeppner’s recruiting.

We will provide a complete report on Finch’s and Boyd’s decisions in Monday’s H-T.