Indiana University Athletics
IU/Bellarmine Game Notes
11/4/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
November 4, 2004
Hoosiers tip off exhibition campaignIndiana tips off the 2004-05 exhibition season Nov. 7, when it hosts NCAA Division II Bellarmine University on Thursday, Nov. 4, at 8 p.m. at Branch McCracken Court at Assembly Hall (17,456).
The Hoosiers close out the exhibition campaign Nov. 12 at 8 p.m. when they face Southern Illinois-Edwardsville at Branch McCracken Court at Assembly Hall. SIU-Edwardsville is coached by former Indiana swingman Marty Simmons.
The 105th season of Indiana basketball officially gets underway on Tuesday, Nov. 23, when Indiana State visits Bloomington for a 6 p.m. contest against the Hoosiers that will be televised on ESPN Plus Local.
On the air
Both of Indiana's exhibition games can be heard live on the IU Radio Network. WHCC (105.1 FM in Bloomington) is the flagship station for the network that has more than 50 stations broadcasting Hoosier basketball all season long. Don Fischer (play-by-play), former Indiana guard Todd Leary (color commentary) and Joe Smith (pregame, halftime and postgame host) call all of the action.
Postgame procedures
The Indiana locker room is closed to the media. An IU media relations staff member will be around to collect postgame player interview requests, and those players will be available in the basketball press room following the mandatory 10-minute cooling off period. Indiana head coach Mike Davis will be available in the press room after his postgame radio show and the players' postgame press conference.
Scouting Bellarmine
Tonight's game is the exhibition opener for both teams. Bellarmine follows the IU exhibition game with a Nov. 7 exhibition at Indiana State.
Bellarmine is an NCAA Division II institution with an enrollment of 2,494 students and located in Louisville, Ky. The Knights are coached by Chris Pullem, who enters his third year with a career record of 19-37. Bellarmine returns one starter from last year's club that finished 9-18 overall and 6-14 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC). The GLVC is one of the top NCAA Division II leagues in the nation, having sent at least one team to the NCAA Division II National Championship Game each of the last 11 seasons.
The Bellarmine Series
This is the first time that Indiana and Bellarmine have met on the basketball court.
In the summer of 2003, the Big Ten Conference proposed legislation titled 03-92, which prohibits Division I institutions from playing non-collegiate teams in exhibition games. The legislation was passed by the NCAA Management Council and took effect in August 2004.
Awards corner
Indiana junior guard Bracey Wright has been chosen to the 2004-05 Preseason All-Big Ten team as selected by the media, the league office announced on Oct. 27.
Last season, Wright was an NABC First Team All-District 10 and Second Team All-Big Ten honoree, averaging 18.5 points, 5.4 boards and 2.4 assists per contest. He was also named as a finalist for both The Rupp Award and The Naismith Award, each recognizing the nation's most outstanding player. The Colony, Texas, native closed the season ranked third in the league in scoring at 18.5 ppg, the best finish by a Hoosier since Kirk Haston was second in 2000-01. He also ranked 16th in the league in rebounding (5.4), ninth in free throw percentage (.789) and third in three-point field goals per game (2.41).
In addition, Wright scored at least 20 points 12 times as a sophomore and hit the 25-point plateau on seven separate occasions. He earned three Big Ten Player of the Week honors (Dec. 15, 2003, Jan. 5, 2004 and Jan. 26, 2004) and earned five in his career, joining Glen Robinson as the only players in league history to earn at least five Player of the Week honors in their first two seasons.
Over the summer, Wright competed with the USA World Championship For Young Men Qualifying Team, which defeated Puerto Rico, 97-86, in the gold medal contest in the 2004 FIBA Americas World Championship For Young Men Qualifying Tournament in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Wright averaged 5.5 points per game during the tournament.
Joining Wright on the preseason team are guards Dee Brown (Illinois) and Deron Williams (Illinois), forward Mike Wilkinson (Wisconsin) and center Paul Davis (Michigan State). Williams was also tabbed the Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year.
Challenging road ahead
Last season, Indiana was the only basketball program in the nation to face six consecutive 2003 NCAA Tournament teams in its non-league schedule. The Hoosiers face a similar task in 2004-05, as a mid-December string of contests against North Carolina (Big Ten-ACC Challenge), at defending national champion Connecticut, and games against Notre Dame, Kentucky, at Missouri and against Charlotte highlight IU's non-league schedule this winter. Overall, Indiana has the toughest schedule in the nation, facing five of the preseason Top 10 and seven of the Top 25. Duke and North Carolina are the only other programs slated to face five of the nation's preseason Top 10.
Busy summer for the Hoosiers
It was a busy summer throughout the Indiana basketball program, as head coach Mike Davis hired three staff members and welcomed three new players to IU.
Kerry Rupp, who most recently served as the interim coach at Utah and directed the Utes to the 2004 Mountain West Conference title and a berth in the NCAA Tournament, has been named associate head coach,
During his three-year Utah tenure, Rupp oversaw the Utes' scouting and underclassmen recruiting efforts that resulted in three straight NCAA Tournament berths and a pair of league titles.
Donnie Marsh, whose 25 years of college basketball coaching experience include stops at Florida State, Virginia Tech and most recently, as the head coach at Florida International, has joined the Indiana staff as assistant head coach.
Marsh arrives in Bloomington after spending the last four seasons as the head coach at Florida International. During his tenure in Miami, the Golden Eagles ranked among the Sun Belt Conference leaders in total defense and offensive rebounding, and Marsh also played a key role in the development of guard Carlos Arroyo. After his stellar FIU career ended in 2001, Arroyo became the fifth Puerto Rico native in history to play in the NBA when he debuted for the Toronto Raptors. Arroyo also spent one season with the Denver Nuggets before spending each of the last two seasons with the Utah Jazz.
Eric Jackson is in his first season as an Administrative Assistant at Indiana, where he will also work closely with the Hoosiers' strength and conditioning program.
Jackson arrives in Bloomington after four seasons at the University of Utah, where he worked as video coordinator (2000-02) and assistant coach (2002-04). During his tenure with the Utes, he worked the perimeter players and assisted with underclassman recruiting. Overall Jackson played a role in four straight postseason appearances, two Mountain West regular season championships, one league tournament title.
Prior to the start of the July recruiting period, power forward Marco Killinsgworth and point guard Lewis Monroe announced that they were transferring from Auburn to Indiana.
Just the 10th player in Auburn history to record 1,000 career points and 500 career rebounds in only three seasons, Killingsworth led the Tigers in scoring (13.7 ppg) and rebounding (6.9 rpg) last year. He shot .587 (145-of-247) from the floor to lead the SEC for the second straight season, and his scoring and rebounding each ranked among the top 20 in the league, while his field goal percentage ranked 16th nationally.
Despite missing the first 11 games of last season with a broken foot, Monroe came back to start 14 of Auburn's last 17 games. He tallied a career-high 17 points in a 73-68 loss at Mississippi State on Jan. 31, and he dished out at least five assists in seven straight games from Feb. 14 through March 6. He finished the year with averages of 6.1 points and 3.8 assists.
Monroe ranked 10th in the SEC in assists in 2002-03 (3.3 per game), highlighted by a nine helper effort at Georgia on Jan. 25, 2003. Monroe's most impressive statistic from the Tigers' Sweet 16 campaign is assist-to-turnover ratio. In 157 minutes of postseason play (SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament), he had only six turnovers, including four in 113 minutes of three NCAA Tournament games.
In early September, Lucas Steijn, a 6-10, 230-pound center from Muiderberg, Netherlands, enrolled at Indiana University. He will be eligible this season and has a full four years of eligibility ahead of him.
Steijn, who turned 18 years old in August, arrives in Bloomington after helping Notre Dame Academy in Middleburg, Va., to the 2004 Virginia Division II state title. Steijn averaged 12 points and eight rebounds per game on a team that posted a 19-8 record and included three other NCAA Division I signees - Alan Metcalfe (Vanderbilt), Jason Killeen (Winthrop) and Joe Posey (James Madison).
Steijn brings some impressive credentials with him. He spent three years playing for the Dutch National Team, where he averaged 16 points and 10 rebounds per game.
Player update
Indiana senior guard Donald Perry has been suspended indefinitely from the Hoosier basketball team for violation of team rules, IU head coach Mike Davis announced Oct. 15. Effective immediately, Perry will not practice with the team nor participate in any team activities.
"We hold all of our players to extremely high standards on and off the court," Davis said. "Donald's suspension will continue until we determine that he is a member in good standing," Davis said.
As a junior, the 6-2, 185-pound Perry started 13 of the 28 games in which he played. He posted a career-high 13 points against Missouri on Dec. 5,2003 and a career-best six assists against Norfthwestern on Jan. 17, 2004.
Foreign territory
Just as Indiana added several new coaches and players, two of the more veteran Hoosiers gained valuable international playing experience.
Wooden Award and Naismith Award candidate Bracey Wright helped the USA Basketball World Championship For Young Men Qualifying Team to the gold medal at the 2004 FIBA Americas World Championship For Young Men Qualifying Tournament in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Wright averaged 5.5 points during the tournament.
Marshall Strickland represented Indiana on the Big Ten Conference's annual foreign tour team. Strickland was one of four league players to average double figures during the tournament at 10.4 ppg.
Wright named to Wooden Award list
Indiana junior guard Bracey Wright has been named to the John R. Wooden Award Preseason All-American Team. The team is composed of 50 student-athletes who, based on last year's individual performance and team records, are the early frontrunners for college basketball's most coveted trophy.
Here is a look at where Wright ranks among Indiana's career scoring and three-point field goal leaders.
Players Mentioned
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/ Men's BasketballThursday, August 13
Thursday, August 13
Wednesday, August 12
Wednesday, August 12