FanHouse D.j.White

The Associated Press All-American team was announced today, and it's notable mostly for who didn't make it: For the first time ever, there are no senior All-Americans.

Instead, the team consists of UCLA freshman center Kevin Love, Kansas State freshman forward Michael Beasley, Texas sophomore guard D.J. Augustin, North Carolina junior forward Tyler Hansbrough and Memphis junior guard Chris Douglas-Roberts. Beasley and Hansbrough were unanimous selections.

Three seniors -- Shan Foster of Vanderbilt, D.J. White of Indiana and Roy Hibbert of Georgetown -- made the second team, but the absence of any seniors on the first team is a reminder of how much college basketball has changed. The most talented players just don't stick around until their senior seasons, and many of the best players wouldn't play college basketball at all if not for the NBA's minimum age rule. I don't know if we'll ever see a five-freshman All-American team, but I feel confident saying this isn't the last time we'll see a zero-senior All-American team.

In the first four games after Indiana head coach Kelvin Sampson received his $750,000 walking papers, the Hoosiers went 3-1, so at first glance they wouldn't appear to have mailed it in on their season.

But the three wins weren't against good teams, and the one loss was a butt-whipping against Michigan State. And today the Hoosiers lost 68-64 in overtime to a bad Penn State team. It's fair to say the Hoosiers are not the same team under interim head coach Dan Dakich that they were under Sampson.

The best players are the same: Phenomenal freshman Eric Gordon scored a game-high 26 points in the losing effort, although it took him 24 shots to get there, and D.J. White had 20 points and 12 rebounds. The rest of the Indiana team, however, was sluggish, and without Sampson at the helm, this looks like a couple of stars doing their own thing, not like a cohesive unit.

In another possible sign of problems at Indiana, forward Jamarcus Ellis stayed home for disciplinary reasons. Whether that's related to the way the team is playing or not we don't know, but the mess Sampson created is hitting the Hoosiers at the worst time.

Local news reports in Indiana are suggesting that Hoosiers basketball coach Kelvin Sampson is about to be relieved of his duties, and as a result nearly half the team skipped practice today in protest.

The Herald Times reports that neither Sampson nor his assistant coach Ray McCallum showed up to practice today, and that Armon Bassett (pictured with Sampson), D.J. White, Jamarcus Ellis, Jordan Crawford, DeAndre Thomas and Brandon McGee also failed to show up to practice. That leaves Indiana with just seven of its 13 players at practice, and possibly only seven for tomorrow's game at Northwestern.

According to the report, Dan Dakich is coaching the team at practice today. Dakich is expected to be named head coach, probably this evening, in place of Sampson, whose firing seems imminent after repeated NCAA violations.

For the second straight game, embattled Indiana basketball coach Kelvin Sampson had his team ready to play, and for the second straight game the Hoosiers beat a ranked opponent in impressive fashion, knocking off No. 14 Purdue 77-68.

But as impressive a game as Sampson had, it was also, almost everyone agrees, his last game. The school is in the midst of an investigation into major rules violations the NCAA says Sampson committed, and when that investigation concludes this week, Sampson is expected to be suspended or fired.

Sampson got big games from his big-time players, with Eric Gordon scoring 22 points and D.J. White scoring 19 points and adding 15 rebounds despite playing through a knee injury. The Hoosiers improved their record to 22-4 and 11-2 in the Big Ten, and they're looking like a team that could be dangerous in March. But someone other than Sampson will coach them in the tournament.

The Indiana Hoosiers got a big win on Saturday night when they beat the Michigan State Spartans at Assembly Hall, but lost in the joy of the win and the focus on coach Kelvin Sampson was the fact that senior D.J. White didn't finish the game.

White came down awkwardly on his leg in the first half of the game, and immediately clutched his knee before limping off the court and into the locker room. White underwent an MRI on Sunday that produced good news and bad news.

The good news is that there's no structural damage to D.J.'s knee. The bad news is that it is sprained, and it's likely going to keep him out of Tuesday night's ginormous game against Purdue.

Although an MRI on Sunday morning came back negative, Sampson told FOXSports.com that doctors weren't optimistic White would be able to play Tuesday night against Purdue.

White was diagnosed with a sprained right knee just above the kneecap, and he'll likely miss a week or so, according to Sampson.

It's never good to lose a player like White, but the timing couldn't be worse for the Hoosiers. Tuesday night's game between the Hoosiers and Boilermakers will go a very long way in deciding who is going to win the Big Ten conference this season, and without White, a tough game just got a whole lot tougher for the Hoosiers.

With A.J. Ratliff missing the last two games for the Indiana Hoosiers due to "personal reasons," all sorts of rumors started. Most of them centering around Ratliff's academic eligibility, since he missed the entire first semester of the season because of his struggles in the classroom.

Whether or not that's still the case, or if it's something else, Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson confirmed earlier this afternoon that Ratliff will not be returning to the basketball team.

"Both of us agreed that it was in his best interests to focus on himself and to work through his personal issues," the Hoosier coach said in a news release. "We wish him the best."

Ratliff wasn't available for comment on the matter, but his uncle confirmed the story and said that it was a mutual decision, and Ratliff wasn't being kicked off the team.

Ratliff came to Bloomington in the same vaunted freshman class with D.J. White, and after scoring 9.3 points per game and leading the Hoosiers in three-pointers last season, the team was expecting him to be a big contributor this season. Unfortunately, Ratliff's struggles in the classroom never allowed him the chance, and he's averaged only 1.7 points per game in nine games this season.

Ratliff is expected to continue taking classes at Indiana.

So far this basketball season it looked like Penn State was in the process of climbing out of it's annual spot in the Big Ten cellar. The Nittany Lions didn't look like a threat to win the conference, but an NCAA berth looked within reach.

I say it looked within reach, because after last night, I don't think Penn State is going anywhere this season. The team's leading scorer and leading rebounder, Geary Claxton, tore his ACL and he's done for the season.

Penn State senior forward Geary Claxton, the Big Ten's second-leading scorer, will miss the rest of the season after injuring his left knee during the Nittany Lions' 80-55 loss to No. 17 Wisconsin on Tuesday night.

Claxton fell to the floor with about 13 minutes left in the first half after trying to rebound his own missed shot. He winced and held his hands over his face as trainers looked at the leg before walking to the locker room with a slight limp.

This is a huge loss for the Nittany Lions. Huge. Claxton's 18.7 points per game are second in the Big Ten behind Eric Gordon, and his 8.9 rebounds a game are second in the conference to D.J. White. He's also had nine double-doubles this season, including a streak of four in a row that came to an end with his knee injury last night.

It's a terrible way for the senior to end his college career, and it's going to be very difficult for Penn State to make up for his leadership and production.

The Big Ten Diaries recaps the previous night's action in Big Ten Basketball, but of course, you're probably smart enough to figure that out on your own.

Indiana Hoosiers 78 Michigan Wolverines 64

If D.J. White and Eric Gordon play like they did in Ann Arbor on Tuesday night all season, I don't know that there's anybody in this country that can beat the Hoosiers. Of course, it will probably be a bit tougher to do against North Carolina than Michigan, but it's not the Hoosiers' fault the Big Ten is very top heavy this year.

White scored 21 points and also grabbed 22 boards to become the first Hoosier to have a 20/20 game since Alan Henderson in 1995. D.J. was already scary enough in his first three years on campus, now that he's gotten into much better shape physically, he's an absolute beast.

Eric Gordon matched his number with 23 points, including 4 three-pointers, just another ho-hum night for the youngster. He just makes everything he does look so easy, which you just don't see freshman do very often. At least not the kind that stick around longer than a year.

For Michigan, Manny Harris-speaking of freshman-led the team with 19 points. There's hope on the horizon, Wolverines fans!

It's too bad that the majority of the country can't get the Big Ten Network, because they missed a near miracle on Wednesday night in Iowa City.

It was the Big Ten opener for both Iowa and Indiana, and the Hoosiers survived a late scare. The game was close throughout, but when Indiana went on an 11-1 binge late, it seemed as though the game was over. Then Iowa's Justin Johnson caught fire like nobody I've seen since I was playing NBA Jam back in the day.

Johnson hit six, that's right, six, three-pointers in the final 1:56 seconds to bring Iowa within range of pulling off the upset. One of them happened to be a 40-foot, that's right, 40 foot, bank shot that I'm pretty sure he called glass on. When that one dropped it made the score 78-76 with 4.8 seconds left, and the folks at Carver-Hawkeye Arena went absolutely nuts.

Iowa then fouled Lance Stemler to send him to the line, and after making the first attempt he missed the second one setting up Iowa with a chance to tie. The Hawkeyes tried to get the ball to Johnson, but D.J. White knocked the ball away from him as time expired.

It's a good thing he did too, because let's face it, if Johnson got that shot off it was going in.

Johnson finished the game with 29 points thanks to his three-point barrage.

Eric Gordon led the Hoosiers with 25 points in his Big Ten debut, and the previously mentioned D.J. White chipped in with 16 points and 15 boards.

When Eric Gordon took a hard foul earlier this week against Tennessee State, Kelvin Sampson and the Hoosier faithful were pretty sure he'd be fine and available to play on Saturday against rival Kentucky. They were wrong. After barely being able to move around during Friday practice, it was decided that Gordon would sit out.

The Hoosiers didn't need him anyway.

You may not remember this after being dazzled by the freshman Gordon so far this season, but the Hoosiers are a pretty good team without him, and they reminded us all of that fact with their 70-51 win over Kentucky in Bloomington on Saturday afternoon. It was only Indiana's third win in their last 14 games against Kentucky in the annual border war.

In Gordon's place, and fresh off of a suspension, Jordan Crawford got his first career start opposite his brother, Joe Crawford, of Kentucky. Jordan scored 20 points to lead Indiana, most of which came in a key stretch to end the first half. With D.J. White on the bench in foul trouble, Crawford led the Hoosiers on a 15-5 run to take control of the game. He also hit four free throws in the final 30 seconds of the half to give Indiana a 37-25 advantage at the break.

The Hoosiers only built on to their lead from there, but more importantly, Jordan earned his status as his parents favorite son.

Speaking of D.J. White, he had a pretty decent effort as well, scoring 16 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. He also surpassed the 1,000 point milestone in his college career.

As for Gordon's status, the team expects him to be back for their next game against Western Carolina on December 15th. The week off should be plenty of time for his back and hip to heal.