gameday at iu: senior night

the iu basketball preview makes a return tonight, the last game of the regular season for the indiana hoosiers. the northwestern preview was missing because -- well -- i think about 13.97 people actually cared about the game. if iu would have lost, it would have been a different story. is penn state at home any different? not really, but it is senior night.

tonight the hoosiers will effectively graduate four seniors from assembly hall -- errek suhr, earl calloway and roderick wilmont. each have had their impact on the program, mostly this year, in quite different ways.

suhr? the walk-on-who-got-a-scholarship-face-of-iu-who-the-crowd-loves guard from bloomington will decidedly get the most cheer tonight. he's been a "sparkplug" for the hoosiers this year, in the words of Coach K at Duke. the numbers? not too great. but he's a scrappy player who gives iu fans flashbacks of teams and players past.

calloway? he's had a tough end to the regular season with the painful separated shoulder injury suffered at purdue, but it seems as if he's ready to get back in the swing of things again after playing a little bit at northwestern. his career at iu has been decent since transferring from georgia perimeter college after his sophomore year. he averaged just 10 points a game this season, but made his deeper impact with court presence and ability to fly the ball up the court.

wilmont? roderick earned an iu record on wednesday against norhtwestern by connecting on 9 3-pointers en route to 31 points for the contest. wilmont has been at iu for five years and is a red shirt senior after sitting out his freshman season. this year he's averaged over 12 points a game and was 66-161 from 3-point range.

all of these guys will be missed next year, but in all reality, the team is in good shape. armon bassett fill in calloway's role, lance stemler and aj ratliff will be a heavy outside presence and dj white should be back. throw in eric gordon and a stellar recruiting class and the hoosiers will looks to be pretty stout in 2007-2008.

but for now, the focus lies on keeping an undefeated record at home against penn state tonight and advancing in the big ten tournament. all the nay-sayers who say iu isn't a lock in the tournament are dead wrong. the 3rd best team in the conference will get in. and it wouldn't shock this reporter to see the hoosiers playing on sunday in the big ten tournament -- they are the type of team that can and will shock some teams (wisconsin and ohio state) at a neutral venue.

tonight? the hoosiers roll. sampson lays down some pretty nice comments and a few jabs too. i can't be there, but i'll excited to see how it plays out.

give iu the nod. 82-62.