Strickland emerges as impact player

MADISON, Wis. -- There's more than one freshman guard on the IU men's basketball team who is becoming an impact player.\nMarshall Strickland, a newly-named starter for the Hoosiers, made this much apparent when IU traveled to Wisconsin Saturday to take on the Badgers. Strickland played in all but three minutes of the game and picked up the second highest points scored and boards grabbed for the team.\nEven though Strickland bypassed many career statistics, IU lost their sixth road game to Wisconsin, 71-59.\n"He had a great game, and he was tough to handle," Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. "He came to play. He is a very, very good player, and he's just going to keep doing good things. He's going to get better."\nIU coach Mike Davis named Strickland, along with junior forward/guard A.J. Moye, a starter prior to last Wednesday's home game win against Michigan. The change put Strickland at the point, moving senior guard Tom Coverdale to the off-guard spot. After picking up a win against Michigan, Davis decided to stick with the newly-conceived winning line-up.\nStrickland quickly jumped on the offensive attack in the first half for the Hoosiers (15-9, 5-6 Big Ten). IU was already enjoying a small lead in the first half when Strickland, who finished with a career-high 17 points, connected with the basket on back-to-back possessions. The first was a short jumper for two, and the next time down he sank a three-pointer. In just over a minute, Strickland had picked up his first five points and gave IU a five-point lead over Wisconsin (18-5, 8-3).\n"Strickland ran the offense great," Davis said. "There were only a couple of possessions where we got into trouble."\nStrickland, a Maryland native, also got into the rebounding game in the first half, picking up six. That was just one less than the team leader in boards, senior forward Jeff Newton. The new point guard also had two assists in the first half and finished with a block and a steal going into the locker room.\nStrickland remained in the game in the first half until there was just over five minutes left before the break. It was the only time Strickland would be on the bench in the game in his 37-minute performance.\nHe reappeared in the game with 2:21 before halftime, enough time to dish out a pass to Newton for a jump shot to extend the lead to four points.\n"Speed-wise, it helps us. We can match up a little bit better with the other team's quickness," freshman guard Bracey Wright said about Strickland as a starter.\nStrickland ended the first half with seven points but was quiet to start the second until he drove to the basket to bring IU back within three of the Badgers with just over 13 minutes left to play. Then at 5:48 Strickland hit his third three-pointer, which closed the Wisconsin advantage to five.\nStrickland bypassed his previous career highs in minutes played, total points and rebounds. His previous scoring-high was 15 points, which occurred twice, against Virginia and at Ohio State. \n"He played with a lot of confidence tonight, and he really helped us out a lot," Wright said. "There were a couple times when he hit big threes that kept us right in the game. His performance was good overall"