Superstition helps Kline perform

There's one ritual sophomore forward Sean Kline does before every game. He puts on his socks.\nBut not just any socks. Kline wears the same pair, every game.\n"If you have a good game in a pair of socks, that's supposed to be good luck," Kline said. "So I stay with the same socks."\nThe 6 foot 8 inch Huntington, Ind. native was redshirted his freshman year at IU and is now in his second season of playing. Kline's superstitious socks may have helped him average 8.1 points a game and start in IU's first 12 games this season.\nThe team is currently 7-6 overall and 1-1 in Big Ten play.\nKline holds a number of records for his high school, Huntington North. He is the all-time leader in points (1,790), rebounds (811) and blocked shots (112). \nMoving from Huntington to Bloomington wasn't hard, Kline says, and he likes the hometown feel Bloomington has.\n"The University is huge, so you are always seeing new faces on campus," Kline said. "Each and every day is a new experience."\nKline said he approaches basketball as a new experience, and said he learns something new about the game every day.\nThere have only been two Big Ten games so far this season, but Kline has been breaking personal records since November. He recorded a career high 15 points in IU's loss to Kentucky Dec. 20 and a career high 10 rebounds in the victory over Butler Dec. 13.\nAfter hitting only 46.7 percent of his free throws last year, he has hit 74.4 percent this season and has made 14 of his last 18 free throws. \nWith senior center George Leach returning from a knee injury, Davis decided not to start Kline in the Hoosier's most recent victory over Michigan. But Kline came off the bench and showed he would play just as hard as if he had just started. \nHe even hit a hook shot -- something Leach said he hadn't ever seen Kline do in his two years of playing.\n"He came in and gave us what we needed," Leach said. "He came in and played his role and we won."\nKline was a crucial part to the 59-57 IU victory in Ann Arbor, Mich. He scored three of the final five field goals of the game and blocked what could have been Michigan's game winning shot.\n"He did great," sophomore guard Marshall Strickland said. "He made a lot of big buckets for us that really picked us up and gave us momentum."\nBesides grabbing rebounds and raking in points for the IU team, Kline has a noticeable relationship with fans at away games.\nKline's possibility of attending Notre Dame instead of IU when he was a freshman just may be the reason for this season's harassment at the Notre Dame game in South Bend.\nKline fouled out of the game in the second half and as he approached the bench, the student section chanted his every step. \n"Left, right, left, right," they would yell as many opposing student sections do when a player fouls out. \nThe quick thinking Kline threw them off and hopped on one foot. The crowd erupted with laughter and a smiling Kline took his seat on the bench.\nKline said he had heard the chant before, and it just came to him that he would try something different. \n"I like messing with the crowd and it's a lot more fun on the road when they are going against you," Kline said. "It just keeps things intense and the energy going."\nSo maybe Kline can make the opposing fans laugh and has made improvements as a player since he first came to IU, but what he concentrates on now is improving the IU team.\nKline has said since IU's first game the team needs to learn to play a solid 40 minutes before they will ever be truly successful. \n"We're heading in the right direction," Kline said. "We're starting to put the pieces together and starting to play the way we're capable of."\n Contact staff writer Natalie A. Trout at natrout@indiana.edu.