Meetthe Alabama Slamma'

One man, one day -- an 18-year-old's dream came true.\nFreshman D.J. White's 17 points -- including a game-tying basket at regulation's end and two buckets in overtime -- helped IU gut out a 78-74 win versus No. 10 Michigan State Sunday.\nHis day wasn't over though. After the win, the Assembly Hall crowd rushed the floor. In the middle of it all, White stood, victorious, leading the cheering crowd of students circled around him.\n"That's been my dream since high school," White said of having fans rush the floor after a victory.\nLiving your dream while helping your team get back into the thick of the NCAA Tournament hunt -- not a bad day's work for the freshman who just turned 18 this August.\nIt didn't look like a memorable day for White at the beginning. Saddled with foul trouble, the freshman only played six minutes in the first half.\nIn the second half though, the Hoosiers came out determined to pound the ball inside to the freshman. White responded with four points early.\nBut with IU possessing the ball, trailing by two with just 42.1 seconds remaining, White's memorable day began.\nAfter an IU timeout, the Hoosiers swung the ball around the perimeter. With junior Bracey Wright covered, freshman Robert Vaden fed White inside. After catching the pass just outside the paint, the freshman gathered himself, turned to the middle and scored on a jump hook to tie the game at 64 with 17 seconds left as the Assembly Hall crowd roared.\n"I was feeling it down the stretch," White said. "It's just that I came off and I was open."\nWhite and Michigan State center Paul Davis battled each other all afternoon. But with 3:24 remaining in overtime, White got the upper hand when Davis fouled out after hand-checking White.\n"When (Davis) went out, I was like 'Just come to me every time,'" White said.\nThe Hoosiers quickly did just that as White scored on back-to-back possessions to put the Hoosiers up three. Junior Marshall Strickland found White on both his baskets -- the second a thunderous dunk putting the Hoosiers up three.\n"I think D.J. kind of struggled in the beginning," Strickland said. "I knew if I could get him some good looks he would get going."\nWhite's day was suddenly looking a lot better.\nBoth of White's baskets came with Michigan State's Alan Anderson -- who stands at just 6-foot-6 -- guarding the 6-foot-9 White. Anderson shifted over to guard White after Davis fouled out.\nMichigan State coach Tom Izzo defended his decision to put the undersized Anderson on White instead of another Spartan big man.\n"We had no one that was really covering him anyway," Izzo said. \nWhite had it all covered Sunday. He helped make one of his dreams come true and helped get his team one game closer to earning its dream -- an NCAA Tournament berth.\nIU coach Mike Davis probably dreamt of clutch performances like this when he recruited White to Bloomington. And Davis' dreams have perhaps started to come true.\n"Tonight, I thought he was fantastic," Davis said.\n-- Contact Staff Writer John Rodgers at jprodger@indiana.edu.