First-year IU players struggle with early Big Ten games

The right of passage into Big Ten basketball isn't an easy one. \nJust ask senior forward Marco Killingsworth, who had to deal with checks, bumps, elbows, slaps, scrapes and shoves for 40 minutes against Michigan's big men Tuesday night. It marked the first Big Ten conference action for many of IU's key players including Killingsworth, fellow senior transfer Lewis Monroe, junior college transfer Earl Calloway and freshman Ben Allen.\nIU Coach Mike Davis called them "first conference game jitters," but regardless of what they're called, they were evident Tuesday. Killingsworth scored 15 points, but shot 42 percent from the field, well below his season average of 63 percent. Monroe played 36 quiet minutes, accumulating two points and three assists. Calloway and Allen combined for just seven minutes of court time.\n"It takes a little time," IU assistant coach Donnie Marsh said. "You have to get your legs under you; get banged once or twice and know you're not going to get that call. Then you can handle it."\nMichigan lived up to the Big Ten mantra of physical play, and Marsh said Ohio State and 260-pound center Terence Dials are sure to present more of the same. Luckily for the Hoosiers, their roster also features several players who have already taken their Big Ten licks, and those players rose to the occasion Tuesday. Junior Rod Wilmont and sophomore Robert Vaden helped IU pull away from Michigan with timely threes and momentum-shifting dunks in the second half.\n"I told Earl (Calloway) before the game that it's going to be a different type of game," Wilmont said after the Michigan game. "After four years, I know that every Big Ten game is going to be tight. Every team is going to be tough and is going to play a good game in conference."\nPerhaps no better stat reflects a team's physicality than rebounds. And despite the Hoosiers' win Tuesday, Michigan dominated IU on the glass, grabbing 42 rebounds to IU's 29. One player, Michigan forward Graham Brown, nearly out-rebounded IU's entire starting lineup as he claimed 21 boards on his own. But Marsh said that becoming a great rebounding team doesn't depend as much on the big men as it does on the wings.\n"Our big guys demand attention, so our wings have to do a really good job of reading that and going to get some rebounds," he said. "That's when you become a great rebounding team -- when your wings rebound, not just your big boys."\nMore physical play will be on display at 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon in Assembly Hall when the No. 16 Hoosiers welcome No. 18 Ohio State.