SALT LAKE CITY -- Senior Marshall Strickland struggles to remember it. \nSenior Sean Kline said it feels like it's been 10 years.\nBut the reality is that IU last danced just three years ago -- it only seems longer. Strickland and Kline represent the only players on IU's roster to have worn cream and crimson in the NCAA Tournament. Seniors Marco Killingsworth and Lewis Monroe both have a Sweet 16 appearance to their names, but that came at Auburn.\nWhen tallying up the total minutes of tourney experience, this Hoosier squad seems like more of an anomaly compared to teams of the past. But Strickland has been quick to remind the younger players that the game remains the same.\n"We've just tried to remind them that it's still a basketball game," he said. "The rules haven't changed, no matter what you're playing for."\nIn 2003, the last time IU made the field of 64, Strickland played a much smaller role for the Hoosiers as a freshman point guard. Killingsworth's intentions to transfer were barely seeded. Sophomores A.J. Ratliff and Robert Vaden were just arriving on the Indiana high school basketball scene. And freshman Ben Allen had just turned 17.\nBut this time around all of those players hold vital stake in IU's potential success. \n"I feel like I have a lot more control over what happens," Strickland said. "Freshman year, you just kind of ride on the back of the team, but this year I'm out there making things happen."
Altitude affect: Fact or fiction?
\nPlaying in the Midwest, the Hoosiers couldn't simulate Salt Lake City's altitude if they played on top of the Sears Tower while wearing stilts. \nUtah's capital towers over the Great Plains by more than 4,000 feet. Many media outlets have hyped this geographical mismatch as an advantage for the Aztecs who play in the Mountain West Conference and regularly visit the Rocky Mountains. \nBut does it really matter?\nSophomore A.J. Ratliff said he noticed a difference in IU's first practice off the plane, whereas junior Rod Wilmont said he hadn't felt any different. \n"I mean, I got tired," he said. "But I got tired because it was a hard practice. It wasn't anything unusual."\nScientifically speaking, there is a difference. According to a Colorado Altitude Training Web site, the oxygen level is actually no different at this altitude than it is at sea level. The difference exists in the air pressure. In places like Salt Lake City, the pressure is lower so the atmosphere doesn't push as much oxygen into the lungs. This forces the body to create more red blood cells and burn more energy, faster. \nBut the real test may come from the players themselves. \n"It's a little adjustment," senior Marshall Strickland said. "I noticed it earlier today when I was running, a little bit. But I think it's more mental. When the game starts and the adrenaline starts pumping, I think everything comes back to you."\nWilmont concurs. To him, science and sport simply don't mix.\n"I'm a basketball player man," he said. "If there's a hoop and a rim, I just play. (The altitude) is not going to win or lose a game for us, so we need to go out there and just hoop." \n
Salt Lake City highlights
\nRegardless of altitude effects, Salt Lake City has offered some benefits that the Hoosiers may not have experienced playing out east. \nWhen Benjamin Franklin first theorized the concept of daylight savings time, basketball didn't even exist. But thanks to the founding father's idea, IU is now benefiting from some much needed rest.\n"We've been able to get great sleep because 10 o'clock at home is only eight o'clock here," Sophomore A.J. Ratliff said. "That's an extra two hours of sleep."\nBut when first presented with the question about his impressions of Salt Lake City, Ratliff had a more immediate response. \n"The food," he said. "We've been eating really well"
