IU welcomes its D.J. back

When D.J. White is frustrated, everyone knows.\nHe has a trademark gesture. After a missed shot or dropped pass, White whirls around, raises his hands above his shoulders and slams them down together in a sudden, primal clap. \nThe beginning of the 2006-07 has seen White twisting and clapping more than ever before. Instead of dominating smaller, inferior opponents, the 6-foot-9 forward has had trouble posting up effectively and finding his rhythm once he catches the ball. Though he notched 22 points and seven rebounds against Butler on Nov. 11 in the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament, his team blew a 12-point second half lead and the win. \nBut the frustration he might be feeling this year can't compare to last year's when White injured his left foot, not once but twice, and missed almost all of his sophomore campaign. The experience has provided valuable prospective. Now White is back in the IU lineup, a captain of Kelvin Sampson's first Hoosier team and the focal point in IU's hopes for immediate success. \n"That was the toughest thing I've ever done in my life," White said of sitting out his sophomore year. "It was hard. But it helps me now, helps me reminisce on things.\n"I appreciate things more now," he added. "It's a blessing to be in the position I'm in right now. To have little kids look up to you, to have people care about what you do -- it's humbled me." \nWhite is not only returning from injury, but from a tough decision, too. \nWhen former coach Mike Davis -- who recruited White and brought him to IU -- resigned in the midst of last season's tumult, White was faced with a choice: He could stay at IU and play for a new coach, or he could eventually follow Davis to the University of Alabama-Birmingham and continue to play with his best friend, former IU forward Robert Vaden.\nThe move would have required White, thanks to NCAA transfer regulations, to sit out another year before he could have returned to the court. But it would have also allowed him to return to his home state of Alabama and play with his mentor and his friend. \nAt Davis' resignation press conference Feb. 16, White made it clear he was leaning in one direction -- and that direction pointed south to UAB.\n"It affects me a lot," White said during the press conference. "I came all the way from Alabama to play for coach Davis. Him not being here ... I feel it would be tough for me to play."\nBut then, as Sampson was announced as Davis' successor, White chose to stay. \n"In my mind, I never really believed I was going to leave," White said recently. "It could have been an issue, but I wanted to play basketball. I want to put this team on my back."\nEven after two years of exposure at the Big Ten level, White is still getting used to the attention. \nAt Big Ten Media Day on Oct. 29, White sat at a table for hours while reporters moved toward and away from him, swarming the players and coaches seated strategically in the Chicago O'Hare Marriot ballroom. His teammates, seniors Rod Wilmont and Earl Calloway, received a fraction of the questions White faced. The only person more popular for IU was Sampson. \n"I feel like someone's always watching my every move, how I act, how I react to things," White said. "But I try to be the best person I can be. My parents raised me well."\nWhite also said he attracts attention from his peers on campus -- people who shout for him and wish him well as he walks to class in the mornings. \n"Every day on campus people say they're worrying about me," he said. "It's nice to know that people care so much." \nWhite's latest game can perhaps be taken as a sign of the forward's progress. At the Nov. 19 game against Chicago State University, White dominated the overmatched Cougars for 18 points and 11 rebounds, tying a career high in rebounding. The Hoosiers didn't force the ball into White's hands, Sampson said, but instead allowed him to flow into the game on his own.\n"The more stuff we run away from D.J., the better D.J. is," Sampson said. "You can't run everything through D.J. Sometimes, you say 'Oh, we gotta get the ball to D.J.' Well, why don't you just send a note to the other team? So we can run stuff for other guys, and D.J. becomes a pretty good secondary option."\nThat progress is a good sign for White, whose aspirations don't end with college basketball. The forward has the NBA on his mind, a hope that begins with his desire to help his parents, DeWayne Sr. and Julia, retire from their humble occupations. His father works for a paper company and his mother for a Style Mart clothing store in Tusacaloosa, Ala.\n"I would really love for one day not to see my mother work," White said. "I'd love to give back to the community, to help the people who helped me get here.\n"I want to live my dream," White said. "It's my dream to be in the NBA, and I hope -- really hope -- it happens."\nIn the meantime, though, White is back in an IU uniform, back catching the ball in the post, back dealing with a more familiar and less drastic set of frustrations.\n"It's taken a while to adjust, but I feel good now," White said. "It's not perfect yet, but it feels good. It feels good to be back"