White, Hoosiers healthy heading into early season tournament

D.J. White’s head bounced off the hardwood floor of Assembly Hall during Monday’s season opener against Tennessee-Chattanooga, and the IU crowd fell to a hush.\nThe senior forward was going up to block a shot and came down hard – a frightful moment for White and IU fans. \nWhite was fine. In fact, sophomore guard Armon Bassett joked the team captain was seeing “Tweety birds.”\nJust a few days after an injury that could have left him with a concussion, White’s biggest concern was not his physical health. It was his physical appearance. \n“It’ll probably mess up my beautiful face,” he joked during a press conference Wednesday. “I’ve had stitches here on my eyebrow.”\nFour stitches to be exact. \nWhite will don a bandage above his left eye for the IU men’s basketball team’s Sunday game against the Longwood Lancers.\n“It happens,” White said. “It’s part of it.”\nWhite and the team return to action at noon Sunday against the Lancers at Assembly Hall in the first round of the Chicago Invitational Challenge – an eight-team tournament that runs through Thanksgiving break. Regardless of the outcome of the next two games, IU will play in the semifinals of the tournament on Nov. 23 at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Ill.\nThe second round of the tournament will pit IU against North Carolina-Wilmington on Tuesday at Assembly Hall. \nIt will be the second time this season the Hoosiers have only one day off between games – the Hoosiers entertained North Carolina-Pembroke just two days before opening the season against the Mocs. \n“I don’t like the Sunday-Tuesday turnaround, but scheduling is not about what you like,” IU coach Kelvin Sampson said. “You don’t schedule for convenience; you schedule for necessity. I wish all of our games were Wednesday-Saturday. To me, that would be the perfect schedule. We would play Wednesday, practice Thursday and Friday then play on Saturday and take Sunday off and come back with practice on Monday and Tuesday. That to me is a perfect world.”\nBut Sampson does like the setup of the tournament – especially the two home games the Hoosiers have before heading to Chicago for the tourney.\n“Any exempt tournament that we are playing two games at home and two games on a neutral court is a good deal, if you are playing two at home,” he said.\nThe biggest thing the team needs to work on before it takes to the court this weekend? \nAccording to Bassett, defense. \n“I didn’t think we played that badly defensively (in Monday’s game). I just think those last 12 seconds – somebody being a second late on a rotation on a block out. I just think we need to work on closing the shot clock out. I thought we were playing pretty good defense the first 24 seconds or so.” \n-Staff writer Chris Engel contributed to this report.