In their final Bahamas barn burner, IU snuck past the Commonwealth Bank Giants 115-63. I’m pretty sure most of the teams that play at the HPER could beat the three teams IU played on this trip.

Nonetheless, the final contest provided an opportunity for fantasy friendly statistics. D.J. White led the way with 22 points, Eric Gordon and Armon Bassett added 19 points each and Jamarcus Ellis added eight points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.

For a complete look at the numbers, click here.

Here’s a quick glance of some of the team numbers from the trip:

The Hoosiers shot 56% this weekend and held its opponents to 33.9% accuracy.

IU outrebounded its opponents 55.0 to 28.7.

The Hoosiers had 87 assists and 59 steals in three games. They also forced 30.3 turnovers per game, while averaging 108.0 points.

I’m fairly certain we learned nothing about the team IU will put on the floor this coming season from this trip. It was an opportunity for the incoming players to get acclimated to Coach Sampson’s system and an opportunity for Eric Gordon to visit family in the Bahamas. Other than that, the competition level was mediocre and provided no real challenge. Nonetheless, the real value from the trip comes in the form of building team camaraderie and getting film for the coaching staff to break down before Midnight Madness tips off the season.

For the second straight day, IU dominated another over matched opponent, throttling Guatemala 103-41 at Kendal Isaacs Stadium in Nassau.

Eric Gordon was impressive as usual, scoring 33 points in 28 minutes of action. Perhaps more importantly, Gordon added five rebounds, five assists and six steals.

It was never much of a contest as IU opened the game on a 28-1 run and didn’t allow Guatemala to score their first field goal until the 7:40 mark in the second quarter.

You can check out the full boxscore by clicking here.

As you can see by the results from the first two games, the whole purpose of the trip was for the coaching staff to get a chance to have the team practice together and for the newcomers to get as much experience as possible. From a competition standpoint, these exhibitions are offering little to no value.

Additionally, here are a few other recaps from the contest:

- IU’s Gordon feels right at home in Nassau game {Louisville Courier-Journal}

- Hoosiers turn up defense on Guatemala {Herald Times, subscription required}

(Update: Read the full release regarding the trip by clicking here.)

Coach Sampson and his 2007-2008 Indiana Men’s Basketball team will leave tomorrow afternoon for their trip to the Bahamas.

Here’s a look at the scheduled games:

• Friday, Aug. 31: Bahamas Select, 8:30 p.m.

• Saturday, Sept 1: Guatemala, 2 p.m.

• Sunday, Sept. 2: Commonwealth Bank Club, noon

If anyone can give me a scouting report on these teams, please, feel free. The last one sounds like they’re from a YMCA league. And in case you’re wondering how important these games are to Coach Sampson, here’s what he had to say about the trip last week in a press conference:

“I don’t think these games are that important. I don’t put a lot of value on these games. I’m going to try to let everybody play an equal amount of time if possible. I may even let some of the assistant coaches coach some of the games and I’ll sit and watch. There are a lot of different ways to approach this. The value of this is the ten practices, not the games.”

“I have no idea who we are playing. I know we are going to play four games. There are probably 50 schools around the country that are doing this during the summer. I know Clemson and Old Dominion and I was told there are going to be five or six teams that are going to be in the Bahamas at the same time we are.”

“I want to see the new guys play as much as possible. There is a good chance that D.J. is not going to lead us in minutes down there…I know what he can do. It’s probably good that Lance is getting to do this, just to get him some confidence coming off his surgery. The games are what they are. We are going to try to win the games, but the scores are what they are. How we play is more important.”

“Our video guys will go down there with us and we will get all of it on film and be able to come back and watch it and point some things out and make some strides from there.”

Sadly, myself, E and R will not be making the trip. However, the Herald Times will be making the trip and will have live coverage all weekend, so that will be worth reading if you’re into meaningless exhibition games like I am.