Coach K once took Elton Brand out of starting lineup

[SLUDrew]

There are crazier moves a coach can do than to sit a player to light a fire under him. Something has to be done with Ian. Yes his numbers on paper don't look atrocious (with the exception of his free throw %) but anyone who has watched this team knows he is nowhere NEAR where he needs to be.

It is not just the points. In fact, after the SIU game I was more concerned about guards stripping the ball away from him, and him generally getting pushed around than I was about his lack of scoring. He was not tough at all. SIU pushed him and he didn't push back.

He has shown in the past that it is possible to get him fired up. I remember after the UMass game last year that one of the players mouthed off to him and Ian went off the rest of that game. Myabe Coach needs to challenge him

If we are going to be as good as we can be this year, we need Ian to be much better. Do we just keep doing what we are doing and hope Ian snaps out of it, or do we make a mover to MAKE him snap out of it?

I would do it and I would do it now with Western IL coming in on Saturday.

[cheeseman]

My only question is given how Ian reacted last year when Brad got all over him about his play against one the A10 teams - can not remember which one - he was supposedly sulking and people on the board who supposedly knew him said that his feelings were hurt and the relationship between him and Brad was ruined - would that make things better or worse?

[SLUDrew]

Cheese, I seem to remember the situation to which you are referring, but if he is that delicate how did he ever plan on playing in the NBA?

I say we do it and do it for a game that we will probably win without him getting a ton of minutes. Although, even if we have to lose a game to wake Ian up, it is totally worth it in the long run.

May it backfire, you bet, but I would rather take a chance on it waking him up, than just staying the current course and hoping he wakes up on his own.

This would take a lot of courage on Brad's part, but I would really respect him if he did it

[DoctorB]

Coach Knight REGULARLY benched starters-- in fact for most of the Indiana years the 4th and 5th starters positions were fluid most of the year.

just about any big-name Indiana player except a few had games in which they did not start.

I seem to recall a few freshmen-- Mike Woodson, Calbert Cheaney, Randy Wittman--who started every game at Indiana, but for Knight that was pretty rare too. My memory may be playing tricks, but just about everyone else, including Isaih T., got benched at times.

[billiken_roy]

i couldnt care less if his feelings got hurt. especially in his senior season. what's he going to do not come back for next season? look, most of our optimisism is tied to ian. and whether ian likes it or not, it is justified. hey, it is a compliment to his potential. but potential means just that, something that hasnt been achieved yet. it is time he flip the damn switch.

[moytoy12]

Benching IV would hopefully allow JJ, AK, OI, and/or HD to get some quality time. I'd be in favor of allowing any or all of the 3 new PF's to get some quality time against WIU.

[SLUDrew]

This is not a 3rd grade girl we are dealing with. If he would allow a benching to detroy him, then what good is he? I would rather see guys out there with maybe less ability but who at least leave it on the floor after every game.

[Supersonic]

Great point! One thing I can say about JJ is atleast he is showing some emotion. Ian looks like he is on downers or something. Wake up!

Why didn't we see more of AK, OI or HD last game or really any of the games thus far? These guys are on the team, why not play them? Might give them some experience and Brad some options....

[billiken_roy]

this may sound cold, but i find it hard to believe that knollmeyer couldnt have duplicated what ian gave us saturday. i want ian to play, but i want the ian that we saw last year.

someone mentioned the ian in the umass game last year. that is a great example. that was probably the game that i thought ian really blossumed in last year. first off consider that umass had the inside players to challenge him, and second, we didnt have near the outside guard play we are getting this year. where is that ian?

[SLUDrew]

I mentioned that game in my original post as an example of someone challenging Ian and him taking his game to the next level. I think Coach could do the same thing

[NuBillsFan]

>Why didn't we see more of AK, OI or HD last game or really

>any of the games thus far?

I posted this in the Falkner thread, but got no response:

O. Ikeakor did not make the trip to C'dale. Does anyone know why?

[Hardball]

I hate to bring up the point about recruiting again but this is another by-product of the poor recruiting. One thing that makes teams better is competition for playing time every day in practice. BS's last couple of recruiting classes will never push our starting five for major minutes. In other words there is no threat to any one of our starters positions. How often have we heard BS say he can't replace LM in the starting line-up because no one will step up. Our 6'7"/6'8" guys ought to be ashamed of themselves letting a 6'5'kid beat them out. You would like to think all the players are self- motivated but they are not. Some players have to have the threat of an up and cummer, an underclassman taking their minutes and starting position to remain motivated. It all gets back to quality recruiting.

So when the Stay the Course supporters say don't worry about the early committments, spring signings or ask us to wait for recruiting classes to mature you hopefully now see the ramifications. I posted this statement below in another thread but I think it illustrates what some programs on the rise get from their incoming freshman. The statement was made by Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News about 6-1 Xavier.

"The most promising element of Xavier's strong start is that its two most talented players, redshirt freshman PF Derrick Brown and freshman SG Adrion Graves, still are supporting players and are likely to grow into more prominent roles as the season advances. Brown gives the frontcourt greater athleticism and a player who is willing to challenge defenses. Graves is a promising shooter and skilled passer who might be the team's best athlete. Coach Sean Miller has been using 10 players regularly, and none has given him a reason to cut down that rotation."

It sure would be nice to have someone talk about our incoming freshman and bench with such glowing terms. I don't really know but my guess is neither of the above mention recruits were late commitments.

[ACE]

I have to agree on this one. Not one of our newcomers is in the top 8 rotation. In the three recruiting periods since TL and KL(not including the 4th period this past fall where we got nobody), we don't have one player who sees significant minutes.