This season, seniors are receiving their due respect

Sporting News, The, Feb 19, 2001 by Mike DeCourcy

Illinois forward Sergio McClain tried to be graceful after he was finished with an evening of bull-rushing past Michigan State guard Marcus Taylor on his way to the lane, five assists and a crucial Big Ten Conference win.

He didn't want to make a big deal of this. McClain is a senior. Taylor is a freshman. That's how it's supposed to be.

This year, more than any season in recent memory, that's how it is.

College basketball is a man's game again.

"I think the teams that are older and more mature are going to be the ones you're seeing at the top of the leagues," says Georgia coach Jim Harrick. "I look out on the floor, and I have two or three freshmen at the same time. I look at an NBA game, and they've all got rookies on the floor. And somehow, those teams aren't winning--mine or those NBA teams."

The top 10 teams in last week's TSN Power Poll average 2.4 senior starters. Only top-ranked North Carolina has fewer than two. Stanford, which began the season by running off 20 straight wins, has three senior starters, including one at point guard. Iowa State has four seniors in its lineup. Of the 50 players starting for those 10 teams, one is a freshman--the Cyclones' Jake Sullivan.

Michigan State used two freshman starters for nine games in January and early February: Taylor and center Zach Randolph. But persistent defensive straggles led coach Tom Izzo to switch back to senior wing David Thomas and sophomore big man Aloysius Anagonye. Opponents shoot 40 percent from the field against the Spartans, but the three teams that beat them hit a combined 45 percent At Illinois, the Spartan freshmen frequently mismanaged high screens set by the mini, freeing Cory Bradford for a season-high six 3-pointers and 22 points.

Afterward, Izzo wondered aloud, "If we can get good enough defensively on a consistent basis with the youth we have ..." The solution he reached in subsequent days was a popular one this year: more experience.

"Seniors have a sense of urgency," says Xavier coach Skip Prosser. "They understand, `I'm only going to get one more chance to get this done.' They practice with that sense of urgency and play with that sense of urgency. Seniors dig in a little bit more."

In 1995, the NBA instituted a rookie salary structure that began luring record numbers of underclassmen from college with the promise of instant millions for even late first-round picks. In 1997, Arizona won the NCAA title without a senior in the starting lineup. Duke dominated the 1998-99 season with a lineup featuring one senior and three sophomores, then was beaten in the NCAA title game by a Connecticut team that started one senior, guard Ricky Moore. From 1997 through 1999, the title-game contestants averaged one senior starter per team.

It became popular to view seniors with a sense of suspicion--if they're any good, what are they doing here?

Of the 20 first-team U.S. Basketball Writers All-Americans between 1996 and 1999, six were seniors. The quality senior player was considered to be an endangered species.

Now, they're everywhere. Duke's Shane Battier. Stanford's Jarron Collins. Michigan State's Andre Hutson and Charlie Bell. Iowa State's Jamaal Tinsley.

"We'd much rather have a veteran ballclub. Experience means so much," says Kentucky coach Tubby Smith.

His lineup includes one senior, point guard Saul Smith, and the team struggled to a 3-5 start before developing enough to win 12 of the next 14. Even in the two losses, experience was a factor. Because of the Southeastern Conference's divisional setup, only two Wildcats previously had played at Alabama and Mississippi. UK lost those games by a combined 20 points.

The value of the senior surge is easy for coaches to explain, but the reason it has happened is somewhat elusive. Among several coaches surveyed, Smith was the only one who presented a theory. Citing the experience of Kentucky product Nazr Mohammed--who has played just 469 minutes in three NBA seasons--Smith suggests players who've seen teammates or opponents enter the draft and end up on the bench might be less eager to jump.

"They're making a bunch of money, but they're not playing. It can be devastating," Smith says. "The frustration of not playing--they're better off staying here and developing than going to the next level and just sitting."

It has helped the seniors that the current freshman class has presented comparatively little competition. Of 19 active players who were McDonald's All-Americans last season, only eight start, and seven score in double figures. In 1999-2000. there were 13 starters and 12 double-figure scorers out of 19 McDonald's players.

The top two freshmen scorers from last year's McDonald's game, Eddie Griffin of Seton Hall and Omar Cook of St. John's, play for teams that started the week a combined seven games over .500. Last year, UCLA's Jason Kapono and North Carolina's Joseph Forte were on teams that ended the season 18 games over .500 and won six NCAA Tournament games.

This simply might be a weak crop of first-year players, or it could be they are fulfilling prophesies of coaches who claimed in recent years the club basketball system isn't producing sophisticated players, just guys who can run and dunk. As freshmen slowly adapt to college-game concepts, the execution of their veteran colleagues becomes essential.