Michigan State’s Tom Izzo doesn’t like to be told how to use his 13 scholarships.
Like every other coach in the Big Ten, he can’t dole out more than five scholarships a year, or give away more than eight in any two-year period.
The conference’s schools are hamstrung by an NCAA rule that limits a coach’s flexibility. Regardless of how many players transfer or graduate from a program, the coach can offer no more than five free rides.
“I’ve been a big proponent of how ridiculous this is.” Izzo said. “I think it’s an insult to the coaches, personally. I think the general public deserves to have the best players they can have on the floor.”
Izzo said the NCAA devised the rule to discourage coaches from forcing their less-productive players off the team to free up scholarships for high school players. But Izzo said players in the Big Ten leave for all types of reasons — and coaches should be allowed to replace them.
“Sometimes we just refuse to understand that kids are going to transfer, kids are going to go to the NBA,” Izzo said. “That’s not going to change. In fact, if anything, it’s going to get worse.”
Illinois’ Bruce Weber said some coaches had been “running guys out,” but that such practices were uncommon in large conferences like the Big Ten.
“I think they make rules for the minority instead of the majority.” Weber said. “And it’s not a good thing for college basketball.”
Weber also said coaches shouldn’t be blamed because a player decided to leave his program.
“They just want to go to a new school and it wasn’t a good match,” he said. “Everyone always points to the coaches, but sometimes it’s the kids too.”
FRESHMAN LEADER: Minnesota freshman Kris Humphries leads the Big Ten in scoring and rebounding, but his Golden Gophers still haven’t won a conference game.
Despite averaging 22.2 points and nearly 11 boards a game, the midseason All-America candidate hasn’t been able to carry Minnesota.
Coach Dan Monson said he knows the problem.
“Because basketball is a team game, it’s not one person,” Monson said. “You need five guys playing together. We’ve got to get some other players to step up and play better.”
The Gophers don’t have another player among the Big Ten’s top-30 scorers. They do average 73.4 points per game — third in the conference — but their potent offense hasn’t led them to many victories.
Minnesota, which dropped its 12th straight conference game to NU on Saturday, faces first-place Wisconsin today. But Monson said he isn’t worried about facing the Big Ten’s most talented team.
“Yeah, it’s Wisconsin,” he said. “But everyone’s beating us right now so it’s not like, ‘Oh, my goodness, we have to worry’. We’ve got to worry about ourselves. We have to make us better.”
When the Gophers meet the Badgers tonight, they’ll be looking to snap Wisconsin’s 25-game home winning streak.
While Badgers’ coach Bo Ryan wants his squad to notch a victory, he said he won’t be reminding his players of the streak. In fact, Ryan said he’s never — in more than 30 years of coaching — given a motivational speech to his players.
“It’s not like it’s a show,” he said. “If you’re trying to give a Knute Rockne every day, I think it loses its effect. We don’t talk about any streaks. We just talk about things we have control over.”
