Inside College Basketball

Diminishing Returns  

Stars with Lost Luster

By Seth Davis

After testing the NBA waters last spring and finding them cold, guard Keith Bogans returned to Kentucky to try to boost his NBA stock. Instead his value has fallen. The low point came on Feb. 9, when Wildcats coach Tubby Smith benched Bogans for the final 18 minutes, 12 seconds of Kentucky's 68-56 win at LSU after Bogans had taken an ill-advised shot. Asked the next day to compare Bogans's play this season with last year's performance, Smith said, "There is no comparison. I can't put a finger on what's wrong, except there's been more pressure on him."

Though his scoring is up, the Illini's Williams has shot poorly and often hasn't been on the ball. David E. Klutho

Bogans is one of several stars, including Illinois point guard Frank Williams and Iowa's Reggie Evans and Luke Recker, who have performed well below expectations this season. Bogans's scoring average of 11.8 points per game through Sunday was down 5.2 from his sophomore year, and his field goal percentage (39.1%) and three-point percentage (32.8%) were lower than those of his freshman season. Many observers around the SEC believe that Bogans never recovered from his mediocre performance at the NBA's predraft camp in Chicago last June. "It looks to me as if he's pressing too hard," one conference assistant coach says. "When kids come back who couldn't get drafted, sometimes they try to improve their stock instead of letting the game come to them."

Williams, who unlike Bogans might have been a first-round pick had he entered the draft last spring, has had his troubles as well. Last season the Illini's two best inside players were seniors (and Williams's old high school teammates) Marcus Griffin and Sergio McClain. Without them this year Williams's scoring average was up nearly two points a game, to 16.7, but he had seemed listless at times, and his shooting (38.7% from the floor and 30.5% from three-point range) had been dismal. In a particularly poor stretch for Williams, from Jan. 5 to Feb. 3, Illinois lost five of eight games. Williams attributes his poor play to tired legs, and while the Illini seemed to have regained their footing with four straight wins, Williams still has to prove he can consistently carry a team. "His teammates were better last year, so his weaknesses weren't as glaring," one NBA executive says. "If Frank is trying to impress NBA scouts, he hasn't done it."

Iowa's disappointing season -- the Hawkeyes were a preseason favorite in the Big Ten but were tied for ninth place in the conference with a 4-9 record -- can be attributed in part to the poor play and lack of leadership shown by senior captains Evans and Recker. During a recent span of three games Recker shot 32.2% from the field. He was benched for the start of last Saturday's 72-66 home loss to Ohio State along with Iowa's other starters and finished with a season-low three points.

Though Evans, a 6'8" forward, was third in the nation in rebounding (11.5 a game), his scoring average had dipped from 17.9 points in nonconference games to 14.3 in league play, and he had often disappeared late in games. Evans, who was benched for the Ohio State game for not attending class, also had argued openly with his teammates on several occasions, and he had almost twice as many turnovers (73) as assists (38). Even after Evans had one of his best games of the season, with 23 points and 13 rebounds in a 71-65 loss to Penn State on Feb. 13, Hawkeyes coach Steve Alford offered him a backhanded compliment. "Reggie probably played the best game of anybody on our team," Alford said. "Yet those last three minutes, he gets dominated."

The upshot is, Iowa will have to repeat as Big Ten conference tournament champion if it's going to go to the NCAA tournament this year, an unlikely prospect unless its stars begin to shine again.

Issue date: February 25, 2002

For more Inside College Basketball see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, February 20. Click here to subscribe to SI.

 

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