The two best basketball teams in the Big Ten, Michigan State and Ohio State, each start three seniors.
The two worst teams in the league, Northwestern and Minnesota, have one senior between them on their rosters.
Coincidence? Probably not.
As underclassmen across the country have jumped to the NBA, anyone still hanging around campus as a senior is assumed to be underskilled, undersized or underachieving. But that assumption didn’t hold up in the Big Ten this winter. Of the teams that earned byes in the Big Ten tournament, only fourth-seeded Illinois does not rely heavily on seniors.
Seniors are the guys who want to take the last shot, who console a homesick freshman, who face the media even after a 20-point loss. Coaches love them almost as much they love as shoe contracts. Even Bob Knight has had nice things to say about his seniors over the years. Those tears at senior nights across the conference are sincere.
“They’ve been through the Big Ten wars,” said Gene Keady, whose third-place Purdue team has started four seniors at times. “They understand that there’s going to be runs in the game, they understand that there are going to be ups and downs, that there’s going to be injuries. They understand more what it takes to win over the long haul.”
The Big Ten tournament, which tips off Thursday at the United Center, could turn into a senior prom. Morris Peterson of Michigan State and A.J. Guyton of Indiana were named Player of the Year by the coaches and media, respectively,and Ohio State center Ken Johnson was named Defensive Player of the Year. Every player on the media’s first all-conference team is a senior: Peterson, Guyton, Michigan State’s Mateen Cleaves, Ohio State’s Scoonie Penn and Penn State’s Jarrett Stephens.
“Players like Mateen Cleaves, A.J. Guyton, Scoonie Penn, Morris Peterson, they are certainly the premier players in the country and all of them are going to be premier players at the next level,” Minnesota coach Dan Monson said.
Five of the top eight scorers in conference play are seniors, led by Guyton, who averaged 21.6 points per game. Five of the top seven rebounders are seniors, led by Stephens with 10.1 per game. And four of the top seven assist leaders are seniors, led by Cleaves with 7.75 per game. Cleaves last weekend became the Big Ten’s career assists leader.
But take a look at the only numbers that matter: wins and losses. Four of the Big Ten’s top five finishers rely heavily on seniors.
“I think you’ve got to have experience to be able to get it done in the end,” Iowa coach Steve Alford said.
There’s a downside to having so many seniors. For one thing, the top teams in the Big Ten will have to find new leaders next autumn, on the court and off. And it can be difficult for coaches to recruit if incoming players believe they’ll have to wait around behind favored veterans.
But that’s a price many coaches are willing to pay. Keady has long placed special emphasis on seniors. As a sign of their importance, photos of every Purdue senior hang on the wall of Keady’s office in Mackey Arena.
Keady probably doesn’t even want to think about next year, when most of this year’s offense will be on that wall. Seniors account for 49.3 of Purdue’s average 75 points per game, and four seniors play at least 29 minutes per game. But other players can score and fill minutes. It might be more difficult to replace the heart and passion of senior Brian Cardinal, a 6-foot-8 forward from Tolono, Ill. Loathed as he is in road arenas, Cardinal is respected nationally. He is part of a National Association of Basketball Coaches-sponsored panel of players studying pay-for-play and other issues.
“We’ve won with seniors over the years,” Keady said. “It’s always been the key to our program. A lot of it is that the players we recruit tend more toward academics than becoming NBA players. This has been good for us, because when you have seniors, you have maturity.”
It may not be a coincidence that the senior-laden Boilermakers and Buckeyes each reeled off eight-game win streaks, longest in the ferocious Big Ten this winter.
“The main thing with seniors is that they’re callous to travel,” Keady said. “When something happens they don’t plan on, they can react. The hostile crowds, they’re prepared to win on the road. Weather doesn’t bother them. They’re just tougher mentally.”
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo credited his seniors with keeping the team from becoming lazy after reaching the Final Four a year ago.
“Seniors determine how the rest go,” Izzo said. “When (freshman sensation) Jason Richardson comes in, Mateen says, `We play defense here.’ When they say that, it means more than when I say that. You do need your seniors.”
