Juniors assume leadership on team without seniors

Before the Athletes in Action game Nov. 5, there was a captains' meeting in which three juniors walked onto the court. It was the first time in years there were no seniors representing the Hoosiers. Of the 11 players on this year's roster, there are five freshmen, three juniors and three sophomores.\nJuniors Dane Fife, Kirk Haston and Jarrad Odle are expected to lead the team this year, but only Fife, Haston and sophomore Jeffrey Newton return with a playing time average of more than 20 minutes. \nThe team was forced into unity when former coach Bob Knight was fired and the players demanded Davis be his replacement. If Davis left, they all would leave. But during the summer and the first few weeks, Davis said he noticed the team had trouble coming together. He said there were cliques established before the season even started, separated by different personalities, ages, and most of all, experience. But after weeks of fall practices and two exhibition games, the younger players understand their roles. Haston said the only thing that separates the team by age is that the freshmen get ice water thrown on them more often in the showers. And Odle said they are beginning to respect the juniors as leaders on the team. \n"It's just teaching them what we've been though. It's all a learning experience," Odle said. "You have to go through it. At first, these guys didn't want to listen to us much, but now they're starting to see we know what we're talking about. For some of these young guys, they have to go through games and learn and they'll learn from experience and learn from watching us."\nThe freshman class consists of guys who are best friends and came to IU based on each other's decisions. Newton and freshman A.J. Moye, both of Atlanta, Ga., have been best friends since they were 10 years old. Moye said he committed to IU because he wanted to be with Newton and freshman Jared Jeffries. And most have known freshman Andre Owens from AAU basketball and various camps.\nHaston, Fife and Odle shared many experiences together during the last three years under Knight and entered this season knowing what was expected of them. As Fife said before the season began, they are Bob Knight's team. Davis said it's good to have players on the team who are close, as long as they get the ball to the right person on the court.\n"I want them (the freshmen) to be tight, but I also want them to be close to the other guys on the team so that when they play, there's no favoritism," Davis said. "I think our guys are coming together as a team. There's no jealousy. They're starting to like each other more." \nMoye said the transition from high school to the Big Ten has been difficult for him, and more physical than he expected. He calls it "football on wood." And when he sat on the bench for the entire 40 minutes of the Athletes in Action game, Moye said he didn't take it too well. But Odle has helped keep Moye's head up.\n"The older players have been helping me get through it, like Fife and Odle," Moye said. "Jared gets on me all the time. He's always toughening me up every day, saying something to get me going while I'm playing. He keeps my head into it. Right now the most fun for me has been interacting with the older guys."\nBut while Davis said he is counting on the juniors to lead the team and help the freshmen adjust, he's also counting on them for solid performances. \n"What are you doing?" Fife screamed at one of the freshmen during a practice. "He was wide open."\nFife, one of the toughest defenders in the conference, is second among returning players in minutes per game (23.5) and starts (22). His father, Dan, and his brother, Dugan, were both basketball captains at the University of Michigan. Fife said he often takes players to the side to answer their questions and help them make the transition. \n"I want him to just play and play through everything," Davis said. "Dane's a little crazy when it comes to playing basketball. He holds, he grabs and he's the kind of guy you need on the basketball court for you the whole way."\nHaston is the team's leading returning scorer (15.3 ppg) and rebounder (8.3 rpg). He can be known by his hook shot and he is on pace to score more than 1,500 points, which would put him in the top 15 on IU's all-time scoring list. The team is well-balanced, he said, and has not been divided by its differences. But he said he is concerned about IU's ability to finish.\n"One of the things I've been trying to tell them is how competitive it is each night," Haston said. "We would play 35 extremely good minutes of basketball last season only to get beat because we would let up for five minutes. I'm trying to get them to really focus on playing an entire game, which is something coach Davis is really trying to emphasize at practice." \nDavis said this year's team will never be "buddy-buddy" but things will work out. He said his main concern is that they know how to work together as a team. \n"You can't make guys like each other. That happens naturally," he said. "You have to execute to play together and you have to be willing to get the ball to the open person. You may love everybody, but you have to make sure you don't play selfish basketball"