First, Illinois-Chicago coach Bob Hallberg tried the positive approach.
He started by calling 6-foot-8-inch senior forward Sean Buchanan the key to his ballclub this season. He talked about Buchanan`s mobility, his ballhandling skills, his smoothness.
At times, that strategy seemed to work. Buchanan led the Flames with 15 points and six rebounds in UIC`s loss Nov. 27 at Illinois State.
But as a rebounder, the key to Hallberg`s club turned up missing about as often as your car keys.
Finally, Hallberg said the heck with it. Against Wisconsin-Green Bay 11 days ago, he pretty much benched Buchanan, deciding to go with a five-guard lineup against the Phoenix.
More Top Picks Buying Advice
”I kept sitting down with a piece of paper,” said Hallberg, ”and trying to list the five players who were playing best. I kept coming up with five guards.”
Buchanan was almost invisible against Green Bay, contributing just two points in a 69-65 loss. But the message got through.
He responded with 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds in last Monday`s 95-90 win over Northern Illinois. He was even better Saturday, scoring 13 and contributing a game-high 13 rebounds as UIC (13-11, 9-5) won at Cleveland State 72-67 to set up a Monday night showdown at Akron (15-9, 9-5)
with second place in the Mid-Continent Conference on the line.
”Sean is a very nice person,” said Hallberg, ”but sometimes nice people don`t have a lot of desire. I think when you`re 6-8 on a (short) team like UIC, you look around and say, `Coach doesn`t have any other options but to play me.` It hurts your motivation. Well, I do have other options and I think he`s learned that.”