Indiana Players Don’t Back Up Reed

Neil Reed says Coach Bob Knight pushed him to quit Indiana’s program, but current and former players tell a different story.

His former roommate and fellow basketball player, Andrae Patterson, said Reed had quit the team earlier in the season, after playing only 16 minutes in a 99-65 loss to Kentucky.

Reed told the team at the time that Knight had treated him unfairly, Patterson said. But Reed returned to the team the next day.

“It was obvious that he didn’t want to win as much as coach did,” redshirt freshman Larry Richardson told the Indianapolis Star. “I’ve seen Coach Knight draw up plays and Neil go out on the court and do just the opposite.”

Haris Mujezinovic, this season’s lone senior, said that after last week’s NCAA tournament loss, players unanimously agreed that Reed’s selfishness was the leading problem on the team and that he should not return next season.

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The grandmother and guardian of Michigan’s Robert Traylor said at least two recruiters offered her money and a “no-work” job if she would persuade him to attend their schools. But Jessie Carter told the Detroit News that Traylor chose Michigan, which offered him only a scholarship and a chance to crack the starting lineup.

“The only thing Michigan offered Robert was an education,” said Carter, 65. “I even told [Coach Steve] Fisher, ‘I don’t want my baby going to a school where he was going to sit on the bench. I want him to play.’

“And you know what Fisher told me? ‘Miz Carter, I’m not going to tell you he’s going to start, I’m not going to tell you that he’s going to have so many minutes in a game,’ he said, ‘but whatever Robert wants, if he comes to Michigan, he’s got to earn it.’ ”

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WGN Radio in Chicago reported that Kevin Stallings of Illinois State, Steve Alford of Southwest Missouri State and Steve Robinson of Tulsa are the finalists for the vacant Tennessee coaching job.