Today is the debut of our individual player profiles for this upcoming basketball season. The first game is only 50 days away and the season will be on us quicker than you think. The goal is to profile at least 2 players a week and what their expectations are for the season. Through this series we should hopefully set expectations in stone and writing so that at the end of the season we can look back and see where things went wrong or went much better than expected. So without further ado we will start with the seniors and work our way down.
Kory Barnett - Senior
Rochester High School, Rochester, Indiana
6'5", 186 lbs.
Kory Barnett will be our first senior to make his debut on the season. The 23 year old walk-on will likely be depth minutes through this season. He came to the program as a walk-on three years ago and has spent most of his time as practice fodder and bench depth. He has averaged only 2.3 minutes a game in his career and only has a career 5 points but there is something useful he has provided.
Kory Barnett will be our first senior to make his debut on the season. The 23 year old walk-on will likely be depth minutes through this season. He came to the program as a walk-on three years ago and has spent most of his time as practice fodder and bench depth. He has averaged only 2.3 minutes a game in his career and only has a career 5 points but there is something useful he has provided.
With such a lack of depth in the front court Barnett is key in practice to provide a big body for guys like Christian Watford and Tom Pritchard to go against. An Academic All-Big Ten athlete he has the brains to provide a major boon in practice. Coach Crean has said as much in the past when Barnett won the Big Ten Sportsmanship award. Though he doesn’t see much of the floor Crean has emphasized how important Barnett is as a practice and workout leader on the team.
Expectations for this upcoming season aren’t much higher for Barnett now that Cody Zeller comes into town. Barnett will now fall even further down on the depth chart but still be one of about only 5 options to see the court in the post. The lack of depth could provide Barnett with more playing time but it is unlikely. Instead he needs to show that leadership that Tom Crean raved so much about last year in the weight room and in the practice facility. Just because he isn’t playing doesn’t mean that he does not make the team better. You won’t see him on game days but I expect by the end of the year we hear something from the team about how Kory Barnett contributes to IU basketball in a major way, even if it doesn’t show up in the game log.
Expectations for this upcoming season aren’t much higher for Barnett now that Cody Zeller comes into town. Barnett will now fall even further down on the depth chart but still be one of about only 5 options to see the court in the post. The lack of depth could provide Barnett with more playing time but it is unlikely. Instead he needs to show that leadership that Tom Crean raved so much about last year in the weight room and in the practice facility. Just because he isn’t playing doesn’t mean that he does not make the team better. You won’t see him on game days but I expect by the end of the year we hear something from the team about how Kory Barnett contributes to IU basketball in a major way, even if it doesn’t show up in the game log.