Indiana State coach Kevin McKenna boots former starter

[Da Coach]

Sophomore Cole Holmstrom was informed his scholarship will not be renewed. His status with the team is still undecided, but I would expect him to transfer. He was voted to the All Freshman team in the MVC last year after averaging 9.2 ppg.

http://www.tribstar.com/breakingnews/local_story_114213532.html

Holmstrom, a 5'11" All State guard from Bloomington, Indiana, was recruited by Royce Waltman and was a regular starter his freshman season. He played 28.7 minutes per game as a freshman. But under McKenna, as a sophomore he started only the first 3 games, then played sparingly the rest of the year, averaged 11.9 minutes per game, and was benched several games. His average fell off to 3.4 ppg.

Cole Holmstrom Stats--

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/players/61305

[mportsch]

This isn't much of a loss for Indiana State - Holmstrom has been lackluster in both of his seasons thus far. Even when he was named to the All-Freshman team, he was very inefficient with his scoring - it took him 9.4 shots to score 9.2 points per game. It seems like McKenna realized this and rightly reduced his minutes.

[Da Coach]

That's true. Holmstrom was a prolific scorer in high school, but his shooting percentage was not that good at Indiana State. He shot just 32.8% his freshman season, and shot 29.5% his soph season, and for his 2 seasons averaged under 1 free throw a game and under 1 assist a game. These are terrible stats for a guard. In the games I saw the last couple years, it seemed he took a lot of bad shots.

As I said, I expect him to leave Indiana State. Maybe he will end up with his former coach Stan Gouard, a former assistant under Waltman and McKenna who just left Indiana State to become the new head coach at Division II University of Indianapolis.

http://media.www.indianastatesman.com/media/storage/paper929/news/2008/04/04/Sports/Gouard.Leaving.Isu.To.Coach.Indianapolis-3303579.shtml

[tornado]

He shot just 32.8% his freshman season....

Well, this isn't bad according to some people......
Note these 3-pt shooters who put up a whole lot of shots!
all have shooting pcts. close to or below Holmstrom
Chad Millard 25-78, .321
P'Allen Stinnett 38-120, .317
Klayton Korver 83-243, .342
Boo Richardson 24-72, .333
Harry Marshall 21-65, .323
Jon Montgomery 17-57, .298
Josh Bone 57-162, .337
Matt Shaw 52-162, .321
Carlton Fay 14-46, .304
PJ Couisnard 46-137, .336
Gal Mekel 35-122, .287
Jamar Smith (as a soph) 38-120, .317
Trevon Hughes (Wisconsin) 43-137, .314
Scott Martin (Purdue) 26-83, .313
DeShawn Sims (Mich) 43-142, .303
Lance Stemler (IU) 29-89, .326
Eric Gordon 70-208, .337
Chester Frazier (Illinois) 25-91, .275

[houstontxbrave]

Well, this isn't bad according to some people......
Note these 3-pt shooters who put up a whole lot of shots!
all have shooting pcts. close to or below Holmstrom
Chad Millard 25-78, .321
P'Allen Stinnett 38-120, .317
Klayton Korver 83-243, .342
Boo Richardson 24-72, .333
Harry Marshall 21-65, .323
Jon Montgomery 17-57, .298
Josh Bone 57-162, .337
Matt Shaw 52-162, .321
Carlton Fay 14-46, .304
PJ Couisnard 46-137, .336
Gal Mekel 35-122, .287
Jamar Smith (as a soph) 38-120, .317
Trevon Hughes (Wisconsin) 43-137, .314
Scott Martin (Purdue) 26-83, .313
DeShawn Sims (Mich) 43-142, .303
Lance Stemler (IU) 29-89, .326
Eric Gordon 70-208, .337
Chester Frazier (Illinois) 25-91, .275

Tyrone Cole Scott 14-58 .241 ... Im just saying

[mportsch]

I don't think you realized that Da Coach was referencing his overall shooting percentage, not his 3-point percentage. An overall shooting percentage around 30% is just godawful.

His three point shooting wasn't really that bad - he hit a solid 34.2% as a freshman before dipping to 30.6% as a sophomore. The real issue was on 2-pointers - he shot 30.2% as a freshman and 27.9% as a sophomore. I seriously wonder if anyone in the nation has shot worse from inside the arc over the past two seasons.

[tornado]

Indiana State's Cole Holmstrom speaks out about his scholarship being yanked!

http://www.tribstar.com/sports/local_story_121225151.html?keyword=secondarystory

"No one was more shocked that Cole Holmstrom had his scholarship pulled
than Cole Holmstrom himself.

The non-renewal of Holmstrom’s scholarship became public knowledge last
week. Holmstrom said he found out a little earlier, during a postseason
individual meeting with ISU coach Kevin McKenna.

“It all came as a shock to me. We had team meetings at the end of the
season. I can’t remember the exact date. He asked me how the season went
and then broke the news to me,” said Holmstrom on Wednesday. “I told him I
wanted to stay, I like it here, and that I would work to continue to get
better. But basically, he said I wasn’t really wanted here.”

Holmstrom said he wasn’t given a reason why his scholarship was pulled.

“He didn’t give me a reason, he told he didn’t think I’d be happy here, but I was.

.........they said I wasn’t really wanted here,” Holmstrom said. “I think they offered
[a walk-on] because they had to. I don’t see how I could take that [after playing on scholarship].”

“I’ve had a lot of support, but it’s been tough. It just knocks the wind out of you.
It was a big shock to me. It still bothers me and it’s obviously not the way
I wanted things to end,” Holmstrom said."


Why couldn't they just claim the kid had bad knees and then they'd have been able
to keep him on scholarship and still give another ride to someone else?

[PTownHawkeye]

Is this a common practice in college basketball? If a team "doesn't want" a player, can the coach just simply choose to non-renew a scholly? I didn't realize that coaches can just decide to let a player go without a valid reason. Regardless of how poorly a player has performed, it seems downright unethical to pull the ledge from under him. Even from the stance of getting a free education vs having to suddenly be thrust into having to pay for 2 years...can set a kid back 5-10 years with student loans.

[Da Coach]

Is this a common practice in college basketball? If a team "doesn't want" a player, can the coach just simply choose to non-renew a scholly?

It is not real common, but some coaches are known to do it regularly. It usually happens when a coach needs an extra open scholarship, and he feels he can better the team by booting one plauyer and signing another.

All scholarships are renewable on a 1 year basis, and if it is deemed the player has met expectations. And the sole judge of that is the head coach. In this case, and in many cases, it happens when a new coach want to rid himself of a player he didn't recruit.

[SycamoreFanatic]

As Paul Harvey says................"and here is the rest of the story"

http://www.tribstar.com/sports/local_story_121225151.html

Draw your own conclusions.

[tornado]

That's the same article, same link that's in the post three above yours.

[SycamoreFanatic]

Guess I didn't see the link above, only the selections taken from the article and it wasn't familiar to me as nothing was mentioned about the player wanting the coach to install more motion offense to fit his capabilites rather than that of the team. He had a year to learn the offense but obviously either did not want to or was not capable of changing his game for the sake of teamwork.

[tornado]

I am curious how often players in other sports who are scholarship athletes, are asked to leave and their scholarships revoked?

I have never heard of it in any other sports except basketball (and players dismissed for behavioral or grade issues don't count here.)

I did a search and found dozens and dozens of examples of this happening in D-I basketball from ISU, to Illinois, to Indiana, to Indiana State, to Minnesota, and many other schools, most notably when a new coach comes in.
But I was unable to find even one example that fits in other sports, as all those others seemed to involve other issues, behavioral, political, etc....

[mike radigan]

I am curious how often players in other sports who are scholarship athletes, are asked to leave and their scholarships revoked?

I would guess that only revenue generating sports are subject to such review. And I guessing football has so many that it hardly ever happens. That leaves basketball. Just a guess.

[ER3]

I would guess that only revenue generating sports are subject to such review. And I guessing football has so many that it hardly ever happens. That leaves basketball. Just a guess.

It happens all the time in college football.
Nick Saban gets blasted for this stuff year after year...A lot of big time college football programs oversign kids each year...You are limited to offering 25 scholarships for football in each class, but schools like Alabama, Miami, Florida State consistently accept LOIs on 30+ scholarships offered to kids in a given year...and by the time the season rolls around, this number of scholarships "magically" has to be reduced back to 25...so scholarships get pulled, pure and simple...Of course, it gets spun in the media a dozen different ways..."players A and B left the program for unspecified reasons"..."players E, F, and G were offered academic scholarships because of unspecified medical conditions that won't allow them to be an active member of the football team"..."player H will be placed in a prep school because of academic issues"..."players L and M will remain with the team, but will have walk-on status (i.e., they have 'agreed' to pay their own way after their schollie was pulled)...etc."

According to Rivals.com, eight teams signed 30 or more players this year -- Alabama (32), Miami (33), Florida State (30), Minnesota (30), Virginia Tech (31), Mississippi (32), Kansas State (33) and Army (34).

Just do a google search on "college football oversigning", and you'll find tons of stories about kids getting their schollies pulled...if you are curious...