Hlas Column on Jake Kelly Apparently Departing the Hawkeyes

Jake Kelly, barring a dramatic change of mind he had last night or this morning, is leaving. The player who emerged as his team's soul in the last month of the 2008-09 season is apparently going back home to Indiana after this school year.

Kelly became an unassuming, skinny Superman when he inherited the point guard position by default when Jeff Peterson was rendered unavailable by hamstring injury. He was named the Big Ten's Player of the Year twice in the regular-season's final three weeks, playing for a team that went 5-13 in the league.

He did the almost-unheard of by increasing his scoring when shifted to the point. He immediately made his team's offense better.

He also made it watchable, at least until the Hawkeyes' abysmal 73-45 first-round loss to Michigan at the Big Ten tourney.

But where Kelly really worked his way into Hawkeye hearts was with his heart. He led by example, with determination.

Kelly was sick the day of Iowa's home-finale. He didn't think he could play until pregame warm-ups. He left the game early in the second half to throw up in the tunnelway out of the fans' sight.

He ended up playing 47 minutes, scoring 22 points and amassing 11 assists. He may have knocked NIT semifinalist Penn State out of the NCAA tournament by himself in Iowa's double-overtime win. It was one of the finest individual performances by a Hawkeye in years.

The crowd of 14,094 went home smiling. It had been a second-straight difficult season under Todd Lickliter, but with this Kelly kid around for two more years, why wouldn't the amount of good times increase?

Just as coaches can hop from school to school, so can players. Tyler Smith did it two years ago. Freeman did it. Kelly will do it.

He has his reasons. You can speculate and presume about the lasting effects of his mother's death in a Florida plane crash last June, but how can anyone but him know how that is affecting his thoughts? Who could begrudge him for any choice he makes?

Kelly's father, Bob Kelly, lives in Terre Haute. Jake's family is Indiana. The most-popular rumor has him transferring to Indiana State.

Why do such a thing? I'm not comparing the two players, but the same was asked of Larry Bird when he left Bob Knight's Indiana program and landed at smaller Indiana State. You go where things feel right.

Things apparently don't feel right in the Iowa program for some players, maybe for too many. Rosters are always fluid in big-time college basketball, but it appears there is a disconnect between the coach and some of the roster.

Jermain Davis clearly fell out of Lickliter's favor as the season progressed, and Tuesday he announced he is leaving. He'll spend his senior season at Division II Minnesota State.

Davis was a Lickliter recruit out of Kirkwood.

Why would David Palmer, a senior-to-be big man who scored 40 points in a two-game Big Ten stretch only to soon be returned to a permanent seat on the Iowa bench, return? For another free trip to West Lafayette or East Lansing to watch basketball games?

Peterson, the lone point guard remaining, almost transferred a year ago. Is there any reason he would leave now? Many are saying yes.

The defections we know about are quite enough. If there are more, it's an official epidemic. Pointed questions should and will be asked about the cause and possible cures. Because this program can't afford to stand in place, let alone take big steps backward.

How do you sell belief in a program's future to cash-paying fans if you can't keep enough of your own players around to keep the faith? It's been asking enough to keep telling fans your system and the players in it will produce once they develop.

It's been asking plenty just to present a "Hoosiers"-era offense, depth and injury problems notwithstanding.

Three weeks ago, I wouldn't have shied away from saying a trip to Carver to see the spunk of the Kelly-led Hawkeyes was worth a few of your hours.

But today, it seems like it takes a leap of faith to think the team won't again wallow near the bottom of the Big Ten next March.

Who transfers out then?