Jeter has a golden opportunity to get his younger players experience against teams they will see for years to come.

By no means can a men’s basketball season be “over” before a team’s conference schedule begins. Nevertheless, going into the Horizon League already six games below .500 does not give anyone a reason to be optimistic about the rest of the year.

While the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s chances to go dancing again this season are close to nil, this is the perfect time to take care of something that could not be handled during a conference tournament run.

Jeter has a golden opportunity to get his younger players experience against teams they will see for years to come.

I understand that the coach doesn’t want to give up on this season; it’s bad enough that 10 games into the season, his players still haven’t settled in and started winning games. However, who says that putting younger players in hurts the team?

Take Ryan Thornton for example. This is a freshman, already the best shooter on the team, and he is riding the bench. How can a player score 13 points in 10 minutes, which Thornton did against Central Michigan, and then play a total of five minutes over the next two games?

He did have two quick fouls against Oakland, but you can’t put a player into a game for a couple minutes and expect him to get any valuable experience. His defense may be lacking, but with opponents hitting 49 percent of their shots, you need his deadeye to knock down threes and keep the Panthers in the game.

What about Roman Gentry? In the Tennessee Tech game, he seemed to be the only player with no qualms about stepping up and knocking down a three. He has only shot 35 percent from the field, but when that number beats Allan Hanson, Ricky Franklin and Charlie Swiggett — all starters — maybe it’s time to give Gentry some useful PT.

Those last two players, Charlie Swiggett and Ricky Franklin, are freshmen. Franklin is technically a sophomore, but when his grades are added up, he’ll regain a year of eligibility.

However, he is an extremely poor shooter, (79 attempts and only 20 buckets) so he may be one freshman that could benefit from time on the bench. It would give him an opportunity to digest the game. Gentry and Thornton have digested enough game action from the sidelines to make Kobayashi blush.

If Thornton and Gentry get the same kind of poor playing time for the rest of the season, who’s to say that they will realize their potential? These athletes need to log serious minutes, they can’t hang around the bench when the Panthers are losing games by large margins. Jeter may not think they give him the best chance to win, but sticking them in now will pay off later.

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