An unfortunate consequence of Kelvin Sampson's recruiting violations is the fact that Kyle Taber, all 6'7", 228lbs of him is getting lost in the mayhem.
It's not that he is a superstar possessing NBA potential, it's that this largely forgotten player sidelined by injuries his freshmen year has come on over the past few weeks to play an important role on this team. I went about gathering stats on his performance but have opted not to include them, as honestly, they don't do him justice, as they are fairly paltry due to his limited playing time (although I did tinker with extrapolating his stats/playing time for the equivalent playing time of White/Gordon/Ellis and he came out 3rd on the team in rebounds!).
Normally I am NOT one to speak a lot about intangibles, I like looking at statistics to evaluate players, but from watching Taber the last few games it's clear he is making his time on the floor count. It's not that he is scoring tons of points, getting every rebound, or blocking every shot, it is simply that he is there on every play, thus when he gets an opportunity he does follow through and make the play. I remember vividly yelling "Taberrrrrrrr!" out of excitement several times during the Purdue game when he made a great follow-through lay up and a jumper, not to mention some good board coverage.
In what may be the best part of the story though is that if you listen, you can hear chants of "Ky-le Ta-ber" coming from the crowd on occasion. IU fans have always loved to support the guy who comes from no where, or is a native son who worked his way up through the ranks. The last guy who got this treatment was Errek Suhr, the most recent to get it, and lose it due to the fickleness of the fans was Sean Kline. Let's hope Taber continues to play well, and IU fans keep supporting the former walk on from Evansville.
