A lesson to benchwarmers

"Always be ready to play."

Isn't that the message that head coaches ingrain into the heads of their bench players? It doesn't matter if you're the 10th, 11th, or 12th man on the bench. It doesn't matter if you're a redshirt freshman that has racked up more DNP-CD's than points on the season. It doesn't matter if you've played all of 33 minutes on the season, and exactly zero since Dec. 22nd. It doesn't matter if you're buried so far down on the depth chart, the coaching staff forgets to put you on the official score sheet for a game.

John Hart in his usual spot on the bench.
(photo credit: daylife)

It doesn't matter because bench players - guys that haven't worked their way into the regular rotation - don't get many opportunities to play meaningful minutes. When they do, they only get one shot. Play scared, miss a defensive assignment, or jack up a bad shot, and you only reaffirm the coach's suspicions that you aren't ready to compete at the level he requires.

But come in and play hard, play some defense, run the offense the right way, and you never know what may happen.

John Hart wasn't even a speck on the radar in high school. As a senior a Beech Grove High in Indianapolis, Hart was Marion County player of the year as he led his team to the sectional title while averaging 18.7 ppg and 4.7 rpg.

But that wasn't enough to garner interest from Indiana's big time programs. In fact, in May of his senior year in high school, Evansville was the only school to have offered Hart. It wasn't until Matt Painter happened to see Hart in an open gym that he found his way to the West Lafayette campus.

Hart redshirted in his first season with Purdue, and had played little more than garbage minutes, seeing action in just seven of Purdue's 17 games.

But Painter had been upset with his starters, benching both Chris Kramer and Keaton Grant for the start of the Boilermakers game with Illinois. It didn't help. Purdue still came out and struggled, playing sluggish offensively while waiting for a spark.

Painter finally went to Hart towards the end of the first half. He came in around the five minute mark of the first half, and immediately grabbed an offensive rebound. Two minutes later he missed a three, before just missing a tip-in off of another offensive rebound. But on Purdue's next possession, with just 56 seconds left in the half, Hart finally got into the scorer's book, hitting a jumper to cut the Illini lead to two.

The only problem was that he wasn't actually in the scorer's book, as Purdue had forgotten to list him.

And while the Boilermakers were assessed a technical foul and Hart's bucket was, in essence, negated, it was Hart's performance that left an impression on Painter.

So much so, that Painter actually started Hart in the second half.

And you better believe Hart was ready to go.

First, it was a layup to tie the game at 32. Then, after a Demetri McCamey bucket, Hart hit a three in transition to give Purdue their first lead since it was 6-4. 10 minutes later and two made free throws later, Illinois had cut a nine point Purdue lead to just four when Hart found himself on the wing with 6'9" freshman Tyler Griffey guarding him. Hart took two dribbles to his right, stopped on a dime as he pulled up with a nifty between-the-legs dribble, and buried a 16 footer to slow the Illinois run. Two minutes later, with 6:10 left in the game, Hart hit his second three of the game to give Purdue a nine point lead.

Without a doubt, it was the best performance of Hart's career on any level.

Don't be surprised when you see Hart playing more minutes for Purdue in the very near future.

You think he was ready to play?