A COACHING CLICHE. Northern Illinois's womens' basketball team lost at home to Eastern Michigan Wednesday night. Forward Mary Basic is channeling her coach.

"Our team is scrappy, but we were out-hustled tonight," Basic said. "It was a lack of communication on all parts really."

Usually, it is the coach who gripes about being out-hustled or not working as a team. Now she's asking the players to issue her usual gripes?

One would think that a coach who has had six years to enter into mutually beneficial agreements (athletic scholarships, if you will) with players who she recruits would by now have the sophomores and juniors communicating. I have no power to recruit or to offer my own economics scholarships. All the same, only a few graduate students have repeated my theory course more than once, and the recidivism rate for undergraduates is also small, and tempered by people who encounter unforeseen circumstances.