Why are the veterans scared to step up?

This past week Coach Cal has stated many times that the veterans on the team, specifically Miller, Liggins, and Harrelson, need to step up and take charge of this team. Relying on Freshmen can only get you so far, so the players with experience need to take over games when the Freshmen aren't playing well. You would think this call to action would motivate the trio to assert themselves more, but in fact just the opposite happened. The veterans combined for only 10 points and 12 rebounds. Terrence Jones alone had 22 points and 12 rebounds. Lamb scored 20 and Knight 15 points. When Ole Miss went on a 12-0 run in the second half it was the freshman who dug us out of the hole, in fact no veterans scored a single point in the second half.

Probably the most disappointing play was our last full possession of the game. The cats ran their offense for a while and finally found Darius Miller wide open behind the 3pt arc with only 6 left on the shot clock. Darius looked like he was going to shoot, then backed off and passed to a well covered Liggins with only 3 seconds left. Why didn't Darius take that shot? Was he scared of stepping up and making a winning play?

One major flaw of this team is that they can't find a way to win close games. Ever. The cats haven't won a close game all year and have let several big leads slip in the last few minutes of the game. If the Cats are going to have post-season success the veterans are going to have to find their "swagger" and not be scared to make the big play.