Yet another point guard has fled from Iowa State. Freshman Zach Fortune jumped ship much like sophomore Brandon Hawkins did earlier in the year.

Why?

Both cited a lack of playing time as a reason that they left. Fortune was unhappy with his time, and Hawkins, who was here as a shooting guard, left because he wanted more playing time at his original position, the point.

It doesn’t take a swimmer’s GPA to figure out that this isn’t going to happen. Basketball is a team sport, and if you aren’t the best player at a position on the team, you aren’t going to play.

Maybe Fortune and Hawkins were better than Jamaal Tinsley, an All-American, but I highly doubt it.

But maybe Fortune is smarter than I give him credit for. He must have done some scouting for next year and realized that he was going to be warming up a seat on the bench again.

The captain of the Detroit Free Press All-Metro team, Ricky Morgan, has signed to play at Iowa State next year and will attempt to be the second coming of Jamaal Tinsley.

The six-foot-tall Morgan averaged 15 points and 9.8 assists his senior year while he led Pontiac Northern to the Class A Michigan state championship.

But hey, at least poor Zach is going to get his name in the papers (not because he did anything on the court), since he thought it would be wise to slam Larry Eustachy’s coaching methods. Poor Zach didn’t like the “in your face” style that Eustachy uses because the verbal abuse is too much.

He told The Des Moines Register that Eustachy “embarrasses” the players.

Well, Zach, this group of Cyclones wasn’t as talented as last year’s, but they still won the Big 12 regular season title. (And we won’t mention anything past that, but the word “embarrassing” comes up again.)

Eustachy’s team wouldn’t have accomplished this if the coach would have just said “good job guys” or “it looks like we are doing as good as we can, don’t try any harder.”

Fortune needs to grow up and realize that winning isn’t easy. Eustachy has built a quality institution and he hasn’t done it by serving milk and cookies to his players. He’s done it by getting in their faces and telling them that they aren’t good enough and if they want to win they had best try harder.

Remember when Tinsley came to Iowa State, he told Eustachy he didn’t sign a track scholarship. He wanted to leave but he stayed, and look what happened. He was Big 12 Player of the Year and is going to be a lottery pick in the NBA.

Several seniors have backed Eustachy, and they are leaving, so they face no punishment for criticizing him.

Fortune also pointed to the fact that fellow freshman Jake Sullivan got good minutes as a starter on the team. He said if he’d had the minutes that Jake had, he would stay.

Maybe if Fortune put as much time into basketball as Jake did, or for that matter, was as good as Jake, he would have played. And that’s not even mentioning that Fortune injured his wrist and missed most of the year.

Fortune should have transferred and got on with it; instead he has made himself look like a crybaby. The fact is, not many other players are crying about playing time or about the fact that although Coach Eustachy swears, his methods bring wins and they bring better and better players.

Zach, you’ll be missed. And remember – if you want to come back, there will always be a seat for you at the end of the bench.

Jeremy Gustafson is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Ogden. He is co-sports editor of the Daily.