Move to bench helps motivate Branch, NU

Joe Branch lost two of his best friends on the Northwesternbasketball team this year. He lost his starting job last week.

The junior forward from Houston, however, has no intentions ofjumping ship with the Wildcats (3-2) heading into Saturday'snon-conference battle with Seton Hall (3-2) at Welsh-Ryan Arena(noon, SportsChannel).

Branch came to NU with high school teammate Darreion Dean. Asseniors they led Kincaid High School to the championship of theSouthwest Preparatory Conference, which encompasses all privateschools in Texas and Oklahoma.Dean had limited playing time as a freshman and appeared in onlyone game during an injury-marred sophomore season. He has sincetranferred to a Texas community college.Two weeks ago Geno Carlisle, whom Branch calls "one of my bestfriends in school," made his exit. Last year's star guard, facingtrial on a battery charge next month, leaves NU as soon as thisweek's semester exams are over and plans to transfer to anotherschool next month.That leaves Branch as the only member of coach Ricky Byrdsong'sfirst recruiting class left on the roster."It feels different without Darreion and Geno, but I'm here tostay," Branch said. "I love Northwestern. The last two years havenot gone well basketball-wise, but academic- and social-wise I'mhaving a great time."The basketball part picked up last week, after Byrdsong benchedBranch in favor of freshman Carvell Ammons. It was a move thatinspired a 58-56 victory over DePaul, as Ammons grabbed 15 reboundsand Branch finally found his shooting touch coming off the bench. Hescored 10 points and hit his first three-point shot after going0-for-6 in four games as a starter.Branch started 24 of 27 games last season, when he averaged 6.7points and 3.7 rebounds. Those numbers dropped to 4.6 and 2.6,respectively, in Big Ten games, and didn't pick up in NU's first fourgames this season."Joe played his best game against DePaul," Byrdsong said."When he plays well, we can play well. Much of our problems a yearago had to do with him. We need him to play well, but he's beenthinking about his shooting so much, and practicing so much. Maybehe needs to get away from it."Branch doesn't agree."I hit them all in practice, but in games I'm not sure," hesaid. "I think I'll get better the more shots I put up. The bigthing is that I come in and produce. It's not who starts, but whofinishes. I've kept my confidence. If I lose it, the coaches won'thave any confidence in me."