Is Russ in Siva's head?

Ever since Pey-Pey went out with a sprained ankle, and Russ emerged from his shadow, Siva has had maybe one good outing --and several truly bad ones, including the last two.

In fact, as Russ has come on even stronger in the last few games , Peyton has regressed just as fast, back to falling down on his drives, fouling out, TO's--geez, you name it.

Is it a nagging injury? Severe ankle strains CAN linger. Four games back, I asked Pitino in the post game presser whether Siva's ankle was still hurting and causing issues. Coach said no, it was just lack of conditioning due to missing practice time due to the injury. The next day, Siva tells Rick Bozich that his ankle was still sore...

I personally don't think it's his ankle or lack of conditioning at this point. I think Russ is in Siva's head.

Carolina Cardinal made this point in one of the threads: " Remember that last year they tried to make Russ the back up point guard, Siva’s understudy so to speak. And now he is the leading scorer and getting tons of rebounds and steals. Continuing the theatre reference, imagine how a leading man might feel if his understudy suddenly was the headliner.... One more thing, a few games ago, in a post game presser, Siva said that “Russ Smith was saving us……” . I thought it odd that he would use Russ’ first and last name. Teammates are generally much closer than that and far less formal. Struck me as an odd way to put it. Again, could be nothing but just struck me funny.

ItsAllintheCARDS chimed in with this cogent thought: " Also you gotta go back and look at every magazine article for preseason CBB. We had the high preranking and guess who’s picture was almost always sitting next to our name? ‘Siva’ He def might have put to much pressure on himself going into this year because every analyst said he was our only player in the top 100."

So...is Russ in Pey-Pey's head? It's a question I plan to put to both Coach and Siva separately the next time I get a press pass (maybe this Sat *fingers crossed*)

What say you, fellow Chronocloids ?

Frank