Scholarship table
Never once in any way, shape, or form have I stated, or even implied that he's not a D1 player. Never. Go back and look at every post of mine and you won't find that. I've certainly stated he's not a player the caliber of D1 we're competing at. Look back at e everything I wrote in that thread in particular that led to your response. Don't make up sh** because your comment was so off base. I have said he's at best a mid major guy, a Horizon Leaguer, etc. I really hate posters who lie
TAMUI do know, Newsie is right on you knowing ball.
I don't lie. I'm referring to when you were making comments about him needing to go to CYO level ball to score any points. I don't think CYO is considered D1.Look, I agree with you that JjJ was overranked and is struggling greatly. But you have been going off on this kid like...well...Ners on Derrick. For being the worst guy on a roster, JjJ is actually pretty solid. It's ok to have a sophomore on the roster who isn't helping now but might help in the future. Especially when you have 5 new players and 3 open scholarships for next season.At this point, I don't see the kid ever becoming a starter for us. But role players are still important. Unless we have someone better who needs his scholarship, then I'd rather keep him around.
Now you're just trying to save face. You and everyone else on this board knew that CYO comment wasn't intended to be serious. And it didn't lead to your dumb and hyperbolic reply. And I've stated several times alluding or flat out saying he's mid major material at bestAnyway you try to distort or twist something is at best disingenuous and at worst lying. Which one are you?
What were your thoughts about Vander Blue midway through his sophomore year?Quite frankly - I wasn't at ALL impressed with Vander midway through his sophomore year. His improvement to what he achieved as a junior shocked me. As I watch JJJ play, i see a guy VERY similar to Vander at this stage in their respective careers. Not sure if JJJ can make the leap Vander did - yet I just don't feel you throw in the towel on a guy who has some very good building blocks to be a very good player at this level.
So then wouldn't that be hyperbolic?
I had pretty much the same assessment of Vander and reaction to his junior year coming out party. I see two major differences between he and JJJ1) Vander always had a chip on his shoulder to prove himself that I expect came from the bitter fall out of his Badger decommitment. I don't see any if that in JJJ. Vander was certainly never benched an entire game for poor practices leading up to a game2). Vander made way more plays defensively, even his first two years. His offensive game justneeded time to catch up, but his athletic gifts were obvious right away at MUJJJ has had one wow moment, dunk at St Johns. And that was in part poor defense and rotation. We can and will do better than JJJ in recruiting.
Offensively, JJJ and Vander are pretty similar. JJJ actually has better body control around the hoop than Vander did his sophomore year. Defensively though, it's not close. Regardless of what the stats say, Vander was a lockdown on ball defender all three years at MU. JJJ is just bad defensively.
Vander didn't have a coach who worked like that. His coach didn't demand that his players play sound fundamental basketball like Coach Wojo does. It's a different coaching style.
I completely disagree with that. Buzz's teams certainly weren't fundamentally unsound.
I probably should've said/meant fundamentally sound decision making. Not that this team has that right now, but there are only so many options with an 8 man roster, of which only 2 are Wojo's recruits (and 1 was really Buzz's who stayed loyal to his commitment). I have said elsewhere that I was at the WLC game with pretty good seats in the preseason and when Burton went up for that "showtime" dunk over a defender while we were leading by a ridiculous amount of points and clanked it off the back of the rim and almost up to the jumbotron, Wojo's reaction told me immediately that Burton was going to have to change his game or he wouldn't be contributing to the team much. Had Burton finished the dunk with Buzz on the sideline, Buzz may have danced around. Had he finished the dunk with Wojo on the sideline, I still think Wojo would've yanked him. Huge difference between Buzz and Wojo.
I keep getting quick glances of this thread subject quickly and see: "Scar animal".
I have said elsewhere that I was at the WLC game with pretty good seats in the preseason and when Burton went up for that "showtime" dunk over a defender while we were leading by a ridiculous amount of points and clanked it off the back of the rim and almost up to the jumbotron, Wojo's reaction told me immediately that Burton was going to have to change his game or he wouldn't be contributing to the team much. Had Burton finished the dunk with Buzz on the sideline, Buzz may have danced around. Had he finished the dunk with Wojo on the sideline, I still think Wojo would've yanked him. Huge difference between Buzz and Wojo.
I can't imagine any modern day coach basically being "anti-highlight reel play." It's likely that there was a separate issue, such as Wojo wanting Burton to pull it back and run the offense but was ignored or Burton playing lazy D and trying to cherry-pick or DB's effort on D compared to O. DB sat out less than 3 minutes after getting pulled so it was probably a teaching moment. JJJ didn't get pulled after his dunk at StJ. Derrick didn't get pulled after his dunk against G'town. The idea that Wojo pulled Burton for trying to make a big play just doesn't seem plausible.
Ners, Ners, Ners. To say that you weren't ALL that impressed with Vander's game midway through sophomore year would be the understatement of the century. IIRC you hated his game. That's not important, though. You think that Vander and JJJ are pretty much the same player at the same stage. Statistics and common sense say differently. I'm going to compare Vander's entire year to JJJ half year because I don't want to take the time to separate out his first 16 games of that year. Given the fact that the cupcake portion of our season is over and that JJJ's play is seriously trending down that's a big edge to JJJ but no matter. Let's see how they stack up:Where JJJ has the edge:1. Points per 40/minutes: 14.8 - 13.2.2. Steals per 40/minutes: 2.2 - 1.83. FT% : 74.3 - 70.8Where Vander has the edge:1. Rebounds per 40/min.: 6.9 - 5.42. Assists per 40/minutes: 4.1 - 3.43. Turnovers per 40/min.: 3.4 - 4.84. Field Goal % : 41.8 - 40.85. 3 Point % : 25.8 - 15.96. Assist/TO ratio : 1.1/1- .7/1Much, much more important than numbers, though, are the story that they tell about the player's basketball IQ and their willingness to play to their strengths. Vander was a bad 3 point shooter (25.8%). He knew it, his coach knew it, we all knew it. To his credit, he shot only 31 in 901 minutes, 1.37 per 40 minutes. JJJ is an epic bad 3 point shooter, much worse than Vander. Wojo knows it, we know it, but apparently JJJ doesn't. He's launched 44 in 379 minutes, 4.65 per 40 minutes. Incredible.As a corollary, one thing Vander did pretty well (70.8%)and JJJ does even better (74.3%) is shoot free throws. Vander played to his strength, shooting 120 FTs in 901 minutes, 5.3/per 40. JJJ doesn't. He been to the line 35 times in 379 minutes, 3.7/per 40. Vander was a smart player who knew his limitations and played accordingly. When you play smart, a coach is more likely to let you play through physical mistakes. JJJ roams the perimeter looking for shots he should never take when he should be driving the basketball to shoot lay ups and free throws. When you check out like that mentally chances for a long leash are nil. Until JJJ learns how to shoot he won't get many minutes being a chucker. And he shouldn't.
I would take the Rick SLU program right now.
Nice post! Wrong thread.