James' value...

[Harrison]

For those on the board who love to rip DJ and have made the comments of how much better off MU will be or would be with out James please rewatch yesterday's game.  Those of you that commented MU will be just as good or better next year without DJ, weren't the last 10 minutes of last night's game fun? 

[mviale]

I wouldnt trade James for the best big man in the big east.

[ozmetal71]

That was the James that most of us have been wanting to see this season.  10 assists is amazing.  He really played well yesterday and was crucial to our success.

[NavinRJohnson]

Defensively he was a bitch too (as was the team - especially in the first half - which is why we had a 17 point lead)!

We will be good with or without him, but we'd be a whole lot better with him (for the record, I think we'll be without him).

[Murffieus]

DJ played very well (10 assists and better shot selection)-----but more key to our draught in the last 10 minutes was Pitt changing to a zone------DJ doesn't play well against zones-----in fact MU doesn't play as well against zones as against man to man------had Pitt gone into that zone at the beginning of the 2nd half or earlier they may have won!

[mutpm]

Not only did DJ have 10 assists, but he only committed 1 meaningless turnover on the first possession of the 2nd half.  Imagine what his numbers could have been had he played his usual minutes instead of the 27 he played last night.

[77ncaachamps]

No doubt that MU would have lost if DJ didn't D up like a bitch and get that career high in assists.

But that doesn't change my mind on him. He's a great raw talent who still does not have a J.

How many times did he get bailed out UNDER the hoop? Albeit he said in Rosiak's article that he knew the D was focusing in on him and he needed to count on his teammates when he got the ball on him, but there were many times he'd drive TOO DEEP into lane/UNDER the hoop with no bail out. A few times he got lucky. There were others that just made me scream, "WHO ARE YOU PASSING TO?!?" and "WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!?"

IMHO, he needs this team as much as it needs him. It's tough for me to say that when Jerel is out, the bigs are playing inconsistently, and the tourney is around the corner.

[muwarrior87]

if he's fluid, he has a J...what he doesn't have is a Tre...his jumper from 10-18 feet, if fluid, is very good...just can't hit it any deeper than that consistantly.

[WashDCWarrior]

I think there was a lot of valid criticism of James' play in a number of games this season.  The talk about us being better without him was foolish, but he was taking a lot of long jumpers outside the flow of the offense.

The reason he took the brunt of criticism was that he has the most potential and athleticism on the team.  Plus the talk of him leaving early for the NBA, led many of us (me included) to expect him to be playing at the level of a seasoned NBA veteran right now.  Obviously that's not a fair expectation.

Games like last night showed how good he can be.  He managed the game really well, looked pass first, only took one (by my count) ill-advised shot, and played killer defense.  I can't imagine another player contributing so much while only scoring 8 points.  More games like this and I really like what our post-season potential is this year.