wyobuff
Well-Known Member
In defense of ski's soph slump, who else would it have been? There were a few nights (like VS cal) where XJ went on a tear or Jelly (@ OSU, vs UCLA) a few times dre (notably, @ stan) and once chen (@ AZ) but other than those few high production (15+ pts) nights from those three, there really wasnt much else in the way production for him to take from anyone else.
Now i'm not trying to defend his seemingly far too frequent decisions to push the rock up the court then heave a 3 with 29 seconds left on the shot clock as we probably could have gotten a better look elsewhere, but really who else would you rather have?
I think that final shot v ucla that he took (and missed) that would have sent us into OT really got to him. He had a last second tie shot (vs TX SO), but missed vs UCLA. That was game #16 in the season (of 33, counting our game V illini). Before the UCLA miss (He had 18 that day, but probably thinks/thought he needed 21) and before that game, he had less than 12 points only 2 times. One was the disaster in allen, and the other was V sheep when the mayor couldnt miss.
After the UCLA game however, he managed double figures just 5 times (~33% of games 17-33, compared to 87.5% of games 1-16). I'd guess he came in a little pissed for the cal game (and potentially stanford) because neither school recruited them and he wanted to show them what they passed on. In addition to those two games, He got to double figures vs OU ( 11pts) vs Zona (2x, 10, 12 pts), vs ASU (17 pts) and that is it.
I hope he stays in the gym this summer and works on his stroke. I still think he'll be starting, but will see minutes in the high teens, low 20s like he did his freshman year.
Now i'm not trying to defend his seemingly far too frequent decisions to push the rock up the court then heave a 3 with 29 seconds left on the shot clock as we probably could have gotten a better look elsewhere, but really who else would you rather have?
I think that final shot v ucla that he took (and missed) that would have sent us into OT really got to him. He had a last second tie shot (vs TX SO), but missed vs UCLA. That was game #16 in the season (of 33, counting our game V illini). Before the UCLA miss (He had 18 that day, but probably thinks/thought he needed 21) and before that game, he had less than 12 points only 2 times. One was the disaster in allen, and the other was V sheep when the mayor couldnt miss.
After the UCLA game however, he managed double figures just 5 times (~33% of games 17-33, compared to 87.5% of games 1-16). I'd guess he came in a little pissed for the cal game (and potentially stanford) because neither school recruited them and he wanted to show them what they passed on. In addition to those two games, He got to double figures vs OU ( 11pts) vs Zona (2x, 10, 12 pts), vs ASU (17 pts) and that is it.
I hope he stays in the gym this summer and works on his stroke. I still think he'll be starting, but will see minutes in the high teens, low 20s like he did his freshman year.