Impressive praise from Pitino for Coach Christian

[twballgame9]

I argue that Sanders, Sidney, and Williams all belong in the same category: talented enough to carry team but never materialized due to chronic knucklehead-ism

This

[eagle9903]

I argue that Sanders, Sidney, and Williams all belong in the same category: talented enough to carry team but never materialized due to chronic knucklehead-ism

I'm not sure I agree Williams is offensively talented enough even at the end, regardless of attitude/discipline. But I admit you run into a guard/big issue here where it's not a level playing field.

[HJS]

Not involving myself with the could Milon/Turner/Robinson/Diallo be elite argument. I think its obvious that one or more of them could show up and take over right away (or in Diallo's case, once healthy) in that I'm not sure how you can close the door on the possibility, but I don't particularly care to get into this.

I do think you have to create tiers of elite player:

Carried Team
Bell
Dudley
Smith
Rice
Jackson

Great Player, but not clear they could have led a team to the tournament without one of the above
Sidney
Williams

Rakim Sanders
Rakim Sanders

And ironically, for all his faults Rakim Sanders had almost identical stats to Sidney.

And by the time they played in their very first game, we knew we had something special in each of the guys that "Carried the team". Same can be said about Scoonie, Herren, Danya and Curley. I wouldn't be surprised if the same was true for Dana Barros and Michael Adams (as they pre-date me following BC).

[eagle9903]

Not involving myself with the could Milon/Turner/Robinson/Diallo be elite argument. I think its obvious that one or more of them could show up and take over right away (or in Diallo's case, once healthy) in that I'm not sure how you can close the door on the possibility, but I don't particularly care to get into this.

I do think you have to create tiers of elite player:

Carried Team
Bell
Dudley
Smith
Rice
Jackson

Great Player, but not clear they could have led a team to the tournament without one of the above
Sidney
Williams

Rakim Sanders
Rakim Sanders

And ironically, for all his faults Rakim Sanders had almost identical stats to Sidney.

And by the time they played in their very first game, we knew we had something special in each of the guys that "Carried the team". Same can be said about Scoonie, Herren, Danya and Curley. I wouldn't be surprised if the same was true for Dana Barros and Michael Adams (as they pre-date me following BC).

Is the first game thing true for Jackson?

[JConman]

Sanders wasn't a bust. Guy averaged 11.3, 12.9, 11.3, 16.6 in four seasons. 1663 career points, including 1048 at BC, which ranks him #37 on BC's scoring list in only three seasons, slotting him right behind Gerrod Abram and Ryan Sydney (also 3 seasons).

He also averages 5.4 rebounds and 2 assists a game over 4 years, 4.2 and 1.7 at BC.

He was a bad FT shooter, at about 61% a game, which actually hurt his point production significantly, since he took 369 of them over his career.

He wasn't elite by any stretch and this conversation is about elite players due to HJS saying something ridiculous and false.

I will give you the fact that Sanders wasn't a bust but rather a solid piece to the puzzle. I was expecting for him to average 16.6 while at BC and not that total in his last year at fairfield. He was hyped up something terrible

Edit: and to you *** ******* addition. He only learned to play the offensive side of the ball by his last year in our program. So while he may have had elite athleticism when stepping foot on campus, he was far from an elite college baseball player when stepping on campus.

You keep changing the parameters. SW was a top recruit, a 4 star and an elite prospect coming out of HS. You keep shifting the paradigm. He and Sanders were the only elite recruits to come to BC other than maybe Southern.

Parameters were the following from HJS:

"Each and every one [team] had at least one elite player. Of course, some were not recruited as elite, but we pretty much knew immediately that they were special the second they arrived on campus"

I view Williams as a project regarding the game of basketball but a supreme athlete. A better regarded Diallo. (This is ur NBA vs college argument)

I would not say that bell, Dudley, Sanders, Rice or Ryan Sydney count as special/elite players when they stepped onto campus

The only players that I would consider elite when arriving campus would be smith and jackson

I think the point is that within a a game or two of watching them on the court, it was fairly evident that Bell, Smith, Dudley, Rice, and maybe to a slightly lesser extent, Sydney and Jackson, regardless of their recruiting ranking/hype, were going to be excellent players.

[twballgame9]

We are way overrating Sydney. He's in Sander's category of actual production, not Jackson's. He wasn't as big a disappointment, because he wasn't rated as high as Sanders, but like Scottie Pippen we are overstating his actual impact after the fact.

[Thornton Melon]

I feel badly for Christian. I think this team is very well coached. The talent level is embarrassing.

I think recruiting even under Al's standards, this team can win consistently with this coaching staff. I think Christian wants to kill some of these jokes at this point with their lack of skill.

One thing I appreciate is the "fake hustle" crap where a kid can suck at basketball but flop around like he tries real hard (see Odio, Eddie) has been basically eliminated. He only plays because either fouls or fatigue require it. This is improvement over the last moron.

I actually think Spaz did less damage to the football program than Donahue did to the basketball program.

[commavegarage]

where does tyler roche fit on your lists?

[eepstein0]

I feel badly for Christian. I think this team is very well coached. The talent level is embarrassing.

I think recruiting even under Al's standards, this team can win consistently with this coaching staff. I think Christian wants to kill some of these jokes at this point with their lack of skill.

One thing I appreciate is the "fake hustle" crap where a kid can suck at basketball but flop around like he tries real hard (see Odio, Eddie) has been basically eliminated. He only plays because either fouls or fatigue require it. This is improvement over the last moron.

I actually think Spaz did less damage to the football program than Donahue did to the basketball program.

You said exactly how I feel. Donahue did far more damage

[CorporalFunishment]

This is from the Lousiville based Courier-Journal. Pitino had some impressive things to say about Coach Christian and what he's been able to accomplish so far.

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/sp ... /22512417/


Opening statement: I was watching the broadcast of the Virginia-BC game and BC had 'em on the ropes. Tony Bennett told the announcers that Boston College was the toughest prep he's had this year. Then, after watching six tapes of Boston College, I totally agree. I don't say this because I recruited (BC coach Jim Christian), or because we went (to the same) high school -- I'm not patronizing him in any way -- this young man's going to be a tremendous coach. His offensive scheme is off the charts. They do things offensively that great teams don't do. They isolate you well. They know where to go and who to go at. They move the basketball well. They slip screens. They are a nightmare to guard.

Fortunately for us, we played great offense also. The last two games, we left the Duke game, and everybody was concerned about our shooting woes. The last few weeks, we made a concerted effort of getting paint touches before we shoot the ball, and we've done a good job of that.

This may be insensitive of me to ask but did you previously post as longdistanceeagle?

[MattTheEagle]

What the flip