First, it’s not a witchhunt. It’s me saying that Anosike is not a division one SEC caliber player. He was not coming out of high school and he continues to prove that he is what we thought he MIGHT be. We wasted an opportunity to bring in a true post player that could’ve helped us this year. We did the same thing with Plavy. Haven’t you noticed that Barnes is harder on the players that have more talent? You may not have because you may only be looking at surface level coaching, but I assure you that he is harder on the players that have the most talent and potential. I’m not saying that he’s cuddling him, he’s just not gonna come out and blast a player that he chose to bring in as a post position fix. Because it clearly is not working.
Sorry.....This board has got me very frustrated. I apologize. The whole point of starting this thread was to say that Anosike is not proving to be the solution that Barnes thought he was going to be. Yet again, we wasted another scholarship on a post player that cannot play in the post. I just can’t believe we have some of the dumbest fans in America. It’s frustrating.
So, explain why EJA was wanted by Rick Barnes, Mark Few, Chris Mack, Tom Crean, and Steve Forbes, among others. You pretend like Barnes took a major reach by taking Anosike to address the very weakness you complain about (rebounding), yet he was ranked as the #6 available transfer and offers from some really good programs like Gonzaga and Louisville, as well as Tennessee. Feel free to hold the opinion that EJA wasn’t viewed as a high major player after succeeding at Sacred Heart, but 1.) Hindsight is 20/20, and 2.) A lot of high major college coaches disagree with you.
If they can get the small ball lineup playing good defense, they'll be fine. Springer is a capable ball handler and Pons can handle big men bc of his physicality and leaping ability. If they aren't able to get this lineup playing good ball consistently, I'll be worried. I agree on rebounding and I think that will be our biggest crutch moving forward, but every single team outside of Gonzaga and Baylor has some, at minimum, minor holes right now. If we can patch ours up, we're as capable as any of making a run in March.
He’s not. Did I not admit as much? I explicitly stated that he hasn’t made the transition that many logical fans expected he would. Those logical fans weren’t expecting him to come in and take the SEC by storm, but they expected him to be a solid contributor. He’s falling short, right now, but saying he was a reach and a wasted scholarship is reactionary and foolish. His current deficiencies are on defense, which is why he doesn’t play more. In terms of rebounding, he leads the team on a per 40 minute basis by a large margin. But if you can’t defend, Barnes is not going to play you any more than he has to.
Again, I hold fast to my opinion that he is not a D1 caliber contributor in the SEC. I think we wasted a scholarship. I think he was a big reach, and everyone sees that now. Most of us realize that star players at small schools and small divisions don’t typically have the same results when they go to a power five school. That pretty much goes for all sports. We had an opportunity, yet again, to go get a legitimate difference making post player and we failed.
Your selective memory and hyperbole makes an intelligent conversation extremely difficult. No poster whose opinion I respect on this board claimed he was coming in to be a “rebounding machine” who was going to replicate his efforts and numbers from Sacred Heart.
