Players showing up big come tourney time

Submitted by rice4114 on

    In respect to Cam and Mo making huge contributions today I was thinking I remember us having several players doing this under Coach B. Mcgary and JMo both hit strides around tourney time. Does anyone else remember other players emerging for us late into season?

    I would like to see Mo get some serious minutes going forward after watching Donnal wilt at the end of this game. Also it seems like MAAR is our MVP this year? He has no glaring weaknesses in his game and rarely has any moments that make you cringe. We just cant say that about anyone else.

    Im just going to throw it out there but if Caris or Spike started feeling really good and we made a deeep run nothing is stopping them from filling in for Dakich minutes right? Just a terribly optomistic thought.

rice4114

March 11th, 2016 at 5:45 PM ^

Shots blocked

Unforced turnovers

airballs from 25' out that only go about 20'

those all count against the good and they count for a lot. Now I do like Irvin so Id say the stat sheet agrees with you. My eyes tell me Maar does so little in the way of negatives I have to give him the nod.

WorldwideTJRob

March 11th, 2016 at 5:16 PM ^

As a fan I would like Caris to come back but as a coach with everything on the line it would be hard putting him back out there with very little game action over the past 3 months.



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jmblue

March 11th, 2016 at 5:21 PM ^

Not sure about Morgan emerging late; he was pretty consistent for us his whole redshirt freshman season, and in fact set his career high in scoring that year.  

OTOH, Tim Hardaway Jr. made a quantum leap in the latter portion of his freshman season and became a major scoring threat.

Spike Albrecht was another guy who went from barely playing to seeing key minutes in the tournament, capped off by his title-game performance.

jmblue

March 11th, 2016 at 5:51 PM ^

Really?  Here's an article on him from just before the end of the regular season.   

I think you might be getting his junior and senior seasons mixed up.  The junior year he hurt his ankle and lost his rotation spot, before getting a little more time in the Final Four (he took the key charge against Syracuse) although he was still behind McGary.  Senior year he was the guy from the time McGary went down for surgery.

umchicago

March 11th, 2016 at 6:30 PM ^

i wouldn't say he struggled.  he was solid.  horford actually had several good games during that season, but morgan definitely blew up during the tourny.  oh, those BS foul calls in the first half against KY.

RobM_24

March 11th, 2016 at 5:31 PM ^

MAAR is the only guy that doesn't play scared. He's not afraid to go to the rack (Walton), he's not afraid to handle the ball (Dawkins), he's not afraid to get blocked when going at bigger defenders (Irvin), and he doesn't get rattled (Walton) or disappear for several games at a time (Donnal, Doyle, Robinson, Dawkins).

bronxblue

March 11th, 2016 at 5:32 PM ^

At this point, bringing back either guy would probably do more harm than good.  And frankly, it's not like the team would win a title with them on the court, and I'd hate to hurt their futures (in and out of basketball) for the chance at making, say, the sweet 16.

I'm just happy it looks like they'll make the tournament and get a chance to at least compete for another week against top competition.

hopkinsdrums

March 11th, 2016 at 5:48 PM ^

Sorry that this is not really on topic, but I have something analogous to liquid courage given the no downvote situation. I just want to express the great feelings of awesomeness I have right now for Kam. Dude never bitches one bit about not getting to play despite the fact he was--IIRC--a 5-Star coming out of high school. He so obviously loves the team and even today in the press comes off as a humble young man and a consummate team player. I have nothing but respect for Kam. I hope JB can continue to utilize him through the remainder of the postseason.

Jack Hammer

March 11th, 2016 at 6:56 PM ^

I'd like to mention that I showed up pretty big. I watched the Kansas and Florida games from '13 last night to try and emit some positive mojo for today's game. Obviously it worked.

Mr Miggle

March 11th, 2016 at 7:44 PM ^

was unreal in the tournament.

Rob Pelinka in 1992 played very little until emerging late in an OT victory against MSU. He was a valuable player off the bench thereafter.

DrewGOBLUE

March 11th, 2016 at 8:13 PM ^

One of Walton or Rahkman should get the MVP award, IMO. Although you could argue for Irvin as well.

Personally, I'd like to see it go to MAAR, particularly because of his grit and steady play. He might be the only guy that hasn't made many of the types of goofy mistakes that make you want to pull your hair out.

OTOH, despite his ups and downs, Derrick has pretty much been the cornerstone of the team as a player and leader w/o Caris and Spike. At the end of the day he'll probably be named MVP, unless Rahk or Irvin go crazy in the tourney and carry us on a deep run.