I'm one of the biggest CJ Fair fans you'll find.
However, I'm very excited to watch silent G. I think some of us our overlooking a real pearl.
CJ Fair is AA caliber, no doubt. But I think MG is gonna shock us.
I think we're going to have a great team next year, and I think CJ has a great chance to make AA, whether it be first or second or third team whatever. Right now I'm thinking 2nd or 3rd seems more likely. 1st team would be likely for CJ if he didn't have much help on offense and had to play a bigger role, consequently putting up bigger numbers. But it looks like we'll be a better offensive team next year. As much as I loved MCW and Triche, they were statistically very inefficient shooters - Ennis and Mike G will very likely put up better shooting numbers. Ennis just led allU-19 players in scoring last week, and i'll address Mike G later. Plus we'll be a much more potent team scoring points in the paint with sophomores Grant and Coleman playing bigger roles. And so I expect CJ to continue doing what he does best - just playing his game, taking full advantage of whatever the other team gives him. And so I expect his numbers to go up again last year like they have each year he's been here, but I don't think we'll see radically different numbers. 16 ppg and 8 rpg, playing his highly efficient style of game seems about right to me, and could certainly anchor a return run to the final four.
And to echo what another poster in this thread said, I think we'll all be very impressed with Mike G. As a freshman at Duke, he was a highly touted recruit who put up good numbers in limited playing time. But the only reason he didn't play more is because he had Seth Curry and Austin Rivers playing in front of him. (Not to mention Andrew Dawkins, Ty Thornton and Quinn Cook all taking up minutes at the other guard spots, creating a real log jam at the 2 and 3.) Despite this, Duke fans were very vocally calling for MG to get more minutes - despite all the talent G had in front of him! They really liked his game. His shooting game was his strength, shooting 55% from the field and 40% from 3 (again albeit in limited minutes.) He was solid on defense and ball handling was a weakness. So now consider he's worked this entire year and a half to improve his ball handling - eliminating that as a weakness to the point where he now can backup Ennis at the point spot - learning our 2-3 zone, and continue developing his already solid outside shot. It's tough to predict what kind of numbers he'll put up since his own game is still a bit of an unknown, and considering even if it's really good, Cooney or Patterson could surprise us and cut into Mike G's minutes as well. But I think we'll all be very pleasantly surprised with Mike G.
I see Ennis, Mike G., CJ, Grant, and possibly/hopefully Coleman all putting up very impressive numbers this year. (Not to mention all the other crazy talent we've got like Roberson and BJ and hopefully Christmas and Cooney and Patterson. With Keita providing that much needed rock solid defense at center to anchor our zone, rotating in as needed.) I think we'll see a lot of orange on the ACC 1st and 2nd teams next year!
. This article is from Bleacher Report and I know their content is iffy at best but being the middle of summer and Cuse Basketball deprived I figured it is something of interest and it is about CJ who is our current upperclass stud.
