Enough with the "how will we replace rick" posts!!! | Syracusefan.com

Enough with the "how will we replace rick" posts!!!

CorduroyG

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Rick disappeared and came up small in the biggest games consistently throughout his entire career. Never trusted him to bring it every game, and even though that changed his senior year, i was not surprised at all he laid another egg in the tournament against marquette.

Thats a major reason i felt we werent a legit contender last year, rick was our best player, and i dont trust any team winning a national championship when rick jackson is your best player.
 
Got revisionist history? Wow. Lol

ive said for the last couple years i was never the biggest rick fan, and said it last year even when we was dominating, still never trusted him in big games, and that reared its ugly head against marquette.

People seem to be confusing rick with melo or dc or owens, yea he had a great senior year but its not gonna take some mammoth effort by everyone to replace him.
 
I kinda agree. Rick's good play last year was a product of him being a 4 year senior, putting in the work & getting better each year. Not like he was some absurd talent that is impossible to replace. He rebounded and blocked some shots...provided some much needed toughness in the middle and helped our young centers out immensly.

Don't get me wrong, he was a very important piece of last years team...but SU is losing 1 player. Just 1. And Rick is no Kemba Walker. Every other team most likely is losing much more of their production from last year, while we return a fantastic mix of seniors, juniors, and 3 McDonalds AAs in our talented group of Sophs and Frosh. If Rick can improve his game that much with each passing year, then Kris, Scoop & Brandon are in for some really nice seasons.
 
We don't need to replace his scoring. Pick your poison to divy up his 13 ppg. We need his rebounding. Improved versions of Fab, Keita, and an energetic and athletic Rak will do more than replace Rick's toughness inside.
 
He was a good college player, but not good enough to get drafted. If you can't replace players with that background you shouldn't be considered a great college program.
 
He improved so much in 4 years that we're making him out to be irreplaceable. He's not. He'll be missed, big time, but he's not irreplaceable.
 
We don't need to replace his scoring. Pick your poison to divy up his 13 ppg. We need his rebounding. Improved versions of Fab, Keita, and an energetic and athletic Rak will do more than replace Rick's toughness inside.
Exactly. His rebounding and shot blocking are the only things we really need to worry about replacing. Scoring will not be a problem on this team. If Fab, BMK and X-Mas can stay out of foul trouble, we should HOPEFULLY be fine.
 
Not that easy to replace Rick's toughness on the boards; defense; high percentage inside scoring.
Sure -- you can replace the points: Kris gets some more; CJ might get the rest of Rick's points. But they won't draw double teams inside; they won't get the tough rebound in traffic. Rick was a tough match up inside and opponents had to shade in his direction.
Now, if Melo is much improved as an inside scorer, the equation changes. Rick was something of a tweener, setting up in the low post. With Rick gone, there will be more room for a C to make inside moves. Last year, that didn't matter because our Cs didn't have moves.
 
He was better than Arinze . . . and that is a very high bar.

Rick was a pretty great college big, I think people may be cutting him short. Rick almost constantly out performed expectations and tailored his game to fit the team.

At first, the board consensus was that he would never play the 4. Then he played the 4 all season, and showed tremendous effort closing out on the wings. What he lacked in lateral quickness, he made up for in team-first effort.

His passing was a huge reason our offense was so excellent in 09-10.

But more than anything, his ability to finish gave our guards a huge target down low, and all they had to do was beat their man on the dribble, draw some action from the post defenders, and put the ball in the air. Big Rick would take it home from there.

I can hardly remember a more underrated Cuse player than Rick Jackson. The only reason I am optimistic that we can replace him, is that we have two Micky Ds and a sleeper blue chip prospect trying to fill his shoes. I think Rick will get some run in the league too, once we have a few years of perspective, Rick's legacy will grow.
 
He was better than Arinze . . . and that is a very high bar.

Rick was a pretty great college big, I think people may be cutting him short. Rick almost constantly out performed expectations and tailored his game to fit the team.

At first, the board consensus was that he would never play the 4. Then he played the 4 all season, and showed tremendous effort closing out on the wings. What he lacked in lateral quickness, he made up for in team-first effort.

His passing was a huge reason our offense was so excellent in 09-10.

But more than anything, his ability to finish gave our guards a huge target down low, and all they had to do was beat their man on the dribble, draw some action from the post defenders, and put the ball in the air. Big Rick would take it home from there.

I can hardly remember a more underrated Cuse player than Rick Jackson. The only reason I am optimistic that we can replace him, is that we have two Micky Ds and a sleeper blue chip prospect trying to fill his shoes. I think Rick will get some run in the league too, once we have a few years of perspective, Rick's legacy will grow.

I know I just posted about all the players I love, but I really love BMK. That dude is going to be a really really good player when all his time is done. He is ridiculously long.
 
Rick Jackson was the Man. I'll miss watching him.

mediaManager
 
He was better than Arinze . . . and that is a very high bar.

Offensively NO WAY! Not even close. Look what happened when AO went down as a senior. We win that NC going away with AO while Ricky sheet the bed in that NCCAT.

Don't get me wrong Rick was a great 4 year player that worked very hard and got better every single year. He was a beast on the boards and really understood how to defend in our system especially as a senior, but he was iffy on offense despite the high FG percentage. He was a great finisher and an excellent passer for a big. He should be proud of what he accomplished, but please don't tell me he was even close to AO offensively.
 
Offensively NO WAY! Not even close. Look what happened when AO went down as a senior. We win that NC going away with AO while Ricky sheet the bed in that NCCAT.

Don't get me wrong Rick was a great 4 year player that worked very hard and got better every single year. He was a beast on the boards and really understood how to defend in our system especially as a senior, but he was iffy on offense despite the high FG percentage. He was a great finisher and an excellent passer for a big. He should be proud of what he accomplished, but please don't tell me he was even close to AO offensively.

This, to me, is where people underrate guys like RJ and a host of others who came here and didn't go on to huge nba careers nor did they have all-american college careers. Let's do it in list form:

1) People love to say "he was a great rebounder but ..."
Here are the SU players since the mid 80s (when I began following the team and basically 25 years) to average more than RJ's 10.3 rpg: Derrick Coleman. That's it. Let's not write that off so quickly. Oh, and 930 career boards places him 8th all time.

2) Rick was "a good defender but ... "
RJ adequately handled the 4 but also operated as the lone legit big for huge stretches of games last season. The fact that a guy who was 240 pounds played almost 36 mpg tells you all you need to know about how valuable his defense was. When he was off the floor, we were in bad shape.

3) Rick was "iffy" or "brought next to nothing to the table" or "RJ laid an egg" offensively ...
RJ finished with about 1,200 points in his career -- good for somewhere around 40 on the all-time list. He reached double-figures in 16 of 20 BE games (including 2 in the tourney) and in two of the games he didn't reach double-figures he scored 9 in each and had a combined 31 rebounds. Two seasons ago (the 30-5 year), he reached double-figures eight times in conference play as the fourth or fifth option on the floor at all times. His offense was not his calling card. No one would argue that. He never came along offensively the way I think all might have hoped, but the kid was a very solid offensive big man, who passed the ball well, kept his turnovers at an acceptable rate and scored consistently while shooting a high percentage.

4) RJ came up small in big moments
The guy had his share of struggles, but I don't really get where this comes from. Every big east game is a difficult one. He had 16 and 8 in a tight win vs. NC State; 10 and 12 in a close win vs. Michigan, 10 and 14 in a tight win vs. Georgia Tech; 17 and 16 vs. MSU; 13 and 13 in W vs. UConn; 18 and 12 in close call vs. RU; etc. I just think people remember particular moments in particular games, but tend to overlook the fact that he had a really consistent all-around season.

5) Fab will do X, Xmas will do Y, and BMK will do Z
Anyone care to venture a guess as to how many games these three combined will reach double-figures this year? I could be wrong, but I'm still guessing Fab has a ways to go and he's the only one with any sort of impressive offensive trait at this point.

Conclusion: No, RJ wasn't a scoring machine. No, there won't be any problem finding guys to take his shots and boost their scoring averages to make up for his loss. BUT, having a guy to pass the ball to in the low post that opponents have to respect is a really valuable thing. Until one of the new bigs can score effectively and stay on the floor, we will absolutely miss RJ on the offensive end.
 
This, to me, is where people underrate guys like RJ and a host of others who came here and didn't go on to huge nba careers nor did they have all-american college careers. Let's do it in list form:

1) People love to say "he was a great rebounder but ..."
Here are the SU players since the mid 80s (when I began following the team and basically 25 years) to average more than RJ's 10.3 rpg: Derrick Coleman. That's it. Let's not write that off so quickly. Oh, and 930 career boards places him 8th all time.

2) Rick was "a good defender but ... "
RJ adequately handled the 4 but also operated as the lone legit big for huge stretches of games last season. The fact that a guy who was 240 pounds played almost 36 mpg tells you all you need to know about how valuable his defense was. When he was off the floor, we were in bad shape.

3) Rick was "iffy" or "brought next to nothing to the table" or "RJ laid an egg" offensively ...
RJ finished with about 1,200 points in his career -- good for somewhere around 40 on the all-time list. He reached double-figures in 16 of 20 BE games (including 2 in the tourney) and in two of the games he didn't reach double-figures he scored 9 in each and had a combined 31 rebounds. Two seasons ago (the 30-5 year), he reached double-figures eight times in conference play as the fourth or fifth option on the floor at all times. His offense was not his calling card. No one would argue that. He never came along offensively the way I think all might have hoped, but the kid was a very solid offensive big man, who passed the ball well, kept his turnovers at an acceptable rate and scored consistently while shooting a high percentage.

4) RJ came up small in big moments
The guy had his share of struggles, but I don't really get where this comes from. Every big east game is a difficult one. He had 16 and 8 in a tight win vs. NC State; 10 and 12 in a close win vs. Michigan, 10 and 14 in a tight win vs. Georgia Tech; 17 and 16 vs. MSU; 13 and 13 in W vs. UConn; 18 and 12 in close call vs. RU; etc. I just think people remember particular moments in particular games, but tend to overlook the fact that he had a really consistent all-around season.

5) Fab will do X, Xmas will do Y, and BMK will do Z
Anyone care to venture a guess as to how many games these three combined will reach double-figures this year? I could be wrong, but I'm still guessing Fab has a ways to go and he's the only one with any sort of impressive offensive trait at this point.

Conclusion: No, RJ wasn't a scoring machine. No, there won't be any problem finding guys to take his shots and boost their scoring averages to make up for his loss. BUT, having a guy to pass the ball to in the low post that opponents have to respect is a really valuable thing. Until one of the new bigs can score effectively and stay on the floor, we will absolutely miss RJ on the offensive end.

Did I not say he was a beast on the boards? Did I not mention his good passing? Did I not say he was a good defender? I said he wasn't close to AO offensively. Rick will be missed he had a great career at SU which culminated in an excellent senior season. I am also worried about our guys replacing his production and only jumped into this thread because someone posted that he was better than AO.
 
Hate to say it, and I would be the first to admit it isn't fair, but my lasting memory of Rick will be the disappearing act two years ago. It's probably more just generally being upset about losing AO and a shot at the NC that year, but somehow that's always my first thought when I think about RJ.

Great kid though and his improvement over four years was tremendous.
 
I'm not a fan of the "how good was Rick Jackson" conversation. He was good and that should be the end of the discussion.

At the same time, in college basketball its always about who you have now and never about who left. Rick left and he was great . . . that has nothing to do with the team we have now. This team does not have to replace anything - not any of Rick's numbers. If Rick got hurt last year, that team would have had to replace his production. But this is not last year's team and they will not be built around Rick in the middle the way last year's team was.

Remember when everyone wondered how we would replace Flynn, Devendorf, and Harris? We never really replaced Flynn and Devendorf's abilities (especially getting the ball to the hoop), but we were a better team the next year.

Kemba Walker was everything for UConn last year, but they are not worried about how to replace him this year. The guys they have are top 10 talents.

Two things to remember. One, things change dramatically from year to year (many times even from the beginning of the year to the end of the year) in college basketball. Two, its never about who leaves, if it was Syracuse would not get 20+ wins every season. It is always about who is there.
 
Rick disappeared and came up small in the biggest games consistently throughout his entire career. Never trusted him to bring it every game, and even though that changed his senior year, i was not surprised at all he laid another egg in the tournament against marquette.

Thats a major reason i felt we werent a legit contender last year, rick was our best player, and i dont trust any team winning a national championship when rick jackson is your best player.

I still think you are being too tough on Rick. He was never supposed to be a star. I have always said that Rick seemed like he just flat out missed a year of development somewhere... always seemed like he was a year behind where he should have been. And I hope the new kids look at his career and learn from it. Had he made that transition a year earlier, perhaps we beat Butler and he spends last year developing a twelve-footer to round out his game. In the end though, he hit some real nice career benchmarks, had a beast of a senior year that shot him past AO's career IMO, and saved this team much more than he let them down.
 
Hate to say it, and I would be the first to admit it isn't fair, but my lasting memory of Rick will be the disappearing act two years ago. It's probably more just generally being upset about losing AO and a shot at the NC that year, but somehow that's always my first thought when I think about RJ.

Great kid though and his improvement over four years was tremendous.

I pretty much feel the same way, and he also was a no show against marquette. But rick's performance in the butler game was 1 of the worst games ive ever seen from such an important player in such an important game. We were still good enough to go all the way that year, we just needed guys to step up in AO's absence, and rick took an enormous step back.

In sports those are the moments you live for, 1 of your teammates goes down, now you have the opportunity to step up and be a leader and fill in for your fallen brother on the biggest stage in college basketball. But rick wanted no part of the basketball that nite, painfully obvious by his fumbling the ball just about every time he touched it.
 
I'm not a fan of the "how good was Rick Jackson" conversation. He was good and that should be the end of the discussion.

At the same time, in college basketball its always about who you have now and never about who left. Rick left and he was great . . . that has nothing to do with the team we have now. This team does not have to replace anything - not any of Rick's numbers. If Rick got hurt last year, that team would have had to replace his production. But this is not last year's team and they will not be built around Rick in the middle the way last year's team was.

Remember when everyone wondered how we would replace Flynn, Devendorf, and Harris? We never really replaced Flynn and Devendorf's abilities (especially getting the ball to the hoop), but we were a better team the next year.

Kemba Walker was everything for UConn last year, but they are not worried about how to replace him this year. The guys they have are top 10 talents.

Two things to remember. One, things change dramatically from year to year (many times even from the beginning of the year to the end of the year) in college basketball. Two, its never about who leaves, if it was Syracuse would not get 20+ wins every season. It is always about who is there.

Agreed, very good point.
 
No offense people ... but why are we even continuing this post ... or even starting it for that matter. Rick is gone ... he gave us some wonderful moments, he was the anchor ... and he had some bad nights as well ... like all the players on the team have had. But he is gone. Why beat a dead horse ... shouldn't we be looking ahead to the team we have now? I look forward to a great year. My best wishes to Rick and his future. But it's time to stop!! Let's talk about today's team and the recruits we hope to get.
 
OK -- it is about who is there now. So, how do you like the rebounding/inside scoring/inside defense we get from Kris, CJ, Keita, Melo, and Rak?

When we lost Flynn & Devo and Harris, we gained Wes Johnson as transfer ( lottery pick, who rebounded better than Harris and did everything else better as well) and more of Andy Rautins (better outside shooting & defense) -- so you easily replaced everything except PG play. The other 4 on the court made up for our frosh PG, as Andy and Wes were great at moving the ball.

The issue is where do you get respectable inside play (does not have to match AO or Rick). We may not miss Rick in November-December, but revisit this in January when Big East play begins in earnest.
 
Did I not say he was a beast on the boards? Did I not mention his good passing? Did I not say he was a good defender? I said he wasn't close to AO offensively. Rick will be missed he had a great career at SU which culminated in an excellent senior season. I am also worried about our guys replacing his production and only jumped into this thread because someone posted that he was better than AO.

No, I agree on the AO point, at least offensively. I guess it's debatable who was the better all around player. I just meant from the rebounding perspective that I"m not sure people quite realize just how good a rebounder RJ was, and I that could become particularly noteworthy this year if we struggle as a group on the glass.
 

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