Frank Howard YoY Progress

[721Comstock]

I know little.

FIFY.

 

[pearl31]

Simply not true. For whatever reason Frank was not better than Gillon. Frank had a higher ceiling always but he could not be trusted on the court beyond the cupcakes. Playing Frank more minutes last year simply was not an option. In fact, Boeheim waited too long to switch to Gillon as the primary PG. Frank is a totally different player this year mentally and especially scoring/shooting-wise. A very good thing.

agree w you but it's not to say the offense was good w Gillon at the helm... so much side-to-side ball pounding and ill-advised drives into the tall trees - if not for amazing shot making of White and at times Lydon/Battle that offense last year would've averaged about 53 pts a game - not all Gillon's fault, but he was just not a good PG for us, all things (heroic 43 pts @ NC St, game winner vs Duke, etc) considered... which I guess tells us how bad FH was last year... but I do remember reports from people who attended practices early on saying FH was eating up Gillon in practice

 

[Townie72]

Captain, you won't even see those folks on here unless Frank has a bad game. They'd rather hide in the weeds and snipe away.
I've been on the Frank train for a long time and others are finally seeing why you, I and a few others have stood behind him.

What am I missing? Are there posters on here that have a residual dislike of Frank's game based on what they saw last year? I don't see that.

Are there posters on here that --- based on Frank's performance last year --- that have been skeptical about what we are going to see this year? I would hope so.

But to claim that Frank was 1.) very good last year or 2.) that he was better than Gillon is in a special category as a comment. It's revisionist history. It's making things up and expecting to be given cover by the "everybody is entitled to their opinion" mantra.

Thank goodness he's playing much better this year. But good play this year doesn't have some sort of retroactive halo that extends back to some pretty awful play last year.

 

[Cusefan0307]

This entire thread...

 

[RF2044]

agree w you but it's not to say the offense was good w Gillon at the helm... so much side-to-side ball pounding and ill-advised drives into the tall trees - if not for amazing shot making of White and at times Lydon/Battle that offense last year would've averaged about 53 pts a game - not all Gillon's fault, but he was just not a good PG for us, all things (heroic 43 pts @ NC St, game winner vs Duke, etc) considered... which I guess tells us how bad FH was last year... but I do remember reports from people who attended practices early on saying FH was eating up Gillon in practice

That was a rumor that took on telephone game like proportions -- and it was about preseason pickup ball, not practices. Because that sure isn't true of the multiple practices I was able to observe last season.

 

[pearl31]

That was a rumor that took on telephone game like proportions -- and it was about preseason pickup ball, not practices. Because that sure isn't true of the multiple practices I was able to observe last season.

hmm well maybe people who made those posts can chime in - cuz I clearly remember more than one person saying they observed it... certainly not hard to envision it happening, because FH is bigger, stronger and just a better basketball player than JG - not that it translated on-court in games that mattered last year

 

[OrangeDW]

Frank was better than Gillon last year and he's better than Gillon this year. Just got the standard JB treatment being pulled after every mistake and lost all rhythm/confidence.

That said I am a little worried he is TOO confident now. He is bordering on cocky at this point. Sure he is playing great against these middling teams, but playtime is basically over.

No. Frank had his chance and he sucked last year. It is what it is.

Now that he’s playing well this year, that doesn’t mean you have to go back and make things up. He was a walking turnover against any team with a pulse and we were a flat out horrible team until Gillon took over at PG and Battle got healthy at SG. He played 28 minutes and had 6 turnovers against GTown and played 27 minutes and went 0-9 against UConn. Blaming the coach for that is weak. He was out there most of the game and didn’t get it done.

He sucked last year and he’s playing well so far and looks much improved this year. That can all be true. Props to him for putting in the work and improving and so far making the most of his opportunities this year. He looks like a new player with that jumper going in.

 

[SoBeCuse]

agree w you but it's not to say the offense was good w Gillon at the helm... so much side-to-side ball pounding and ill-advised drives into the tall trees - if not for amazing shot making of White and at times Lydon/Battle that offense last year would've averaged about 53 pts a game - not all Gillon's fault, but he was just not a good PG for us, all things (heroic 43 pts @ NC St, game winner vs Duke, etc) considered... which I guess tells us how bad FH was last year... but I do remember reports from people who attended practices early on saying FH was eating up Gillon in practice

Oh for sure. Gillon was the lesser of two evils so to speak. The offense at least could somewhat function at times with Gillon as opposed to Howard who was a fail outside of the cupcakes. But, like you said, outside of those heroics (which did get us a couple of Ws), he wasn’t very good.