Lets talk about SU players with passion effort and fire

[shu 49]

Jim should sit them two until they play hard. Period. 1 or 2 games of not playing and they will either fix it or move on. Either one is fine bye me. If u have no effort, u shouldn’t play period.

 

[Trueblue25]

mcw comes to mind

 

[dollarbill44]

This teams soft and you cant push them like they need. JBs 4x their age and unfortunately he has 4x the passion of most of the kids on this team.

What leads you to that conclusion? JB's pressers? Passion is more than being frustrated your team lost and blaming everyone else.

 

[swish7]

Your list reminds me what I was doing the other night. I was going down the roster and identifying one thing that every player does or doesn't do that hurts the team. For Brown, there really isn't anything. Yeah, he may not have the offensive ceiling like Benny or Bell, but he contributes each and every minute of the game. He lets his presence be known. Just a solid player.

Exactly. He's not John Wallace or anything yet, but he is out there making positive things happen. I feel the same way about Taylor. Most of his impact to the team is positive. May not be the most major impact, but it is a positive one.

The comment someone else made about how the group behaves is really spot on. I have noticed a few individuals who are delayed in transition from O to D, or D to O because they are slow to get up, or woofing about something, and that is a problem we really cannot afford. That is really on JB, but also the tone set by the upperclassmen.

 

[swish7]

Nice job summing up what we have seen so far this season with this team. I could bicker a bit on Jon Bol over Mintz but they are definitely the top of the list with Q also in the mix. I think the critical thing you mention regarding the need for our seniors to set the tone. Just not happening! Maybe why I lean a bit towards Jon Bol over Mintz. Makes you wonder if there is even a leader in this group? Natural leaders would have emerged by now, you would think?

For the record, while drafting this, I actually had Mintz in 3rd, under Bol, But at the last second, I moved Mintz up bc of his overall positive contributions w scoring and everything. I do think the woofing holds him back, bc it sometimes takes too long & the opponent is breaking the other way.

 

[tbonezone]

george hicker . he was ejected during a game from his second row seat. classic.

 

[Red Holzman]

george hicker . he was ejected during a game from his second row seat. classic.

+1
Recalled that, but not when, therefore put Google to work-
2007 Villanova -wow 15yrs ago

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

What leads you to that conclusion? JB's pressers? Passion is more than being frustrated your team lost and blaming everyone else.

Watching them play tells you they are soft. Winning doesn’t seem to matter to them.

 

[Red Holzman]

Watching them play tells you they are soft. Winning doesn’t seem to matter to them.

In general, way too much catering to the young people that are the future of this country.
Stories about education in the news, and that I get from the front lines at a HS, worry me.
Of course stress and pressure on kids should be acknowledged -but from my perspective the overriding fear of hurting feelings/confidence/self-esteem is way overdone.
Being programmed to think the world will always revolve around them and self-characterizing as "victims" does not lead to a productive, well-balanced adults.
ie: a lot of what's going on in this country programs kids to be soft and self-possessed, and that doesn't bode well for the future.

I apologize for derailing "soft" into this editorial comment. Lots going on to worry about the future, but this is as big as any IMO.
Yes, I am of older vintage so you can write this off based on that! I'm painting with a broad brush, not speaking all young people but of a concerning trend -we'll see where it leads.

 

[FrancoPizza]

The pride of making the tournament has faded here and elsewhere across college hoops. Winning games isn’t as big of a deal. It’s nice but they don’t lose sleep over it. Certainly many draft picks aren’t affected by playing for losing teams.

For some of the guys we brought in, they are sometimes content just getting opportunities to see the court.

It’s a bad combination.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

The pride of making the tournament has faded here and elsewhere across college hoops. Winning games isn’t as big of a deal. It’s nice but they don’t lose sleep over it. Certainly many draft picks aren’t affected by playing for losing teams.

For some of the guys we brought in, they are sometimes content just getting opportunities to see the court.

It’s a bad combination.

I think part of this is due to the AAU mentality

 

[Red Holzman]

The pride of making the tournament has faded here and elsewhere across college hoops. Winning games isn’t as big of a deal. It’s nice but they don’t lose sleep over it. Certainly many draft picks aren’t affected by playing for losing teams.

For some of the guys we brought in, they are sometimes content just getting opportunities to see the court.

It’s a bad combination.

Teams stocked with 1-and-done five stars lose having leaders on the floor.
The experienced 4-year guys as standard bearers, enforcers of work ethic, team values, and team goals.
The 5* programs hit reset every year, and though loaded with future NBA talent are somewhat rudderless vs some lesser teams with lots of experience that are battle-tested and therefore can win those games.

The bouncing-around created by NIL just adds to this.
Far more entertaining for a fan to look forward to battles between their team's top player and a rival program's top player over 3-4 years, vs. highly-skilled players making a 1 season NIL-funded cameo on their way to the NBA.

 

[orangezen]

DOLEMITE always played hard .. he even played after getting tooth knocked out

 

[SWC75]

I touched on this last night on my two cents post. Effort, balls to the wall passion. Hating to lose. Leaders.
This team lacks the leadership and all out puke your guts out, fist through the wall, will your team, cry , scream and kick players that win.
Pearl takes on Ewing. DC takes on the football team, Gmac, Devo, Flynn, Hop, Bug, Marty, Lees, Buddy, Battle,
And JB. Yes our coach who used to go out of his mind ,bat sh...t crazy throw his jacket have to be restrained coach.
To todays bunch.
Mintz has it. Copeland, Hima, passion, a hatred of losing.
The rest i dont see it. Sure some in spurts but nothing like Gmac or Devo or Hop. Not even close.
We have talent on this team. We dont have enough DOGS. Back in the day if you didnt give a 1000% in the game you did suicides till you puked your guts out.
This teams soft and you cant push them like they need. JBs 4x their age and unfortunately he has 4x the passion of most of the kids on this team.

It depends on the DOG.

 

[UnderHisOwnPower]

I touched on this last night on my two cents post. Effort, balls to the wall passion. Hating to lose. Leaders.
This team lacks the leadership and all out puke your guts out, fist through the wall, will your team, cry , scream and kick players that win.
Pearl takes on Ewing. DC takes on the football team, Gmac, Devo, Flynn, Hop, Bug, Marty, Lees, Buddy, Battle,
And JB. Yes our coach who used to go out of his mind ,bat sh...t crazy throw his jacket have to be restrained coach.
To todays bunch.
Mintz has it. Copeland, Hima, passion, a hatred of losing.
The rest i dont see it. Sure some in spurts but nothing like Gmac or Devo or Hop. Not even close.
We have talent on this team. We dont have enough DOGS. Back in the day if you didnt give a 1000% in the game you did suicides till you puked your guts out.
This teams soft and you cant push them like they need. JBs 4x their age and unfortunately he has 4x the passion of most of the kids on this team.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

I touched on this last night on my two cents post. Effort, balls to the wall passion. Hating to lose. Leaders.
This team lacks the leadership and all out puke your guts out, fist through the wall, will your team, cry , scream and kick players that win.
Pearl takes on Ewing. DC takes on the football team, Gmac, Devo, Flynn, Hop, Bug, Marty, Lees, Buddy, Battle,
And JB. Yes our coach who used to go out of his mind ,bat sh...t crazy throw his jacket have to be restrained coach.
To todays bunch.
Mintz has it. Copeland, Hima, passion, a hatred of losing.
The rest i dont see it. Sure some in spurts but nothing like Gmac or Devo or Hop. Not even close.
We have talent on this team. We dont have enough DOGS. Back in the day if you didnt give a 1000% in the game you did suicides till you puked your guts out.
This teams soft and you cant push them like they need. JBs 4x their age and unfortunately he has 4x the passion of most of the kids on this team.

I don’t understand.

Firstly, you have Hima on the “passion” list? When was that displayed?

Secondly, you name players through our history who have it, but aren’t they like one or two per team throughout those years? And then you say this current team has a few… so, how is that different?

Thirdly, I don’t think the guys who ‘wear it on their sleeves’ and are the most demonstrative in terms of ‘fire’ are necessarily more valuable than those who may have it internally. Melo, Hak, Owens, Seikaly, Rak, Arinze… all were ‘killers’ in their own way. Personally, don’t need to see trash talking and flexing after spectacular plays, or guys who are likely to throw a punch. And I don’t think we can measure ‘will to win’ by on-court histrionics. I’ll take a player who goes about his business and puts in the work behind the scenes because he needs to win/be better. It helps to have a leader, but that has to be earned, over time, and we have a squad of ‘kids.’ Maybe it’s just unfortunate that our ‘elder’ in JG3 is relatively ‘unassuming’ and “cool, calm, and collective [sic]“ but I don’t think that’s an indication that he doesn’t care.

That all said, the team is soft. That’s a factor of multiple things. Being mostly yutes, but also the physical thing. We never have a player who physically outmatches his counterpart on the other team. We have thin, lean dudes, and they have to be able to use skills/characteristics other than ‘beef/brawn’ to win individual battles, and that carries over to the overall signature of the team.