MCW and Dion should have been the starting backcourt last year | Syracusefan.com

MCW and Dion should have been the starting backcourt last year

dasher said:
yes. If they had, we might have been able to go as good as 34-3
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Or maybe even gotten a #1 seed.

Dion is easy, not who starts, its who finished and he mostly finished.
 
Cuse_MN said:
Or maybe even gotten a #1 seed.

Dion is easy, not who starts, its who finished and he mostly finished.
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i was mostly kidding about them starting, but i do think mcw should have got more run at the end of the year whenever bad scoop was making an appearance. the cincinnati game in the big east tournament comes immediately to mind.
 
knowing what we know now, then clearly the starting five for the NCAA tournament should have been:

MCW
Dion
Dirty
Rak
Baye
 
CorduroyG said:
i was mostly kidding about them starting, but i do think mcw should have got more run at the end of the year whenever bad scoop was making an appearance. the cincinnati game in the big east tournament comes immediately to mind.
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Not to mention that MCW was also our highest 3pt % shooter for the year.
 
CorduroyG said:
i was mostly kidding about them starting, but i do think mcw should have got more run at the end of the year whenever bad scoop was making an appearance. the cincinnati game in the big east tournament comes immediately to mind.
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Actually, Scoop played limited minutes that night (Mike hardly played in place of him, though - minutes went to Dion and Triche). And his assist-to-turnover was poor, but it wasn't point guard play that cost us that game. Horrific defense from our wings did us in (something was not unusual and could inspire a completely different "who should've played over whom" debate).
 
JB likes knowing what players are. He doesn't like the wild card of the frosh. If he doesn't have to play a freshman in a major role, he won't. Of course he knew Scoop Jardine didn't have the potential of MCW... but, he knew what Scoop's ceiling and floor was, and could live with it. MCW was still a wild card. JB hates wild cards... this is why he eats at the same 3 restaurants and wears the same shirts, suits and pants. He doesn't like change or the unknown.

JB's biggest perceived weakness is wanting to win EVERY single game. He won't give up a single win against Arkansas, even if it might help his team in March. Thats just him...
 
stuckinbig11 said:
Nope. MCW was not ready. Dion was better mentally off the bench.
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How do you determine that? Not trying to jump on you but to say that mentally he couldn't handle starting is kind of strange, especially since in the NBA he seems to be doing ok as a starter.
 
Cuse_MN said:
Or maybe even gotten a #1 seed.

Dion is easy, not who starts, its who finished and he mostly finished.
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Ding, ding, ding. Can't like this post enough.
 
moqui said:
knowing what we know now, then clearly the starting five for the NCAA tournament should have been:

MCW
Dion
Dirty
Rak
Baye
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and Jerami Grant's myth
 
There's nothing that indicates that MCW was this good last season.
 
CorduroyG said:
discuss

:eek:
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well...some may recall that prior to last season I posted that I thought we would be better off if scoop had left and we had a 3 man backcourt of McW, Triche, and dion (which was a veery well received post not). Basically my premise was that if Scoop came back mcw wouldnt play, and that mcw had a much higher upside than scoop and that if he got heavy minutes he would likely be better than scoop by march. I did think that overall we would lose a couple more regular season games as McW went through some growing pains. Now in retrospect it is a debatable point. It's pretty hard to argue with 34-3. And scoop played pretty well in the tourney, he certainly wasn't the reason we lost. Could McW, given a full season of playing time, have given us more than scoop? Maybe...but maybe not.
 
How would Dion have reacted to MCW having the ball in his hands as much as he does? My recollection is that they rarely played together.

While we are at it, should Sherman Douglas have started over Pearl Washington or with Pearl Washington?
 
Dion was perfect off the bench last year. He came in with fresh legs and attacked. 34-3.

MCW wasn't ready last year. He showed some good stuff last year in his limited time, but I don't think he could've done much better than Scoop. He is more ready this year.
 
BostonOrange said:
well...some may recall that prior to last season I posted that I thought we would be better off if scoop had left and we had a 3 man backcourt of McW, Triche, and dion (which was a veery well received post not). Basically my premise was that if Scoop came back mcw wouldnt play, and that mcw had a much higher upside than scoop and that if he got heavy minutes he would likely be better than scoop by march. I did think that overall we would lose a couple more regular season games as McW went through some growing pains. Now in retrospect it is a debatable point. It's pretty hard to argue with 34-3. And scoop played pretty well in the tourney, he certainly wasn't the reason we lost. Could McW, given a full season of playing time, have given us more than scoop? Maybe...but maybe not.
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It sounds like that premise was based upon junior year Scoop, when he was far more inconsistent than he was last season--quarterbacking the most potent transition attack in school history and rarely turning the ball over.

I don't think that anyone questions MCW's "upside" or that he has more potential than Scoop. The better question is: was a physically underdeveloped frosh MCW a better option than 5th year senior Scoop, which is certainly debatable in my opinion given the year Scoop had. And I also think the overall question doesn't factor in how much MCW's learning curve accelerated from last year's experience of playing against a tremendous group of backcourt talent every day in practice and how much he may have benefited from Scoop teaching him the ropes [it has been widely reported that Scoop took MCW under his wing and explicitly went out of his way to lead by example for the rest of the team].

It's an interesting debate, but I don't think that it holds much water given the year we had. The only thing I think would have improved last season between-the-lines is the Fab situation at the end of the year.
 
ForeverOrange said:
How do you determine that? Not trying to jump on you but to say that mentally he couldn't handle starting is kind of strange, especially since in the NBA he seems to be doing ok as a starter.
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In my view, Dion came into the game with a different mindset. He had watched the other team a bit and figured out where he could use his strengths (less pressure also). I think James is doing the same thing this year.
 
A point I haven't heard much is that MCW needs the ball in his hands to be most effective, and a lot of the offense ran through Dion and Kris Jo last season. In that case, having a 38% 3 point shooter (Scoop) on the floor was important. Like everyone else on the board, I love MCW's game, but his current 7% 3 point percentage leaves more than a little to be desired.
 
CorduroyG said:
:D
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Pot-stirrer-fg-pizza.png
 
Rocco said:
Dion was perfect off the bench last year. He came in with fresh legs and attacked. 34-3.

MCW wasn't ready last year. He showed some good stuff last year in his limited time, but I don't think he could've done much better than Scoop. He is more ready this year.
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He was very ready last year. The only difference between this year and last is time on the floor. His talent was very obvious last year. I will say again that MCW was the best player on the team last year. His game was very refined and if you didn't see it you were blind.
 
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