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Message: [QUOTE="domestu, post: 1005171, member: 1089"] I agree that the makeup of this team played a major role in our assist totals and Triche's numbers last season were boosted somewhat by having four years of experience as a starter and playing alongside MCW. But I disagree with some of your explanations for Cooney's low assists totals. In my opinion, the reason he had fewer assists than any other Syracuse starting guards is he isn't looking to do it. Brandon Triche had 99 assists as a freshman when he was inexperienced and playing alongside sophomore point guard Scoop Jardine. I realize that we had a much stronger lineup that year but Brandon always put up similar assist totals. Greg Monroe didn't play a lot his freshman season behind Gene Waldron but he was able to dish out 71 assists in very limited action. Our 2007-08 team had plenty of flaws and ended up going to the NIT but Eric Devendorf had more assists in the ten games he played before being injured than Cooney did this season. Trevor has been here for three years but I will except your premise that this was in effect his baptism. Michael Gbinije came into this season with even less college experience and he played almost eighteen fewer minutes a game than Cooney but he was able to find ways to get the ball to his teammates for baskets. I realize that this was a very poor passing team with many flaws on the offensive end but you can't use this as an excuse for Cooney's miniscule assist numbers. Gbinije was on the court far less than Trevor but he dished out more assists. If you look at the numbers by their minutes played, Michael averaged almost two more assists for every forty minutes of action. This team really struggled to score but one of the jobs of guards in the half court offense is to create things for their teammates. I can live with Trevor's perimeter shooting this season but I have a much harder time accepting these assists totals from a starting guard. [/QUOTE]

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