You have no idea and obviously have blinders on. GMac single handily killed rally after rally with jacking up shots (bad, forced shots) coming off the bench after a short rest. He also won games single-handedly. Gmac doesn't even come close athletically. GMac couldn't drive at all. By the way, Cooney has 2 1/2 more years left. He is shooting over 50 % from three so far this year. Yet you think somehow it isn't half of what GMac was. ?????????
Your loyalty is commendable but your blinders need to come off. I'll wait to see what Cooney's final contributions are. He could just as easily far outpace GMac.
Hey Bees, I'm going to argue that GMac, in some ways, is a better shooter than TC. Don't assume that that means I hate Cooney and want him to fail. I am just as happy with his play this season as I was disappointed with it last season. It would be great for him, the team, me, and the universe, if he continues to shoot over 40% this season. So please don't add me to your dossier of Cooney haters, whoever you think they are.
SP, I have to disagree with most of your post. Lets start with the obvious, GMac had a far, far, far better freshman season than TC, and one does not even have to bring up the NC to argue that. That is a quarter of their careers right there - TC has a lot of catching up to do in the next 3 years. Fortunately, he is off to a great start this season and making up some ground on GMac.
TC has several advantages that GMac didn't have his last 3 seasons: 1) TC's point guards have been MCW and Ennis, while GMac had Billy for three disruptive half seasons, 2) TC plays only SG, while GMac was the PG when Billy wasn't playing, 3) in his soph and junior seasons, GMac's backcourt mates included Louis M, Josh Wright, and Josh Pace (a player I luv but not at the SG position), 4) for more than half of his career, GMac was SU's best player (or co-best), the PG, and primary outside scoring threat. As such he faced greater defensive attention than TC has seen or probably will see, and 5) as the #1 or #1b scoring option, GMac had to take more shots than TC (although this difference is modest, ~15%), GMac attempted a 3pt a little more often than 1 per 4 min, and TC is a little less than 1 per 4 min).
Because of the above, GMac had to create many of his own shots, and many times he had no choice but to attempt them off the dribble while he was going sideways, backwards, or forwards, while he being closely defended. That he was able to average ~35% in these circumstances is a fine achievement and a testament to his genius as a shooter, and the reason why he was able to hit so many clutch shots and game winners. As I have noted several times, this season and last, for TC to make shots, he must go straight up. Even a little off of perpendicular adversely affects his shot. This is fairly obvious in games if you look for it. In the StJ game he was moving sideways on 2 of his attempts. If TC had to take the more-than-a-little off perpendicular shots GMac did, I doubt TC would hit even 10% of them. So in the difficult shot catagory, GMac is far better.
The good news is that TC has taken advantage of his situation this season and is hitting 46% (not over 50% SP) - which is absolutely superb. On top of that, he is doing it consistently in most games. If he continues this production, he will be remembered as one of the greatest SU shooters, maybe better than GMac. He hopefully will be a good addition to the usual list of GOAT candidates: Kohls, GMac, Roe, Lee... But TC has only been doing it for 10 games, so he has a long ways to go. Could GMac hit 46% playing strictly SG on this season's team - hell yeah, but not a given, and it is unlikely that he could do much better than 46%, since that is a very high number.
So TC needs to keep being good and IB raises the relevant question if TC's production will fall in the face of increased defensive attention. Maybe this is what happened with StJ. Maybe not. Given the reasonably strong strength of the OOC schedule vs the rest of the season, I think he was adequately tested and will remain productive the rest of the season, but it is a legitimate issue. On the other hand, if a team puts their best defender on him and shuts him down, he is still contributing by making it easier for the rest of the team. I think both sides of this argument have been way over stated the past 2 days.
SP, as for the rest of you post. Cooney is bigger and stronger than GMac, other than that, I don't see the big athletic advantage. GMac had a very good handle and certainly got to the rim when he needed to, however, he was small and consequently not a great finisher, which is hardly an athletic issue. Except for the Notre Dame game last season, I am hard pressed to remember TC successfully driving to the basket. And you might remember that his drive to the basket against Michigan in the last play of last season did not work out well. So I don't understand why you bring up this issue.
