The requisite Mookie thread

[PoppyHart]

Just got back from game. Was in the 2nd row directly behind the bench and had a great view of what was being said.

As people have stated before, JB does indeed ask him if he want to play late in the game.

However, he asked him today AFTER Matty Ice and Reece were already in the game, and after he walked over to Resavy and told him to report.

In short, Mookie is the 13th man on the team (not including Cooney). It's pretty apparent that Mookie has basically quit.

 

[SouthCampusHero]

"Quit" is a strong word. You have no idea what he does in practice.

 

[stuckinbig11]

I don't think Mookie is #13. The walk-ons got to go to an away game in Chicago and can now say they played. Matt T. had earned the right to go in early, although it did not work out as well tonight.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Matty Ice had to go in first since Fab was done, Baye was hurt, and Rak fouled out.

 

[OrangeMuskyFish]

Just got back from game. Was in the 2nd row directly behind the bench and had a great view of what was being said.

As people have stated before, JB does indeed ask him if he want to play late in the game.

However, he asked him today AFTER Matty Ice and Reece were already in the game, and after he walked over to Resavy and told him to report.

In short, Mookie is the 13th man on the team (not including Cooney). It's pretty apparent that Mookie has basically quit.

Appreciate the insight, but this is why the sheer number of Mookie posts over the last three years are insane. I too think quit is far too strong a word, but more of it just being a case of Mookie having hit a point where his number on the depth chart is irrelevant, at best.

 

[SBU72]

Just got back from game. Was in the 2nd row directly behind the bench and had a great view of what was being said.

As people have stated before, JB does indeed ask him if he want to play late in the game.

However, he asked him today AFTER Matty Ice and Reece were already in the game, and after he walked over to Resavy and told him to report.

In short, Mookie is the 13th man on the team (not including Cooney). It's pretty apparent that Mookie has basically quit.

For a guy who has quit, he seems to do an awful lot of smiling, laughing and cheering on the sidelines. And when he does go in, he doesn't feel obliged to launch 3's when ever he touches the ball.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Just got back from game. Was in the 2nd row directly behind the bench and had a great view of what was being said.

As people have stated before, JB does indeed ask him if he want to play late in the game.

However, he asked him today AFTER Matty Ice and Reece were already in the game, and after he walked over to Resavy and told him to report.

In short, Mookie is the 13th man on the team (not including Cooney). It's pretty apparent that Mookie has basically quit.

Prediction (likely to go wrong, but I will look great if it comes to fruition): Mookie will impact at least one (1) BE game this year, either through injury, cold shooting, fouls, whatever.

 

[DoctorBombay]

I've gained alot more respect for Mookie this year, despite his many DNP's. His attitude seems to have changed, like he's accepted his status on this talented team, & rather than being a cancer or negative, he continues to cheer on his mates from the bench.
We've watched him sulk & bitch&moan for 3 years, but nowadays...nothing. I like how he's handled himself, he could've acted alot worse.

 

[PoppyHart]

I've gained alot more respect for Mookie this year, despite his many DNP's. His attitude seems to have changed, like he's accepted his status on this talented team, & rather than being a cancer or negative, he continues to cheer on his mates from the bench.
We've watched him sulk & bitch&moan for 3 years, but nowadays...nothing. I like how he's handled himself, he could've acted alot worse.

I agree. But with that acceptance of his status on the team and the improved attitude I believe also came a loss of passion or competitive fire. If he had that passion, he'd be ahead of walk-ons.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Truthfully, last season Mookie looked lean and mean, and this season he looks... not lean and mean.

 

[DoctorBombay]

Truthfully, last season Mookie looked lean and mean, and this season he looks... not lean and mean.

I think he's resigned to not getting any PT at Syracuse. He came back fit & ready last year & thought he'd get more time. When that didn't happen he chose not to transfer, but he was probably resigned to his fate.
He absolutely KNEW he'd ride the pine this year, so why not just get his degree & be on a potential NC winning team?
Seems like he made his choices, and his attitude indicates that he's OK with it.

 

[RF2044]

In short, Mookie is the 13th man on the team (not including Cooney). It's pretty apparent that Mookie has basically quit.

There's very little in this post that I agree with, Poppy--especially your conclusion. Let me give you an alternative viewpoint based upon first hand observation. When I was back in CNY over the holidays, I had the opportunity to attend the Seton Hall game--the first game I've been able to attend live in about two seasons. Got to the game very early, and went down to the court level to say hello to Mike W. [a softball teammate of my dad's] and watch the team warm up / shoot around.

For about 10 straight minutes [no exaggeration], Mookie didn't take a single shot. Instead, he was out defending MCW and Waiters on the perimeter as hard as he could--hand checking, grabbing, being physical, etc. while they tried to get past him into the lane. He was out there making them work hard, simulating the physical defense they might see during the game. I want to be clear that he was playing defense as hard as he could, not just horsing around. It was something we all noticed [and apologies, because my description above probably doesn't do much justice to what Mookie was doing, how hard he was making them work, etc.].

To me, it looked like a kid who has accepted his role--not quit--and who was working hard to get his teammates, who ARE getting PT playing ahead of him by the way, ready to go. I can't speak about it from a first hand perspective having only attended the one game, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that this is a ritual that Mookie does every game with MCW / Waiters, to help his teammates get ready to play.

All this talk about Mookie mailing it in is misguided, IMO. Why tear a kid down who seems to be putting the team above his own self interests? Kudos to him for understanding that even practice players can make important [and often unrecognized] contributions.

 

[PoppyHart]

There's very little in this post that I agree with, Poppy--especially your conclusion. Let me give you an alternative viewpoint based upon first hand observation. When I was back in CNY over the holidays, I had the opportunity to attend the Seton Hall game. Got there very early, and went down to the court level to say hello to Mike W [a softball teammate of my dad's] and watch the team warm up / shoot around.

For about 5 straight minutes, Mookie didn't take a single shot. Instead, he was out defending MCW and Waiters on the perimeter as hard as he could--hand checking, grabbing, being physical, etc. while they tried to get past him into the lane. He was out there making them work hard, simulating the physical defense they might see during the game. It was something we all noticed [and apologies, because my description above probably doesn't do much justice to what Mookie was doing, how hard he was making them work, etc.].

To me, it looked like a kid who has accepted his role--not quit--and who was working hard to get his teammates, who ARE getting PT playing ahead of him by the way, ready to go.

All this talk about Mookie mailing it in is misguided, IMO. Kudos to him for understanding that even practice players can contribute to the team, and for putting the team above his own self-interests.

When you say there's very little you agree with, I assume you mean the last two sentences which you highlighted. The rest of the post is factual, so there's really nothing to dispute. That is, Tomaschewski and Reese were already playing in the game, and JB walked over to Resavy at the end of the bench. On his way back to his seat, JB leaned in to Mookie and asked him if he wanted to play. Those are simply the facts.

So, my conclusion is that he's behind those two on the depth chart; i.e. #13. Of course there could be alternate conclusions. Maybe he was hurt, for example. Or, as one poster theorized, MT and BR were merely in the game as some sort of reward or so they could say they played in a BE road game, as if JB was in the business of handing out bucket list items.

Another said that MT "had" to play b/c Keita was injured, Rak fouled out, and Fab was "done" (not sure what he meant by the latter.) But the implication is that as long as JB is still coaching until the final whistle he's gonna put his best unit in.

It's apparent that you (and others) don't like the choice of the word "quit". I'm sure he fulfills his duties to the team, shows up on time, doesn't cause tension, etc... But with his talent, he should not be beaten out by walk-ons, if that's what has indeed occurred. Put another way, imo he lost the drive/passion to be the best player he could be. I call that quitting, whether it's that he quit on himself or the team. Maybe there's another PC term for it, but that's just semantics.

 

[DoctorBombay]

When you say there's very little you agree with, I assume you mean the last two sentences which you highlighted. The rest of the post is factual, so there's really nothing to dispute. That is, Tomaschewski and Reese were already playing in the game, and JB walked over to Resavy at the end of the bench. On his way back to his seat, JB leaned in to Mookie and asked him if he wanted to play. Those are simply the facts.

So, my conclusion is that he's behind those two on the depth chart; i.e. #13. Of course there could be alternate conclusions. Maybe he was hurt, for example. Or, as one poster theorized, MT and BR were merely in the game as some sort of reward or so they could say they played in a BE road game, as if JB was in the business of handing out bucket list items.

Another said that MT "had" to play b/c Keita was injured, Rak fouled out, and Fab was "done" (not sure what he meant by the latter.) But the implication is that as long as JB is still coaching until the final whistle he's gonna put his best unit in.

It's apparent that you (and others) don't like the choice of the word "quit". I'm sure he fulfills his duties to the team, shows up on time, doesn't cause tension, etc... But with his talent, he should not be beaten out by walk-ons, if that's what has indeed occurred. Put another way, imo he lost the drive/passion to be the best player he could be. I call that quitting, whether it's that he quit on himself or the team. Maybe there's another PC term for it, but that's just semantics.

Quitting implies failure.
If that was truly the case, Mookie wouldn't be on the team right now- he would've pulled a Khem Birch or DeMarcus Cousins & gone home. Instead he's on the team, actively involved in practices & during games.
Again, it seems pretty obvious he figured out that he wasn't gonna get much PT at SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY, but was willing to stay regardless. He could've left the program, gone to a Marist or Hofstra, & gotten some run at a lower level. He CHOSE not to take that route and instead, redefined his role here at SU. Maybe the degree, the relationships, the education, the stature, had something to do with his deciding to stay.
This, IMO, is an admirable move by Mookie- & as long as he seems happy with his role, then who are we as fans to disparage his choices by simply saying, "he quit"?

 

[RF2044]

When you say there's very little you agree with, I assume you mean the last two sentences which you highlighted. The rest of the post is factual, so there's really nothing to dispute. That is, Tomaschewski and Reese were already playing in the game, and JB walked over to Resavy at the end of the bench. On his way back to his seat, JB leaned in to Mookie and asked him if he wanted to play. Those are simply the facts.

It's apparent that you (and others) don't like the choice of the word "quit". I'm sure he fulfills his duties to the team, shows up on time, doesn't cause tension, etc... But with his talent, he should not be beaten out by walk-ons, if that's what has indeed occurred. Put another way, imo he lost the drive/passion to be the best player he could be. I call that quitting, whether it's that he quit on himself or the team. Maybe there's another PC term for it, but that's just semantics.

Specifically, I disagree with your conclusions [plural] that Mookie is the 13th man, and that he's "quit." I'm not going to split hairs over different personal opinions for what constitutes different gradations of quitting--pointless exercise, and that wasn't the intent of my response to you above.

One more thing: you responded while I was editing my original post in this thread, and your response was made before I'd added the following [sorry about that]:

All this talk about Mookie mailing it in is misguided, IMO. Why tear a kid down who seems to be putting the team above his own self interests? Kudos to him for understanding that even practice players can make important [and often unrecognized] contributions.​

That pretty much sums up my opinion on this subject. I'm not trying to be argumentative, but bottom line: I don't see the need to cast aspersions toward a kid who is working hard behind the scenes, or the value in applying amateur armchair psychology to attribute meaning to his motivations.

 

[SBU72]

When you say there's very little you agree with, I assume you mean the last two sentences which you highlighted. The rest of the post is factual, so there's really nothing to dispute. That is, Tomaschewski and Reese were already playing in the game, and JB walked over to Resavy at the end of the bench. On his way back to his seat, JB leaned in to Mookie and asked him if he wanted to play. Those are simply the facts.

So, my conclusion is that he's behind those two on the depth chart; i.e. #13. Of course there could be alternate conclusions. Maybe he was hurt, for example. Or, as one poster theorized, MT and BR were merely in the game as some sort of reward or so they could say they played in a BE road game, as if JB was in the business of handing out bucket list items.

Another said that MT "had" to play b/c Keita was injured, Rak fouled out, and Fab was "done" (not sure what he meant by the latter.) But the implication is that as long as JB is still coaching until the final whistle he's gonna put his best unit in.

It's apparent that you (and others) don't like the choice of the word "quit". I'm sure he fulfills his duties to the team, shows up on time, doesn't cause tension, etc... But with his talent, he should not be beaten out by walk-ons, if that's what has indeed occurred. Put another way, imo he lost the drive/passion to be the best player he could be. I call that quitting, whether it's that he quit on himself or the team. Maybe there's another PC term for it, but that's just semantics.

So if Dion comes in a game before CJ, that makes him 6th man, not CJ? Or if Southerland comes in before CJ, that makes CJ 8th man? I think you are reading way to much in when JB puts players in at the end of the game. For a long time people were assuming that JB disliked Mookie because Mook wasn't palying, then it was pointed out that Mook was declining pt so the walkons could play. Does that mean that JB has to ask Mookie before he asks the walkons for every game?

 

[armory]

Face the facts people! Mookie will never be a substantial player on this team. Accept it and move on.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

When you say there's very little you agree with, I assume you mean the last two sentences which you highlighted. The rest of the post is factual, so there's really nothing to dispute. That is, Tomaschewski and Reese were already playing in the game, and JB walked over to Resavy at the end of the bench. On his way back to his seat, JB leaned in to Mookie and asked him if he wanted to play. Those are simply the facts.

So, my conclusion is that he's behind those two on the depth chart; i.e. #13. Of course there could be alternate conclusions. Maybe he was hurt, for example. Or, as one poster theorized, MT and BR were merely in the game as some sort of reward or so they could say they played in a BE road game, as if JB was in the business of handing out bucket list items.

Another said that MT "had" to play b/c Keita was injured, Rak fouled out, and Fab was "done" (not sure what he meant by the latter.) But the implication is that as long as JB is still coaching until the final whistle he's gonna put his best unit in.

It's apparent that you (and others) don't like the choice of the word "quit". I'm sure he fulfills his duties to the team, shows up on time, doesn't cause tension, etc... But with his talent, he should not be beaten out by walk-ons, if that's what has indeed occurred. Put another way, imo he lost the drive/passion to be the best player he could be. I call that quitting, whether it's that he quit on himself or the team. Maybe there's another PC term for it, but that's just semantics.

Really, in a be game, that is still in doubt, when we need a 2G or SF, will those guys get in ahead of Mookie: No. That is how you judge the depth chart.

 

[KingOtis]

Really, in a be game, that is still in doubt, when we need a 2G or SF, will those guys get in ahead of Mookie: No. That is how you judge the depth chart.

This. Someone started a thread last week pondering whether or not it was a mistake to redshirt Cooney. But he was only going to get in as an emergency three-point specialist. That's Mookie's role right now. He may never be called upon, but that's his purpose during games.

 

[SaintTristan]

I cant think of anything less requisite than discussing mookie.

 

[DoctorBombay]

Face the facts people! Mookie will never be a substantial player on this team. Accept it & move on.

You mean the way Mookie has already done?
The side issue is whether we should call what he's doing "quitting", as the OP is saying.
IMO, his lack of playing time and seeming acceptance on the depth chart, doesn't equal "quitting".
Seems to me he finally accepted reality & is making the best of it.
Big difference. :noidea:

 

[jekelish]

Why do we talk about Mookie Blaylock so much on this board?