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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1338140, member: 289"] UTILITY PLAYER Michael Gbinije 6-7 200 junior- Mike, (the ‘G’ is silent: Bin-eh-Jay), transferred here from Duke with three seasons of eligibility left. In his high school, highlight films he looked like a high school version of Michael Jordan or maybe LeBron James. I saw everything you’d want to see: three pointers, pull-up jumpers, drives to the hoop, alley-oops, (given and received), rebounds, blocks, steals. On one play he blocked a jump shot, outran the shooter to the ball, dribbled the length of the court and slammed it in. The guy looked like a gold-plated superstar who was gracing us with his presence. Of course, that left open the question of why he wasn’t a superstar at Duke. Coach K decided he’d never get to play with the players he had there and kind of brokered the deal to get him to Syracuse to play for his friend, Boeheim. When we finally got to see him, he didn’t seem like the same player at all. He seemed to defer to his teammates and not try to do too much. But there were flashes of what we’d seen. He scored 8 points and had a couple of rebounds and steals in 20 minutes on his return to Duke in the “sport coat” game. He had another 8 point game in the season-ending loss to Dayton, which made him our third leading scorer in that game. But the season was a disappointment nonetheless. He didn’t score much. He didn’t rebound much. He played fairly well on defense. He backed up Ennis at the point, even though he wasn’t a point guard by trade, (he had 41 assists in 497 minutes compared to 187 in 1215 for Ennis). I expected a lot more from “Silent G” but he was pretty silent. This year, I hoped he would assert himself more and we’d see more of the talent I saw in that high school tape. I was excited when he hit his first shot- a three- against Carleton, then dismayed when his second shot- also a three- was an air ball that never got there and bounced out of bounds. He didn’t do a lot of scoring afterwards and I assumed he wasn’t having a good game but more discerning posters pointed out that his defense and rebounding led us back into the game after we were down by 15 and helped people us to victory. He wound up with 6 points and 6 rebounds along with 4 assists and a block in 35 minutes. He had another good game vs. Adrian, scoring 10 with 3 boards, 6 assists, a block and 4 steals. He was suspended for unstated reasons, (“It’s a team thing”). He came back to get 6 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists vs. Hampton, so he really hasn’t had a bad game this season. I think my problem with Mike is that I was expecting a star player when he’s more of a ‘glue guy’, a jack-of-all-trades. Last year he was master of none: he didn’t rebound enough to be a forward or pass well enough to be a point guard or score enough to be a shooting guard. This year he is rebounding and is passing the ball well, (he has 12 assists in the three games he’s played: Joseph has 13 in those same games in four more minutes played). He’s making his impact that way. [I]Comments: Mike suddenly became the guy I’d seen on those high school videos in mid-season having a remarkable run in a six game stretch against North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Boston College, Duke and Louisville- the heart of the schedule- in which he scored 123 points, pulled down 28 rebounds, dished out 29 assists and made 15 steals, shooting 59% from the field and and incredible 51% form the three point line. He was arguably the best player on the team, including Rakeem Christmas, in those games. But he faded after that, scoring 54 points in the last five games on 17/61 (.279) shooting, (7/27, .259 from the arc.), although his floor game was still good with 26 rebounds, 18 assists and 14 steals. The difference was aggressiveness. He tends to defer to teammates a lot, which si good if you have All-Americans on your team but when you are the most talented player we have on the floor, you’ve got to be a more consistent producer. I’m hoping he’ll be that next season. I’d also like to see if he can take over at the point for long stretches. A 6-7, 6-4 backcourt could do wonders for the zone, (that was the line-up that baffled Virginia until they started hitting the boards). It may not be his natural positon but I’m not sure the alternatives are any better. [/I] [/QUOTE]

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