Tired of All the CJ Criticism.....

[newmexicuse]

I love CJ. He had a terrific season.

Just because he had one bad game he shouldn't be the fall guy.

The real fall guys play 2G, C, and Coach.

The 2gs and the Cs by and large haven't got the job done since conference play started.

The Coach is the one who had CJ playing with his tongue hanging out.

And speaking about the Coach - he is still playing w fire. Playing Jerami all 40 minutes when the kid is one twist away from having his season end ??? Backs get fatigued if you over stress them. Rest is needed. Mark my words, if we are lucky enough to win 2 or 3 games in the Dance and Jerami plays close to 40 MPG - it will come to a bad end.

 

[samspann1]

CJ seems like a great kid, but from a strictly on-court perspective, what facet of his game did he improve from last season?

 

[Kevind13]

One good thing to come out of the loss last night is the rest they get.

 

[Briancuse]

Love the kid, but he was awful last night, but with that said, the real blame is on Cooney, he needs to wake up and start playing better.

We shouldn't have to rely on Cj being great every game.

 

[newmexicuse]

CJ seems like a great kid, but from a strictly on-court perspective, what facet of his game did he improve from last season?

So CJ isn't a superstar who can carry a team by himself every game. Nobody ever said he was. Point is that he got the job done 75% of the time. The others I posted about didn't get the job done at all.

 

[Full_Rebar]

I think this is part of the reason for so many to argue for Roberson to get at least token minutes. None of the SU guys are what anyone would consider a go-to offensive player.

Personally, I'd like to see CJ shoot less because I think right now he feels like he has to score to make plays when the best play he made last night was a little pass/screen to free Ennis for an open 3. We need that CJ more than we need 25 shots per game CJ.

 

[samspann1]

So CJ isn't a superstar who can carry a team by himself evry game. Nobody ever said he was. Point is that he got the job done 75% of the time. The others I posted about didn't get the job done at all.

He's a good player, no doubt, and maybe he is being asked to do too much. But it's weird to me that, at least to my eyes, not a single facet of his game - shooting (from the field and from the line), passing, rebounding, ball-handling, defense - is better than it was last season.

 

[Melancer46]

CJ seems like a great kid, but from a strictly on-court perspective, what facet of his game did he improve from last season?

He's still a turnover machine, but up until this year, he could never create his own shot. This year he can sporadically.

 

[newmexicuse]

He's a good player, no doubt, and maybe he is being asked to do too much. But it's weird to me that, at least to my eyes, not a single facet of his game - shooting (from the field and from the line), passing, rebounding, ball-handling, defense - is better than it was last season.

Yes, you hit the nail on the head. He was asked to do too much because we had an unbalanced team and it was compounded because he was given no rest. CJ is at his best when he can let the game come to him.

 

[Melancer46]

Love the kid, but he was awful last night, but with that said, the real blame is on Cooney, he needs to wake up and start playing better.

We shouldn't have to rely on Cj being great every game.

We also shouldn't have to rely on Cooney to be the only guy that can stretch the defense, but those are the cards we've been dealt with this year.

 

[samspann1]

Yes, you hit the nail on the head. He was asked to do too much because we had an unbalanced team and it was compounded because he was given no rest. CJ is at his best when he can let the game come to him.

how does that explain the erratic ball-handling and defense, and lack of passing?

 

[Briancuse]

We also shouldn't have to rely on Cooney to be the only guy that can stretch the defense, but those are the cards we've been dealt with this year.

All I am asking is for Cooney to hit a couple of shots and stretch the defense, ideally we should have another shooting option, but if Cooney was hitting some of his shots, we would be in much better shape.

 

[two3zone]

CJ is a great player, one of my all time favorites here.

This year reminds me of Kris Joseph's last year where KJo was looked at as the leader and the go to guy and he just wasn't. This isn't a knock in either guy because the two of them are excellent players who are just not "go to" guys.

Jab mentioned last season they didn't run one play all year for CJ. And look how it worked, CJ last year was unbelievable and was constantly wide open. I think he dribbles more in one game this year than he did all of last.

His legacy here is going to be fine, he is going to be remembered as a rock, as a guy who showed up in almost every single game he played in. He's been extremely valuable for us and without him I couldn't imagine where we would be at this point.

 

[newmexicuse]

We also shouldn't have to rely on Cooney to be the only guy that can stretch the defense, but those are the cards we've been dealt with this year.

No those weren't the cards we were dealt. Those were the cards the Coach chose to play. We had two potential 3 point threats on the bench who never saw the light of day.

 

[Melancer46]

No those weren't the cards we were dealt. Those were the cards the Coach chose to play. We had two potential 3 point threats on the bench who never saw the light of day.

BJ is supposedly a good shooter (though he's struggled with his shot both in game and in warmups this year), but I'm guessing the other that your thinking of is Patterson? I don't think he's really a shooter at all. He's more like Monta Ellis where he has way more confidence in his shot than he should.

 

[newmexicuse]

BJ is supposedly a good shooter (though he's struggled with his shot both in game and in warmups this year), but I'm guessing the other that your thinking of is Patterson? I don't think he's really a shooter at all. He's more like Monta Ellis where he has way more confidence in his shot than he should.

My *itch is and has been all season that we will never know what might have been because the Coach did not develop his bench and give those kids + Roberson an opportunity.

Maybe, Patterson isn't a good trey shooter, but I doubt he would be below 25%, not to mention that maybe he could dribble drive & help break a D down. I have seen so little of BJ it makes me cringe, but the kid seems to have a smooth stroke. A little confidence and a bit of strength work and maybe he could have come on.

Regardless, could the two of them have played any worse then the Cooney-G combo that we are forced to watch ???

 

[Chris02M]

I love CJ. He had a terrific season.

Just because he had one bad game he shouldn't be the fall guy.

The real fall guys play 2G, C, and Coach.

The 2gs and the Cs by and large haven't got the job done since conference play started.

The Coach is the one who had CJ playing with his tongue hanging out.

And speaking about the Coach - he is still playing w fire. Playing Jerami all 40 minutes when the kid is one twist away from having his season end ??? Backs get fatigued if you over stress them. Rest is needed. Mark my words, if we are lucky enough to win 2 or 3 games in the Dance and Jerami plays close to 40 MPG - it will come to a bad end.

1 bad game have you watched since the 1st duke game? He has been bad in every game except for the 2 games last week

 

[longislandcuse]

I love CJ. He had a terrific season.

Just because he had one bad game he shouldn't be the fall guy.

The real fall guys play 2G, C, and Coach.

The 2gs and the Cs by and large haven't got the job done since conference play started.

The Coach is the one who had CJ playing with his tongue hanging out.

And speaking about the Coach - he is still playing w fire. Playing Jerami all 40 minutes when the kid is one twist away from having his season end ??? Backs get fatigued if you over stress them. Rest is needed. Mark my words, if we are lucky enough to win 2 or 3 games in the Dance and Jerami plays close to 40 MPG - it will come to a bad end.

JB is setting him up to be the fall guy. We run our freakin offense through a guy who should be a role player. The 2g and C spots are killing us, you're absolutely correct but Fair has not been as good as you've painted him. He hasn't improved anything from last year, in fact his 3 point shooting, defense and rebounding has regressed.

How does a 4 year player still have no right hand!?

JB picked the wrong horse to bet the house on and now he's riding him into the ground.

 

[two3zone]

JB is setting him up to be the fall guy. We run our freakin offense through a guy who should be a role player. The 2g and C spots are killing us, you're absolutely correct but Fair has not been as good as you've painted him. He hasn't improved anything from last year, in fact his 3 point shooting, defense and rebounding has regressed. How does a 4 year player still have no right hand!? JB picked the wrong horse to bet the house on and now he's riding him into the ground.

Not sure there is another horse in the race.

 

[longislandcuse]

Not sure there is another horse in the race.

There are 2. Ennis and Grant.

Ennis becomes the focal point of our offense and Grant gets the iso's.

 

[pulaski74]

I've seen cj hit several clutch shots this year and think he is a go to guy, but how many times should a kid have to be clutch. I guess what I'm trying to say is a really great shooter makes maybe 50% of his shots and so if u r constantly in 1,2,3 point games your chances as a go to guy coming thru is kinda like 50/50. Need to get after the opponent right out of the gate and build a comftable lead, keep the pedal to the metal bench or no bench. tv time out every 4 mins, stoppage for free throws plus coaches tos shold be plenty of rest. jmho

 

[newmexicuse]

JB is setting him up to be the fall guy. We run our freakin offense through a guy who should be a role player. The 2g and C spots are killing us, you're absolutely correct but Fair has not been as good as you've painted him. He hasn't improved anything from last year, in fact his 3 point shooting, defense and rebounding has regressed.

How does a 4 year player still have no right hand!?

JB picked the wrong horse to bet the house on and now he's riding him into the ground.

I paint CJ as a good to a very good player, not a great player. My point is that if we had five guys who played their positions as well as CJ, we would be a #1 seed, at least if they got a little bit of rest. CJ has been there so consistently for us that it sticks out like a sore thumb when he has the off game. He shouldn't be put in that position when we have other plays who have been flat out awful.

Some in this thread argue that CJ hasn't improved over last year. The only major failing I see is that his three point shooting has regressed. He can create for himself much better than he did last year. Problem is - he is a good player - not a superstar - so in some games when he creates it isn't going to happen & sometimes there will some extra TOs, but by and large he has gotten his 15 plus game in and game out.

 

[Alsacs]

Great post by our NBA scout poster who actually knows the game. I can't agree more. SG, Coaching staff and player development are the biggest problems.

 

[anomander]

I agree CJ has had to great of a career for him to be bad mouthed the way he has. I saw some tweets that were sent to him that made me sick. The kid is being asked to do something he really isn't capable of, and has done a pretty damn good job at it. Who would have ever thought when he was a Freshman he would be averaging 17ppg his Senior year? If anyone earned a pass it is him.

 

[Flora'cuse]

I agree, CJ had an off night and will recover from it.
CJ's our leading scorer and I'm not worried.