This picture of Johnnie Morant wasn't taken during his freshman year, we can promise you thatChamp brought us all some happy thoughts yesterday, so now it's time to get back to what we do best, bitching and complaining. While Orange nation is in full scale melt down mode, I thought today would be the perfect day to add another complaint to the growing list - specifically the use of center Sean Williams. After Eric Devendorf went down it was announced that Williams would not be redshirted and would play this season.
At the time, it made perfect sense; we all knew injuries and defections have left the team with little depth. However, since that decision has been made, Williams has played a grand total of 22 minutes this year. In other words, he's played slightly more than the amount of time Jonny Flynn spends on the court in one half. In this limited time he's shown that he's very raw, but with his huge wingspan and height, it is easy to see why the staff recruited him - the physical attributes he has can't be coached.
It's also easy to see that wasting his redshirt year turned out to be the wrong decision. Look, hindsight is 20/20 and it's easy for some jerk to anonymously criticize people on the internet, but when a guard goes down, it's not going to open up a lot of minutes for a center. If Rick Jackson or Arinze had gone down (and you could argue Arinze has gone down the last 4 games) it would make sense to work Williams into the rotation, because he would have HAD to play.
Boeheim has won a national championship, he's in the Hall of Fame and winning the title in 2003 was one of the greatest sporting moments as fans we've all had in our lives, but that certainly doesn't mean he's perfect (unlike T3I of course). Williams may or may not develop into a quality big man and depending on how next year's recruits pan out, 2008-09 could turn out to be a redshirt year for him, but that doesn't change the fact that this season will most likely end with Williams playing less in one season than Scoop Jardine did on Wednesday night. I hope in a few years we aren't saying, boy Williams is really coming around, we could use him for one more year, because that would suck.
At the time, it made perfect sense; we all knew injuries and defections have left the team with little depth. However, since that decision has been made, Williams has played a grand total of 22 minutes this year. In other words, he's played slightly more than the amount of time Jonny Flynn spends on the court in one half. In this limited time he's shown that he's very raw, but with his huge wingspan and height, it is easy to see why the staff recruited him - the physical attributes he has can't be coached.
It's also easy to see that wasting his redshirt year turned out to be the wrong decision. Look, hindsight is 20/20 and it's easy for some jerk to anonymously criticize people on the internet, but when a guard goes down, it's not going to open up a lot of minutes for a center. If Rick Jackson or Arinze had gone down (and you could argue Arinze has gone down the last 4 games) it would make sense to work Williams into the rotation, because he would have HAD to play.
Boeheim has won a national championship, he's in the Hall of Fame and winning the title in 2003 was one of the greatest sporting moments as fans we've all had in our lives, but that certainly doesn't mean he's perfect (unlike T3I of course). Williams may or may not develop into a quality big man and depending on how next year's recruits pan out, 2008-09 could turn out to be a redshirt year for him, but that doesn't change the fact that this season will most likely end with Williams playing less in one season than Scoop Jardine did on Wednesday night. I hope in a few years we aren't saying, boy Williams is really coming around, we could use him for one more year, because that would suck.
Complaint Department closed - it's time for Happy Hour.
3 comments:
I love jim, and do not want any other coach. But sometimes his poor decisions or mistakes are overlooked because people are afraid to criticize him. He should be held accountable for f'ups like this, or for trying to kill the clock with 17 minutes left in the game ala cuse losing to l'ville last year.......
I don't think this was a major screw up by Boeheim. He knows that Sean Williams won't be ready to contribute next year either, and there's nothing to stop the team from redshirting Sean as a sohphomore. Whether he uses the redshirt in his first or second season, we still get him for five years. Best case with a guy like Williams is that he contributes as a junior or senior, so at this stage his status doesn't matter much. For the moment, we have Arinze and Ricky holding down the center spot for a few more years anyway.
It's certainly not the end of the world, but had they kept the shirt on him this year, next year maybe we would have got 100 minutes out of him instead of 20 - it's about maximizing a player's time. Like I said, it's not the end of the world, but it was a panic move. As it is, he'll most likely not see the court again this year.
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