Another missed opportunity for Vital

[SeattleHoop]

Nobody said he is terrible. He is just not elite and if he is a go to guy we are in trouble. There are plenty of miles between terrible and elite go to guy. Hes a solid player that is kind of thrust into being more than what he is capable of. Nice role piece. As far as Rashad goes, you can give me percentages and stats all day long. The guy was one of the most clutch players in UConn history. The shot in the corner against Duke. We don't win #2 without that. The shot against Washington to force OT against the Brandon Roy team. Ridiculous. The sweet 16 game against Alabama where he was so hot he was blowing on his hands. He fell out of bed and hit more big clutch shots than so many players. His one dimension was lethal when it counted most. His impact went beyond the numbers. You just never felt like you were out of a game with him on the floor. He was a weapon plain and simple.

You just read my mind completely. He was an automatic 3 point machine and completely saved an NBA ready roster from losing on multiple occasions.

 

[whaler11]

It's like Scott Burrell's senior year. No one was left on the team from before and he assumed the go-to guy role without having go-to guy game.

Most people should remember Albert Mouring.

If more people just understand his junior and senior seasons - the world would be a better place.

 

[Fishy]

First, see the “CV has become our go-to guy by far!”.

Second, punch yourself in the throat. You frequently have the worst assessments on this entire board. A 1,000 point scorer even on a bad team is still a very good player.

He’s not a very good player.

If you think he is just because he’s scored a thousand points, you’re just stone stupid.

There’s a reason this team has won about 40% of its AAC games in the three years Vital has been here - it’s because we’ve had Jalen Adams and a bunch of guys who just aren’t good enough to help him.

Most people should remember Albert Mouring.

If more people just understand his junior and senior seasons - the world would be a better place.

Why?

 

[whaler11]

Why?

Surrounded by a certain cohort of teammates - Mouring can hit almost half his three pointers as a junior.

Then when he returns as a senior with higher expectations and a different set of teammates that don’t allow him such freedom things don’t go so well.

When Vital is the third or fourth option in your offense he can be realtively efficient and productive. With weaker teammates where a defense focuses on stopping him his limitations are exposed.

With respect to this conversation, people seem to think players improve in a linear fashion and anticipate the combination of another year and higher usage would lead to positive things for Vital. In fact the opposite is true - more usage exposes him and he becomes less effective.

To answer your question more directly - if people better understood Mouring’s career it would mean they understood the context of results and there would be many fewer absurd takes here.

 

[UCfor3]

I'm not sure this is relevant but I remember Rashamel Jones being one of our best players/scorers his first couple years. When we.got better players he took a backseat and when he was a senior we won a ship in 99. He was a.bit part on that team. Kind of reminds me of Vital. When your team is middling, someone has to to put up numbers and be responsible for scoring. When your team is nails, guys like that fade into a role and make way for the alphas. Hopefully next year we start ushering in some alphas.

 

[Waquoit]

Most people should remember Albert Mouring.

If more people just understand his junior and senior seasons - the world would be a better place.

Not his fault that the only person he could take off the dribble turned out to be Corey Magette.

 

[Blaneylover]

I felt bad for Vital at SMU. He fell back into the habits he has developed over his first two years. He tried to do too much on the offensive end...more than he should ever try to do. Coach Hurley has really gotten him to play more to his strengths this year. On Thursday, when the team was getting pasted, the kid tried to do more than he is capable of doing. The difference between this year and last year (one of the many differences) is that this coach isn't tolerating that kind of play out of him. With that being said, what else was the issue with Vital and Wilson? Who knows? Whatever it is (was), the message apparently was sent.