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Again, as annoyed as I was with Tyler Olander's tweet a couple of weeks back, hasn't The Boneyard more or less proven him correct?
Jeremy Lamb
- Thread starter superjohn
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Sure has. When you look at it, the current UConn seniors are the first class to have experienced two final fours in their time at UConn. I wonder if that has created a whole different set of expectations for the student fan. Not saying everyone making similar comments has to be a student, just an observation.
The play where Boatright lobbed him the full-court pass (perfectly placed by Boat, BTW) and it bounced a couple of feet in front of him and just rolled out of bounds because he: a.) didn't even try to catch it out of the air, b.) didn't even try to catch it off of the first bounce in front of him (where he could've reached it if he put his hands out and attempted to), and c.) watched it bounce out of bounds in front of him instead of busting his ass for 5 yards to grab the ball and save it. He was jogging at best and it was exposed best when the ball was just going out of bounds and he sprinted for about 2 steps to act like he was trying to save it. Screw sprinting at that speed for a longer period of time when it actually matters in order to catch the ball, I'll just spring for a couple feet as it goes out of bounds and make it look like a bad pass that I couldn't save.
I haven't ragged on Jeremy all year... I may have said once or twice that I'd like to see him come off screens harder and fight to get open more... but other than that I haven't taken jabs at his effort AT ALL this year. But his effort was seriously exposed today. I always wrote it off as just his demeanor... but it goes beyond that and it has become clear as day after tonight's game.
Sure he had a 32 point game, great. That is because he has talent. Talent will get you a 30+ point game at some point. But effort and heart (combined with his level of talent) will get you multiple 30 point games a season and will help you, as the "best player" on the team, will your team to victory.
I haven't ragged on Jeremy all year... I may have said once or twice that I'd like to see him come off screens harder and fight to get open more... but other than that I haven't taken jabs at his effort AT ALL this year. But his effort was seriously exposed today. I always wrote it off as just his demeanor... but it goes beyond that and it has become clear as day after tonight's game.
Sure he had a 32 point game, great. That is because he has talent. Talent will get you a 30+ point game at some point. But effort and heart (combined with his level of talent) will get you multiple 30 point games a season and will help you, as the "best player" on the team, will your team to victory.
It is one thing to be a fairweather fan, insult the team, give up on them, and not continue to hope that they will turn it around. I do not feel that questioning a player's effort/heart after a performance like tonight falls into that category by any means. If you are doing it all season long at every mistake or slip-up, then OK you have a point... but tonight was an abysmal display of effort/heart on his behalf. He's not alone, but as someone that is supposed to be the best player and be a leader (at least by example since he's not a vocal leader obviously)... it's just abysmal. Only way to describe it really.
And the "expecting too much" out of a sophomore doesn't apply to a player that almost left for the NBA last year because he thought he was ready after a solid post-season winning streak. He put himself in this role.
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