@BNich @DaveHuskiesFan @Stainmaster I just don’t get how you guys can crown a player with results like this our best player. I don’t care what else he does and I’m not going to be play nice anymore. He’s our senior leader, yes. Mentally strong, yes. But SO very limited. When him and AG leave we will instantly be a better team before even adding anyone new.
OK, listen up.
You already acknowledged that you shouldn't have posted in a thread where you rejected the premise. And now you're at it one day later in a different thread. That's the piece specifically for you.
To continue...
We just witnessed the youngsters doing what many have been begging for, and it looked pretty good. Stay with me.
Preseason comments included (I'm paraphrasing), "If CV is our high scorer, then we're not a very good team," and "We will only go as far as Carlton & Gilbert take us." As of today, those two statements are ever more true. They also mean something different in the case of the second one.
Before today, the claim would be, "Who else do we have?" implying that the Hurley recruits and (Top 100) Sid were not ready. Today, we saw the 12-0 run , with 3 freshmen and two sophomores.
Polley is out. We're down a scholarship. And we've got 2 red shirts. That's nine players left. We need them all.
Whaley was sitting with 4 fouls, but wasn't repeating his Houston game. Vital, Gilbert, and Carlton had, I think, 3 points at the time. We needed more from them.
Vital, with rebounds, steals, and free throws, did much of his part, BUT Hurley didn't do his part to get the ball out of his (I can't stop myself from) shooting hands. Carlton's defense when Akok needed a rest and then after Akok returned had the announcers screaming that Akok should have remained on Igbanu. Gilbert sat to the extent that Hurley felt the ball would not turnover horribly. It didn't. We won that statistical battle today.
If you imagine that today was no less than a partially successful preview of the 'changing of the guard,' and those two preseason quotes above are more important than ever...just not what people may have expected they meant. We may finally have players now who can score more and balance out CV, and Gilbert & Carlton (& Whaley) have clear roles they can play, including true full-game performances, as Whaley did in Houston, and we have seen from the other three, just not consistently enough (by a long shot).
The guy whose answer to the best player SO FAR was "Vital, and that's the problem" was "chicken dinner" right, but that need not be reason for anymore internal battles about overrating and delusional thinking. New track got laid down today.
Everybody pulls together from here on out. Listen to Hurley's pregame interview in another post. It's in there. Time for all of us to grow up. Time for me to listen to his post-game interview.
Let's go Huskies!
