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Message: [QUOTE="RuffRuff, post: 5319725, member: 1268"] I really don't think it was a mystery at all - he wasn't that good. A major difference between the two is that Solo played with conviction/confidence & a defined role and Mahaney was constantly second guessing himself, and methodical. There was no spontaneity to his game out there and he just seemed to play in a constant state of fear. Couple that with his very slight physique, lack of quickness & low athletecism (could not defend), not a great combo. From the start of the season, the only hope for Mahaney was that he had a processing level/instincts that bumped him into a must play, instead he played scared and shied away from contact. Beyond being a physical liability on the floor, his presence stagnated the offense. It just did not work out. Staff took a gamble on him, and in retro he had way too much room for error given 1) the style of program he came out of, and conference 2) his size 3) trying to flip him into a PG 4) statistics moving in wrong direction from freshman to sophomore year. 5) Bay Area kid through college coming to Storrs. 6) We were kinda all eggs in his basket, had no real insurance policy (other than Nowell I guess). He was a very high risk portal play, and the gamble didn't yield ROI. I'm sure the staff did plenty of reflecting back on that decision. When I look back on him, he had one plus trait - his crossover was really solid. Low and shifty, and what bought him some space. He just didn't use it much while here. You can claim he was a talented player, but if you look at his sophomore numbers based on high volume, there was really not much to get excited about, especially when you consider his defensive ability. You can find a lot of players that can put up decent PPG when given lot's of shots at 39% shooting. [/QUOTE]

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