SJU outscored UConn 13-1 during the 4 minutes that Malachi Smith played. Demary can't play 40 minutes and be effective late. We need someone to give him a rest.
I'm rewatching the game now and very little was Malachi's fault during his first stint on the floor.
The first possession with him on the floor was a nice setup to Solo Ball who missed an open three.
The second trip on the floor was leading some solid offense where Karaban missed an open three from the top of the key.
The third possession, they set up Reed in the paint who made a nice move and missed a bank shot that he should have converted, but was sent to the line where he made just one of two.
The fourth position he made a nice drive through the paint and missed a layup that he should have converted. I realize that he has often done a nice job of getting to the basket where his layups have been erased before the ball even hits the backboard, but that wasn't the case this time. That did happen to him during the latter part of the game.
During the next possession, UConn had a nice defensive stop, but then Reed took forever to throw the outlet pass which he almost air mailed over Smith's head. He did a great job of catching and keeping it inbounds. He did get it knocked out from behind as he was about to drive the ball into the paint. I noticed Hurley was jumping up and down and yelling for them to push the ball up court. Maybe it would have been better for Smith to slow the game down and gather the team, but that's not what Hurley was asking.
Malachi, then prevented a sure layup resulting in a 2 shot foul.
If his teammates had done their jobs and if he had made his layup (it wasn't like any of his teammates were getting themselves to the basket as easily as he did) no one would be talking about him being unplayable. He actually did his part, but when you're a bench player where there are just a handful of trips up and down the floor, when things don't go right it just seems to look worse than it was. How many times have we seen some of our more reliable players or starters start a game off missing their first four to five shots but end up with the solid stat line in the end and we don't seem to make a big deal about any of their bad stretches on the floor.
When will the Boneyard spend more time rooting for all our players instead of wanting them benched for some other reserve player that would likely do worse, or wish they had not been recruited at all.
I realize the bench has struggled a lot, and they need to get more out of them on a consistent basis. One thing that might help is putting one or two at most bench players in the game with at least 3 to 4 starters instead of what looks like a wholesale line change. Too often Malachi is on the floor with not enough playmakers to support him. With that said, whoever's on the floor including Malachi need to execute, something that hasn't happened enough lately.
