He did well in the first two games, playing against cupcakes.
Yep, classic high floor, low ceiling guy.
If that sounds like sour grapes, then good, my grapes are sour. Sour because of Eric Maynor, Brad Burgess, Troy Daniels, Juvonte Reddic, Treveon Graham, Melvin Johnson, JeQuan Lewis, Mo and Justin Tillman. Nine names for which MSS’ name would never show up in the same paragraph unless the heading was basketball players at VCU.
Nine guys who could have picked up stakes and spent their last year as a key or featured piece at a high major to chase a chip or improve their pro profile. All recognized and appreciated the investment this program made in them and understood that if they have the goods, this program would provide them the platform to show it—BTW—all got their pro shots too.
I am in the crew that saw MSS’ departure as a good thing, but still cheesed by the way it went down. To imply or in the case of Uncle Fester’s comments, outright state that MSS needed to move on to improve his pro profile is obtuse at best, but more likely, blatant disrespect to this program which has been beyond good enough for much, much better players.
It seems lost on the MSS crew that this staff had every bit the hand in his development as he did. They worked with a guy who though sturdy and reasonably skilled did not fit the bill of a modern D1 frontline player coming in—too short to post with the big boys and too plodding to run the floor. They worked with him to transform his body, to expand his game and to feature some of his skills. To his credit, MSS worked hard and improved every year—but he didn’t do it on his own. To leave the way he did was disrespectful to the staff and the program—for those reasons, i have sour grapes and not a fan.
