Players Welcome to VCU, Jamir Watkins!!!!!

[rammad90]

He did hold Bones’ minutes back as a freshman even though it was clear he was one of the best players on the team from day one.

That's really a myth. At the beginning of the season Mike had essentially his starting lineup back from the previous year. What is he supposed to do start Bones a freshman who wasnt locked in on D over proven veterans?

We all know that you have to play defense in order to play here at VCU. Most freshmen and Bones was no different struggle with our defense early on. One notable exception was Jayden Nunn (the prep year may have helped)

As to my "that's really a myth" statement, Bones was tied for the 3rd most minutes on the team that year.

Mike didnt hold Bones back. Bones merely had to grow into his position. Even then he played a lot of minutes for a freshman. He played enough such that he tied for third in total minutes with IV at 24.2 just under Jenkins at 27.3 and MSS at 28.9. That's more minutes than all of the guards on the team (Jenkins and iV played 3 & 4 spots)

 

[Ram Jam]

Isaac Vann. Talk about giving out minutes his senior season that were not justified!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Felt the same way about Curry this year. Dude has stone hands and NEVER passes the ball. Whenever he got the ball everyone on the court knew he was going to drive straight to the basket regardless of how many defenders are in his way.

 

[Wolfpack Ram]

Felt the same way about Curry this year. Dude has stone hands and NEVER passes the ball. Whenever he got the ball everyone on the court knew he was going to drive straight to the basket regardless of how many defenders are in his way.

Curry had a good second half of the season, but he definitely got more minutes than he deserved the first half of the season. I lost count how many times he stepped on the sideline and turned the ball over the first half of the season.

 

[VCU Heel]

Bones played 13 minutes in his very first college game (non-exhibition). His minutes were definitely not limited during his freshman year.

@AlienAiden… want to chime in on this?

 

[Mercury]

Bones played 13 minutes in his very first college game (non-exhibition). His minutes were definitely not limited during his freshman year.

Him playing 13 minutes his first game does not make your second sentence true.

You telling me his minutes weren't limited when Malik Crowfield played more minutes than him that night?

 

[WillWeaverRVA]

Him playing 13 minutes his first game does not make your second sentence true.

You telling me his minutes weren't limited when Malik Crowfield played more minutes than him that night?

Point taken. Good grief, I am all kinds of scatterbrained today.

 

[PRock]

can we just let the 19-20 season go…..i think we can all agree, coaches were bad, players were bad and the ending was terrible. Bones was the lone bright spot and should have played more, but that season needs to be ghostbusted.

 

[vcuramfan22]

Felt the same way about Curry this year. Dude has stone hands and NEVER passes the ball. Whenever he got the ball everyone on the court knew he was going to drive straight to the basket regardless of how many defenders are in his way.

Both Vann And Curry were great defenders.

 

[rammad90]

Felt the same way about Curry this year. Dude has stone hands and NEVER passes the ball. Whenever he got the ball everyone on the court knew he was going to drive straight to the basket regardless of how many defenders are in his way.

This is why I ignore of all our minutes allocators. Curry with all his faults played his best basketball when it counted. The kid shot 55% from the floor February one and averaged nearly 15 points per game in that span topping 20 points 3 X's in that span. Plus he was 4th on the team in Assists.

Plus he was a lock down defender and no one on this team played better D than him other than Vince. D counts at VCU.

Finally, he was one of the best cutters in Men's basketball this year.

 

[rammad90]

Him playing 13 minutes his first game does not make your second sentence true.

You telling me his minutes weren't limited when Malik Crowfield played more minutes than him that night?

The problem with the analysis is that people look at what Bones became and believe that that's what he was from day 1.

Mike watches and evaluates these kids every day in practice and gets reports on what they did during the summer. He knows more than any of us on this board. I gotta trust him. I do trust him.

Now you get a freshmen 1st game in you have a senior who has been in your program busting his hump for at least 4 years but yet you believe that the freshman off the rip is better than a senior that knows the system, knows what the HC wants, and more importantly is doing exactly what HC wants while in the game. Yet you believe the freshman should have gotten more run?

OK.

The guy averaged more than 20 minutes a game for goodness sakes. First, the argument was his minutes were limited. That was proven wrong. Now you guys have changed it to his minutes were limited early. Give it a break, freshmen EARN minutes they dont have minutes. Their minutes arent limited. They have to take the minutes away from the guys in front of them. Which is why most freshmen if they are good play more in the latter half of the season.

 

[Ram14]

@AlienAiden… want to chime in on this?

I'll chime in, Bones had much to learn about playing defense and more that first season and that is normal but still only a part. ( I think that was reflected in using Crowfield as a PG back up who played good defense and also was not turnover prone even though he had deficits ). The other thing was that I think we were all in on trying to let Evans play himself through both physical rehabs and mental confidence loss because we know come March we needed the Evans who led us the season before. Our defensive success the season before and the first UR game as one example that year were predicated on Evan's ON BALL defesnse that contained and stay in front of the ball handler He was our only guard that could do that. (Theus before and Ace now). A third factor was knowing Bones was special, but maybe not knowing how ready and special he was. I felt after the first UR game that year when Bones went off that he would get way more time and it seemed to take until Evans was injured for that to really develop.

Like "90" said, Mike and our staff see what these guys do hours a day in practice and prep for the games. They have the same goals as we have- WIN and keep in mind that their livelyhood is based on it. I trust that they make their decisions based on what they think it their best opporutnity to win and also that sometimes there are underflying factors with a player we don't need to know about. ( not in this case). We also know that coaches in hindsight often wil say they made some mistakes and of course that is true.

( again on the Senior Crow and Freshman Bones it was about who maybe could do less damage vs who could do something remarkable at that time)

 

[theyaintwantit]

can we just let the 19-20 season go…..i think we can all agree, coaches were bad, players were bad and the ending was terrible. Bones was the lone bright spot and should have played more, but that season needs to be ghostbusted.

I’ve said this since our MTE in one of the Dakotas in November 2020 when we felt like a fresh team. The 20-21 season was a ton of fun and we had an at-large bid wrapped up heading into the final weekend. The 21-22 season was a ton of fun too, but a few injuries kept us from being a very good team.

MR has been the coach for 5 seasons and if he’s here for the next 5 then I feel like the 19-20 season will end up being the only really black eye on his resume. It’s over and done with, imo.

 

[mrgeode]

I’ve said this since our MTE in one of the Dakotas in November 2020 when we felt like a fresh team. The 20-21 season was a ton of fun and we had an at-large bid wrapped up heading into the final weekend. The 21-22 season was a ton of fun too, but a few injuries kept us from being a very good team.

MR has been the coach for 5 seasons and if he’s here for the next 5 then I feel like the 19-20 season will end up being the only really black eye on his resume. It’s over and done with, imo.

If Mike stays another five years we're going to be killing it. Provided we're healthy, next year's team will be very good, perhaps very, very good. The thing about it though is next year feels like an inflexion point - I really think it will be the first critical mass season since what would have happened in '15-16 had Shaka stayed.

 

[ISwamRam]

Clicked into the wrong thread ... Where's the Jamie Watkins chat?

 

[LQuarles]

Jamir and JMac going in!

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