What kind of crowd reaction will Lathan get?
- Thread starter knight82
- Start date
He’ll probably get booed, but considering he’s averaging 4 points and 3 rebounds in 13 minutes per game and is shooting only 42% from the field while playing lousy defense, we should be cheering that he decided to leave.
I was not sorry to see him go. Thought he was a selfish player who never gave the ball up.
Same. All the recent transfers to high major programs haven’t panned out except for Spencer. Cliff, Paul, Lathan and Myles, who Cronin benched then showed the door with another year of eligibility left.
Our players aren’t as good as our fans think they are.
Seems a little harsh about Myles and cliff. I think Myles was done with basketball and wanted to focus on academics and career. Myles was wired differently than most student athletes which is a complement to him. Cliff played enough at Alabama and contributed at times. He did what was asked by Alabama coach and deserved to get his biggest payday. Only imagine if cliff stayed with ace and dylan.
He only played 3 minutes in their last game (a loss at MD). Don’t know if due to injury or illness, or just ineffectiveness, but I suppose it’s possible he won’t play against us at all.He’ll get:
GO RU
This is the answer, dude likes attention, give him none, its a non event to everyone but Hawk who thinks we'd be dancing if he were still here.He’ll get:
GO RU
Myles didn’t quit on his own accord. He had another year. He quit bc his role and pt were nearly erased once the starter returned from injury. Of the four of them, only Cliff was somewhat valuable (Lathan’s story is incomplete, obviously).
I hope you’re right, because it might get our crowd riled up, booing him whenever he touches the ball.
Myles did just fine at UCLA - he was All-PAC Defensive team.
He chose his graduate program before he picked a team - and left a year on the table to focus on his academics.
This is essentially true. I asked Cronin about him. “Good kid but needed to move on”.
Yeah - oddly this trend (to a lesser extent with Cliff) is why I’m hopeful. There are certain types of players (defensive minded ones) who have more success in Pike’s system than other programs. Caleb would’ve followed a similar trajectory if he left in my opinion. Less impact somewhere else.
It is this message that should be Pike’s recruiting punchline. However, the big caveat to make this work as a selling point is having “enough” on offense to make a defense first vision sellable. This, for me, was the glimmer of hope that TF provided. If he’s off to Pitt we’ve got nothing in my opinion. All bets are off if we’re at ground zero and have to shop first and foremost for offense to avoid being 2023-24 level bad. And yes - if Dylan Grant is leading our offense - that is in fact definitively our starting point. We’d HAVE to focus on offense which is a death sentence for Pike IMO even with a bit more money. He can’t build both a new offense and defense in one offseason. He’s simply not cut from that cloth.
“Defensive-minded players” is another way of saying unskilled, useless zeros on offense. There are several on this team, as Myles was too. Good enough for fans and coaches here, but not good enough for programs that matter.
Without MJ we do not make the NCAAs in 2019-20 (we would have) or 2020-21. You acknowledge this, yes? With Shaq Carter and Shaq D only at center, we would not have had more than 17 max wins the Covid outbreak season. And that’s being generous.
Why would Grant be leading our offense if Francis leaves?
That makes zero sense and nobody would think that.
If Francis leaves then Pike has the same amount of money to attract a replacement.
Perhaps one that is more well rounded than Francis even. More of a distributor and someone who can lead a more diverse offense.
The “pitch” to a defensive center or rebuilding the defense doesn’t hinge on Francis.
The vision is the same regardless.
An easy argument that replacing Francis with less scoring but more facilitating could be addition by subtraction.
Even if Francis returns, we need him to score less and look to run the offense more for others if he is leading the offense.
(Assuming Pike even wants that which honestly is unlikely and not a fault Francis)
Even if Francis returns, we need him to score less and look to run the offense more for others if he is leading the offense.
(Assuming Pike even wants that which honestly is unlikely and not a fault Francis)
I meant he would be our leading scorer eligible to return. Nothing more.
I get that you still seem to think the portal is a candy shop of opportunity for us but that’s just not how it works. We will not be able to spend 1.5M to buy a proven high major starter replacement. Every high major starting guard who enters the portal will have better options to choose from than Rutgers with a head coach on the hot seat coming off a terrible season) for that same $1.5M pay day. Trading up for someone better or equally proven isn’t remotely in the cards. What part of this are you missing?
If Francis goes, Pike will without question be “spreading the wealth” with that $1.5M hoping to hit again on a low major kid. If he’s lucky, Maybe he’ll find a Hyatt type high major to mix in (LSU stats 4 ppg / 16 mpg) hoping to start who agrees to take 500K, and he’ll pick up another pair of mediocre efficiency NJIt / Merrimack types who put up video game stats on high usage for bad low major program. That’s what losing Tariq will mean for our program. How do you not see this?