Paul needs to stop the dirty play

BigRnj

All-American
Nov 20, 2012
5,017
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Had to chime in on the “he should apologize” crowd. **** happens in sports and some of it we don’t like. What happens is the player gets a T, or a flag and personal foul in football, or a red card in girls soccer, and sometimes the referee misses it completely. Paul’s was easy to miss and was very weak if he was trying something in anger or frustration. With that said I don’t think I have ever heard of a fan base calling for an apology for a foul that wasn’t called.

if this was Michigan or MD Howard and Willard would be praising their team’s mental toughness. I wish Paul could control things a bit more but outside of IU nerds this is a nothing burger.
 

fluoxetine

Heisman
Nov 11, 2012
23,529
16,898
0
This ends once the Illinois game starts and PM decides to play smart, gritty basketball that impacts RU winning a game. If this spirals into another subpar, passive 1st half, which leads to another double figure deficit, then what are fans supposed to do, just accept it as PM being PM??

PM is playing starting minutes and needs to contribute for his time on the court to being a senior leader and captain. If he struggles again for another game and puts up another sloppy game with very few shot attempts, points and playmaking, we then ride this out???
Uh, yes? You want to bench your senior starter after 3 (one of them hypothetical) bad halves? This is just another iteration of your years-long campaign to get Paul benched.
 
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Shelby65

All-Conference
Apr 1, 2008
8,615
4,792
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Dude, you don't know who I know and what I know, so I'll leave it at that.
Ooooh ! So tough ! But can tell you what you DON’T know. What you don’t know is what gritty means in a basketball sense. Paul irks people, mostly opposing fans, for something different entirely.
 

Shelby65

All-Conference
Apr 1, 2008
8,615
4,792
66
I wonder if some of you ever played sports sometimes. What Paul did or didn’t do was practically nothing. Move on.
Is this directed at me ? I’m only addressing Paul’s persona generally and suggesting why he’s the guy opposing fans dislike more than others…and being ‘gritty’ isn’t the reason. But I will bite: I wouldn’t call it ‘practically nothing’ either.
 
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AZBlues

All-Conference
Sep 29, 2013
1,185
1,389
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It was a ******, dirty, sore loser play Period. Could have f#cked up the guy's achilles. Now let's move on.
Thank goodness that TJD didn't go down and suffer a serious injury. Could've been horrible for TJD, horrible for Indiana, horrible for college basketball, and the aftermath and the severe negative PR for Paul and for Rutgers could've been brutal.
 
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rob kight

All-American
Oct 22, 2020
4,968
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But on social media they are also bringing up last year incident with Johnson. When out of bounds Johnson clearly shoved Paul in the chest into the crowd. Paul came up swinging an arm. Something all of us would do if pushed that hard into the crowd and not knowing if pusher would further atttack. Paul was assessed a flagrant and tossed. Johnson was clearly the instigator. Outside the court, Paul is one of the best citizens and very religious and does a lot for the community. I watched the replay a number of times and believe whatever move he made with his foot was unintentional and not made to injure anyone. He clearly was having a bad day and was disappointed in himself.
 

BigRnj

All-American
Nov 20, 2012
5,017
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That's a bit much, at least in Willard's case...
Really he was praising Reese’s toughness after the Rutgers game (rewatch it). They missed 2 flagrant fouls in that game. He, and many of Willard’s players play with a cheap shot edge and Willard talks it up as toughness.
 

AreYouNUTS

Heisman
Aug 1, 2001
125,069
59,486
113
Is this directed at me ? I’m only addressing Paul’s persona generally and suggesting why he’s the guy opposing fans dislike more than others…and being ‘gritty’ isn’t the reason. But I will bite: I wouldn’t call it ‘practically nothing’ either.
no
 

dconifer0

All-Conference
Oct 4, 2004
4,412
3,390
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Really he was praising Reese’s toughness after the Rutgers game (rewatch it). They missed 2 flagrant fouls in that game. He, and many of Willard’s players play with a cheap shot edge and Willard talks it up as toughness.
Even if one takes those incidents (which I do not excuse) at face value without considering that there were earlier, unnoted actions that led to them, they are not the equivalent of trying to trip an unsuspecting player from behind...
 

Shelby65

All-Conference
Apr 1, 2008
8,615
4,792
66
But on social media they are also bringing up last year incident with Johnson. When out of bounds Johnson clearly shoved Paul in the chest into the crowd. Paul came up swinging an arm. Something all of us would do if pushed that hard into the crowd and not knowing if pusher would further atttack. Paul was assessed a flagrant and tossed. Johnson was clearly the instigator. Outside the court, Paul is one of the best citizens and very religious and does a lot for the community. I watched the replay a number of times and believe whatever move he made with his foot was unintentional and not made to injure anyone. He clearly was having a bad day and was disappointed in himself.
Unintentional. Haha.
 

BigRnj

All-American
Nov 20, 2012
5,017
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Even if one takes those incidents (which I do not excuse) at face value without considering that there were earlier, unnoted actions that led to them, they are not the equivalent of trying to trip an unsuspecting player from behind...
Who said they were? I responded to your defense of Willard. I always saw him as punkish with loose control of his players. Some of his current crop are chippy and aggressive and sure enough our first game against his MD squad when asked, specifically about Reese’s antics, his response sounded like an endorsement of dirty play.

There was the better part of a thread on it following the MD game. So others see it too The guy lost the locker room several times at shu and has been close to it at MD during their January losing streak.

You a shoe fan?
 

zappaa

Heisman
Jul 27, 2001
75,647
92,727
103
Even if one takes those incidents (which I do not excuse) at face value without considering that there were earlier, unnoted actions that led to them, they are not the equivalent of trying to trip an unsuspecting player from behind...
Paul’s leg motion was completely reactionary.
There’s not one iota of malice or premeditation. Imo.
As I said, because it got some play, I wouldn’t doubt at all if Paul contacted TJD out of pure respect and told him my bad.
I’m also positive TJD would tell him no problem.
 

bethlehemfan

Heisman
Sep 6, 2003
15,289
16,746
113
Paul’s leg motion was completely reactionary.
There’s not one iota of malice or premeditation. Imo.
As I said, because it got some play, I wouldn’t doubt at all if Paul contacted TJD out of pure respect and told him my bad.
I’m also positive TJD would tell him no problem.
100%
 
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Jtung230

Heisman
Jun 30, 2005
19,358
12,514
82
That exact borderline involuntary motion happens in hockey (slew foot) and when you get beat in football and react all the time
I don’t think tripping is involuntary in basketball. It’s a lapse in judgment. Next game can’t come fast enough.
 
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dconifer0

All-Conference
Oct 4, 2004
4,412
3,390
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Am I defending him for blatantly and knowingly attempting to injure another player?
Or am I defending him for a split micro second reaction worthy of a my bad and move on?
Knowing your character and history as an athlete, Zap, I'm sure everybody would agree it's definitely the latter. As you said, it was a nanosecond of a my bad. I don't think any reasonable sports fan thinks poorly of PM or Rutgers basketball. I know I would love to have this player on my team, for both ability and leadership...

edited to change "mistake" to "my bad."
 
Dec 5, 2022
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Am I defending him for blatantly and knowingly attempting to injure another player?
Or am I defending him for a split micro second reaction worthy of a my bad and move on?
Which one is it?
There’s like 10 posts saying it was involuntary and an accident. Also he also got kicked out of the Indiana game for throwing a punch last year. How quickly we forget.
 
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zappaa

Heisman
Jul 27, 2001
75,647
92,727
103
There’s like 10 posts saying it was involuntary and an accident. Also he also got kicked out of the Indiana game for throwing a punch last year. How quickly we forget.
You didn’t answer the question?
The throwing a punch last year mention is so ludicrous it doesn’t deserve to be remembered.
If you’ve ever played a game the level and speed they are playing it, you’d understand the correlation between involuntary and reactionary
 

AreYouNUTS

Heisman
Aug 1, 2001
125,069
59,486
113
Lol so you don’t think it was a dirty play? You can’t be this much of a mental midget. It’s not possible. If Connor mccaffrey did that to Paul you’d throw a tantrum.
You do realize you're speaking to a former professional athlete, right?That - as opposed to you, myself, or most others around here - actually has pretty good insight to these types of things.
 

zappaa

Heisman
Jul 27, 2001
75,647
92,727
103
Lol so you don’t think it was a dirty play? You can’t be this much of a mental midget. It’s not possible. If Connor mccaffrey did that to Paul you’d throw a tantrum.
If Conner McCaffrey did it to my son, I’d tell him to forget about it.
No I don’t think it was dirty, I do think it’s worthy of a my bad…I didn’t mean to do that.
 

#1 RUFan

Senior
Nov 30, 2003
1,056
631
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You do realize you're speaking to a former professional athlete, right?That - as opposed to you, myself, or most others around here - actually has pretty good insight to these types of things.
This guy is a clown always stirring the pot. If you notice he's always defending himself and has nothing good to say about the team or players. Fake *** "fan". Not buying his bs.
 
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