I’m fine with people being critical of players, as long as they do it in a way that sparks intelligent conversation, not playground “you suck” talk. I try to be loyal whenever possible but we haven’t won it all in a few years, it’s not all pink unicorns and rainbows either.
This team needed this loss bad. I hate losing, but we are not nearly as good as people say we are and there’s nothing wrong with that. Team defense is not developed overnight and we got exposed by a well executed team. We didn’t stay in front of the ball, we didn’t defend pick and roll, we didn’t rotate correctly and we didn’t double correctly. All of that made it an offensive clinic for Gonzaga, hats off to them.
This was a team loss, we looked tired and young. RJ gets the finger pointing because he takes the most shots and also the most important shots. Give him time to figure it out, he’s playing a new level of ball/competition too. Things that worked in high school/AAU may not work in college, like bullying through people at the rim. The last few plays called for a drive and kick, not a push through and hope for a whistle. He’ll learn that area like the rest of our team will make their own individual improvements. I’m much more confident in this group, both physically and mentally figuring this whole thing out come March.
Circling back to criticism, I’m all for it, it’s a discussion board. But there’s a big difference between criticizing and bashing. Criticizing breeds healthy conversation, bashing is low level talk that flows out with hate and an inability to control one’s emotions. I’m crushed that Duke lost, let me take it out on RJ by saying how much he sucks....
