Earl Clark - You ever have a guy that you watch for the first time as a freshman and just completely latch on the whole time he's here regardless what mistakes he makes? I have a few over history - DeJuan Wheat, Eric Johnson, Larry O'Bannon, Jerry Smith. E5 is also on that list. As much flack as he has gotten over the time he has been here for dumb decisions, he has made-up for ten-fold. I'm not so sure he fulfilled his potential here, but you can not fault him for his efforts. Clark has more NBA potential of any Cardinal player since Pervis Ellison. Let's hope it works out better for E5. Most memorable play: Dunk in Harangody's face this season or the savage rebound dunk against Oklahoma in last year's tourney.
Andre McGee - Started off as kind of a loose cannon on the court. I remember shaking my head multiple times after he drove into the lane with reckless abandon only to have his shot blocked into the second row. After a couple summers under Pitino, McGee became one of the best on-ball defenders I have seen in a Card uniform and developed a consistent 3-point shot. He has accepted his role with no complaints and will be an extremely vital part to the team's postseason success. Most memorable play: I know it's fresh in the memory, but his performance Sunday against Marquette could very well be his best moment, punctuated with a two-handed dunk.
Will Scott - Never led the team in any individual stat, but I guarantee he led the team in GPA during his stay here. The transfer from Cornell and son of the Knicks team doctor has been accepted to Oxford and will study there after the season completes. Whatever he decides to do in life will be a success - but like I've been saying - I'm still waiting for him to prove he is a three-point specialist. hopefully he gets that start and buries one so I can eat my words tomorrow. Most memorable play : Hitting a three after he was honored with a standing O by the crowd for receiving hos prestigious scholarship against USF this year.
Terrence Williams - I'm sure TC has something up his sleeve with this guy before he's gone, but for now let me just say up until the start of last year I wasn't a T-Will fan - not that I hated him, but he was so frustrating. In my mind, he shot too much, made silly decisions, and had an attitude that didn't match his game. I think someone got a hold of him after his sophomore year and told him if he was going to have that kind of flair about him, he better bring the game to back it up. In turn, T-Will started making everyone around him better and realized that is what was going to make himself better as well. Of course, I have done a complete 180 on him and think he is one of the all-time greats now. Pitino says he hasn't coached many players like him and as a fan, I haven't seen many players like him. Most memorable play: One of the 15 or so scissor-kick windmill dunks he pulled off in his 4 years.
On to Seton Hall...
- To put it mildly, Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez is probably the most hated coach in America by both fellow coaches and the media. When I produced for 93.9 The Ticket in town we had him on The Freak Show for an interview. Apparently he was mad about something Pat Forde wrote about him on ESPN and proceeded to rant about how bad Forde was for 15 minutes. I researched what he may have written. Here it is from a Nov, 11th edition of Forde Minutes...
Seton Hall (6). The coach: Bobby Gonzalez. The problem: Crazy can be tolerated when you win, not so easily when you don't. Gonzalez has coached only 80 games at Seton Hall, so the jury hasn't yet returned a verdict on his long-term ability to field a winner -- although the early returns are mediocre at best, with a 12-27 record in league play. The attendant issue with Gonzalez is a combustible personality that has gotten him into trouble at times, such as when he was suspended by the school for the first Big East game of this season after a postgame tantrum following a loss to Rutgers last March. Seton Hall is only 1-6 in Big East play right now, but is hitting a soft (by Big East standards) stretch that could right the ship.
Not so bad right? Maybe Gonzo was just having a bad day and took his frustations out on Forde...through Renshaw. Not too long after this incident, Gonzo had a public feud with friend of The L Yes! Adam Zagoria...
Twice in recent days Gonzalez has openly threatened to cut off this reporter and SNY from covering his team because of comments I made during a recent interview with WSOU, Seton Hall's student radio station, the full transcript of which is available on my blog for anyone to read.
Gonzo made these threats once in an expletive-filled, three-way phone call with one of his assistants last Friday, and a second time in front of several Seton Hall staff members in a hallway at the Prudential Center after the Pirates beat Columbia on Sunday.
"Who the f--- are you?" Gonzalez screamed into the phone at me last week, with his assistant on the line. "Who the f--- do you think you are? I'll cut you off. I'll cut you off from my players." He also said he would somehow find a way to cut me off from the AAU coaches whose players consider Seton Hall.
OK. Maybe two bad days. Then Jeff Goodman gives him one of the biggest back-handed compliments in recent memory...
Word is that Hutchinson Community College big man Cliff Dixon committed to Seton Hall. No shock, there, since the 6-foot-10 Maryland native is currently suspended.
Bobby Gonzalez has been unable to lure anyone to the school from the Class of 2009 – until Dixon – partially because he’s on a hot seat.
Dixon played last season at Motlow State junior college.
Sounds like a perfect fit for Gonzo.
THIS GUY NEEDS TO GET IT AND GET IT BAD TONIGHT FROM THE FREEDOM HALL FAITHFUL TONIGHT. MAKE T-WILL PROUD!
Starting 5
1. Joe Biddle - Nashville Tennessean - Kentucky coach's act wears thin on players, fans (Biddle is one of the best sportwriters around a breaks down the UK chaos from an outsiders perspective. Is it bad karma that i pray every night they don't make the tourney, just for the simple fact it will give me more ammunition in arguments?)
2. AP - The Sporting News - Louisville's Scott closing in on MBA, not NBA (Is it safe to call Will Scott the basketball version of a poor man's Tim Tebow without all the religious stuff mixed in?)
3. C.L Brown - Courier-Journal - Easygoing but not going out easy (E5 talks about how people come up to him and tell him that he needs to hustle more and play harder. I don't think I'd have the onions to do something like that.)
4. Jeff Goodman - FoxSports.com - Bubble Watch :Terrepins take a hit (My boy Renshaw was down last night - his Terps had a tourney bid in their grasps only to have possibly let it slip away. Check out this facial Wake's Jeff Teague delivered on poor Dave Neal of Maryland)
5. BroBible.com - Top 10 Pregame Traditions on the campus gridiron (Everything from Script Ohio to Cheif Osceloa to Young Jeezy playing in the background before kickoff. Two out of three at least)
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