Omar Cook

Omar's play looks real good; the level of play over there (Italy?) also looks good.

Happy for Omar, I hope he is enjoying himself and making a good life for himself.

 
 
In the conversation for one of my least favorite SJU players of all time.  Other candidates include Reggie Jesse and Zendon. 
 
lawmanfan" post=421927 said:
In the conversation for one of my least favorite SJU players of all time.  Other candidates include Reggie Jesse and Zendon. 
Out of curiosity, how come? Admittedly I was very early in my St. John's fanhood when Omar Cook was on the team. One of my earliest memroies was the nationally televised game against Duke in Feb. 2001. I was always in awe of hits stats though, espeically averaging 8.7 assists per game as a freshman. 
 
Room112" post=421928 said:
lawmanfan" post=421927 said:
In the conversation for one of my least favorite SJU players of all time.  Other candidates include Reggie Jesse and Zendon. 
Out of curiosity, how come? Admittedly I was very early in my St. John's fanhood when Omar Cook was on the team. One of my earliest memroies was the nationally televised game against Duke in Feb. 2001. I was always in awe of hits stats though, espeically averaging 8.7 assists per game as a freshman. 

 

I think that we all have our own personal reasons why we like/dislike players, why some become our favorites and some ... not so much.  For me it isn't so much about the stats or even the results - it's how they play the game.  The guys I love are the ones who leave it all on the floor, who maximize their ability (even if the ceiling isn't so high), who play the game with joy, who lift up the players around them.  I think that most of us here have played basketball or still play, and IMO you can tell a lot about who somebody is as a person from the way they play the game.

So I was an early adopter of Donald Emmanuel, for instance.  He was absolutely awful before he finally put it together in his senior year.  But he gave you 100% effort, he was a good teammate, and you could see that he just *wanted* to help so much that his enthusiasm was counterproductive.  It was very rewarding to see him finally climb the mountain and have some success in the end.  Amar Alibegovic was much the same, though he never did get his moment in the sun here.  I loved Charles Minlend and Anthony Glover - undersized centers who played their hearts out.  More recently  Sir Dom and Justin - guys who didn't care whether they got points or not, just came to play every game, were great teammates, and tried to do whatever they needed to do to help the team win, zero regard for stats (unsurprisingly I tend to like guys who care about defense).

I love guys who play with a smile.  Marcus Hatten was not only a show all by himself who left it all on the floor every game, he exuded joy while he was doing it - you couldn't watch him play and not smile (fwiw Posh is headed in that same direction).  Tariq Owens, same thing - you just have to love the joy and energy he brought to every game he played.

And then you get guys who have games you can respect, but attitudes you can't.  Omar and Zendon both played the game angry all the time.  I got no joy from watching either of them play (in Zendon's case it didn't help that once he got his hands on the ball it never went to a teammate after that).  Reggie and his low blows and dirty play was a disgrace to St John's.  He should have gone to Georgetown, he'd fit right in there.

Sometimes a guy changes my mind, though.  DeAngelo Harrison was firmly in the Omar Cook category for the first part of his career.  While I am by no means a Lavin fan, I give him all the credit in the world for turning DeAngelo around - and by the end he was far closer to the Anthony Glover end of the LMF scale than the Omar end. 

Sorry for the long answer - wonder what others have to say about why they like/dislike certain players or kinds of players.
 
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I am concerned about you because I could have written this. If you mentioned Willie Glass than we were seperated at birth.
 
 
lawmanfan" post=421927 said:
In the conversation for one of my least favorite SJU players of all time.  Other candidates include Reggie Jesse and Zendon. 
Where does Dunn rank with the above mentioned? /media/kunena/emoticons/cool.png​​​​​​​
 
espken" post=421935 said:
lawmanfan" post=421927 said:
In the conversation for one of my least favorite SJU players of all time.  Other candidates include Reggie Jesse and Zendon. 
Where does Dunn rank with the above mentioned? /media/kunena/emoticons/cool.png​​​​​​​
 

Neither love nor hate.  He has a bit of DeAngelo's attitude, which is that nobody around him wants the ball in the big spot so he has to do it himself - but without the corresponding skill set.  Respect his toughness and desire, anyway.
 
lawmanfan" post=421927 said:
In the conversation for one of my least favorite SJU players of all time.  Other candidates include Reggie Jesse and Zendon. 
LMF, I wrote about this almost 15 years ago and have no idea if it applies to Omar.  I watched QB  Jim Plunkett, probably with the Patriots, and noticed what to me seemed to be his odd facial expressions.  My memory is that I later learned that he is the child of blind parents and his facial expressions seemed to make sense.  When I first wrote about this it was because I had the same sense that Omar's facial expressions communicated displeasure, but that it may have been behavior learned elsewhere and not connected to any emotion.
 
espken" post=421935 said:
lawmanfan" post=421927 said:
In the conversation for one of my least favorite SJU players of all time.  Other candidates include Reggie Jesse and Zendon. 
Where does Dunn rank with the above mentioned? /media/kunena/emoticons/cool.png​​​​​​​
 

Matt Brust!
 
Z and Cook frustrated me a lot, but I would stop short of saying that I disliked them. My 2 favorite players were Baldi and Mussini, and I'm not even sure why. 
 
Monte" post=421949 said:
Z and Cook frustrated me a lot, but I would stop short of saying that I disliked them. My 2 favorite players were Baldi and Mussini, and I'm not even sure why. 
 

Can't imagine why Monti would like Baldi or Mussini.  ;)
Tho truthfully I also liked Marco Baldi and also cannot explain why.
 
1.  My grandmother (rest her soul) came into the den once while I was watchng a game and not knowing anything said of Baldi "he has the map of Italy written all over his face."  enough said.

2.  I never get the Zendon hate that some have.  All he did was average almost a double double for his career.  No, he did not live up to the top 5 national HS rank, but he was a great player for us.

3.  My least favortie players (sorry guys):  Alph Bangura; Jack Wolfinger; Andre Stanely, Sean Muto.  
 
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I don't think Cook ever wanted to be here, and left as soon as possible. I think that's what bugs me about him.

Looks good in the clips, though. Could probably play over there until he's 45.
 
redmanwest" post=421955 said:
1.  My grandmother (rest her soul) came into the den once while I was watchng a game and not knowing anything said of Baldi "he has the map of Italy written all over his face."  enough said.

2.  I never get the Zendon hate that some have.  All he did was average almost a double double for his career.  No, he did not live up to the top 5 national HS rank, but he was a great player for us.

3.  My least favortie players (sorry guys):  Alph Bangura; Jack Wolfinger; Andre Stanely, Sean Muto. 

 
Bobby Kelly & Matt Brust
 
redmanwest" post=421955 said:
2.  I never get the Zendon hate that some have.  All he did was average almost a double double for his career.  No, he did not live up to the top 5 national HS rank, but he was a great player for us.

 

At the time my seats were on the Union Tpke side of the gm about 8 rows above the walkway.  There was a guy on the other side of the steps from me, every time Zendon touched the ball he would holler "It's going up!"

The man was never wrong.

Paultz you're breaking my heart - who doesn't like Matty Brust?  He's like the Neanderthal version of Wusu, basically.
 
redmanwest" post=421955 said:
1.  My grandmother (rest her soul) came into the den once while I was watchng a game and not knowing anything said of Baldi "he has the map of Italy written all over his face."  enough said.

2.  I never get the Zendon hate that some have.  All he did was average almost a double double for his career.  No, he did not live up to the top 5 national HS rank, but he was a great player for us.

3.  My least favortie players (sorry guys):  Alph Bangura; Jack Wolfinger; Andre Stanely, Sean Muto.  
Andre Stanley?? Why?? Wasn't he a walk-on who earned a scholarship and even ended up starting some games? 
 
redmanwest" post=421955 said:
1.  My grandmother (rest her soul) came into the den once while I was watchng a game and not knowing anything said of Baldi "he has the map of Italy written all over his face."  enough said.

2.  I never get the Zendon hate that some have.  All he did was average almost a double double for his career.  No, he did not live up to the top 5 national HS rank, but he was a great player for us.

3.  My least favortie players (sorry guys):  Alph Bangura; Jack Wolfinger; Andre Stanely, Sean Muto.  

Why would a walk on like Stanley but least favorite ?
 
redmanwest" post=421955 said:
1.  My grandmother (rest her soul) came into the den once while I was watchng a game and not knowing anything said of Baldi "he has the map of Italy written all over his face."  enough said.

2.  I never get the Zendon hate that some have.  All he did was average almost a double double for his career.  No, he did not live up to the top 5 national HS rank, but he was a great player for us.

3.  My least favortie players (sorry guys):  Alph Bangura; Jack Wolfinger; Andre Stanely, Sean Muto.  






Andre took care of sick mother and would take the train from Bk to campus at 5am for morning practice. Should be one of the last people that gets hate on here.
 
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