Jeez. Guy was the big east player of the year. Glad you aren't my son's coach!
RJ Luis
- Thread starter paultzman
- Start date
Pointing out the obvious and if I were your sons coach I would have benched him as well.
NM
A talented player and a player who was playing extremely well during the latter stages of the season. Unfortunately, his "demons" reared its head yesterday in a big moment and his hoops IQ was on full display. If his basketball IQ matched his talent; he'd probably be on his way to the NBA.
With that said, I hope he's back next season as he still has things to work on and the team has unfinished business.
If he were my son, I would have been disappointed if he wasn’t benched for not following the coach’s instructions.
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We had two.starting guards hamstrung by foul trouble, limoting their effectiveness and rhythm while on the court, a guy battling an injury still not game sharp, and a freshman thrust into major minutes who couldn't stay with quicker guards and ahot poorly. Throw in Scott having a bad night shooting. Do you really expect under the circumstances on a night where RJ's offense was badly needed but he too was ice cold, to sit back and let the game come to him. It appears to me that many of his poor decisions came with the clock running down. Except for Zuby, everyone else had a bad night, and it's pretty obvious we were not going to have a good shot at winning.
All that and when RJ sat, we wete down by just two points
RJ's defense was poor as well. IMO, he allowed his offensive struggles to affect him defensively as well. You add in his body language and sulking, and it was a colossal shiteshow.
I’m struggling with his overall performance yesterday. Is it a maturity issue? Did he want to cement his selection in the NBA draft? Obviously I don’t know what he was thinking. Even Zuby knew something was wrong and tried to shake some sense into him. Either way he needs another year and I hope it’s with us.
RJ had a bad night caused by some habitual tendencies. No one feels worse than him.
I made the trip to Providence and was hoping for a deeper run. As deflated as I feel right now, I feel worse for RJ because my gut tells me he is taking it especially hard.
May be recency bias and perhaps the fact that we get greater online access to their personalities via press conferences, but I think RJ (and Zuby) may be the 2 most likable Johnnies during my 50 years as a season ticket holder.
I made the trip to Providence and was hoping for a deeper run. As deflated as I feel right now, I feel worse for RJ because my gut tells me he is taking it especially hard.
May be recency bias and perhaps the fact that we get greater online access to their personalities via press conferences, but I think RJ (and Zuby) may be the 2 most likable Johnnies during my 50 years as a season ticket holder.
It’s a huge spot. My view - He knows we need him to score. He knows Richmond is out. He was simply trying to do to much, reverting to his ultra ultra aggressive ways that often worked during BE games. Got into his head a bit and it spiraled from there. Happens.
Kid still had an awesome year and I’m glad we have him.
Could be.....on top of all the accolades he's received in the prior weeks probable felt he had to put the team on his back. All perfectly legitimate reasons that can explain his performance yesterday.
Yep it has to be this. And we can't fault him for it.
Agree with a lot of this. But when he drove into congestion, it never worked - even earlier during the season and in big east play - and often led to fast breaks for the other team. It’s when he started to limit those instances is when his season turned around. Those top of the key pull ups were money. We needed more of that instead of trying to go through the whole other team. His heart was in the right place, and he’s young, hopefully lesson learned and he takes his game to an even higher level next year.
The RJ long drive with any kind of traffic has been a bad play all year. That aspect of his game renders him undraftable this year at 22 IMO.
Do teams really want to draft and stash a 22 year old in the G League? He need to come back and prove a few things.
He needs to show the maturity and smart decision making that made Champagnie an NBA player. Unfortunately for him, this past game he showed a lot of why he’s not a good draft pick right now, all in one game. That said it can be improved upon because he’s made such amazing improvement this year alone. I hope he’s back. I bet our team is even more talented by a significant margin next season. We will likely run it back hard. I’d like to see RJ a part of that.
MugCostanza
Well-known member
Yep. That's where Arkansas' size and athleticism came in. His driving into traffic would work sometimes against the the Ben Golds of the world but when it's time to try it against Jonas Aidoo and Trevon Brazile that's when it becomes a real problem.
Among other things he needs to improve his ability to create his own shot on the perimeter. He’s an animal down low and has a good midrange game, but offers nothing away from the basket. As I think you pointed out earlier virtually all his 3-point attempts come from his teammates setting him up. A wing who can’t create on his own from the perimeter isn’t ready for the nba.
RJ had a terrible game. I can’t help to think of the other times this year after making a poor decision RJ managed to make a pivotal play down the stretch of a tight games. That’s RJ. As bad as RJ was playing, we were still only down by 2. To put Lefty in over him at that time of the game, against that team, with their style of play? Wasn’t the right move.
I love that Coach P is here. However it felt as if the momentum was beginning to swing in our favor when he decided to pull RJ. The season was on the line. I’d rather go down with RJ than place a turnstile on the perimeter. Maybe the ending wouldn’t have changed. Or maybe there could have been a March Madness magical moment, but instead the BE Player of the year is on the bench during the most important point of the season in favor of a player Coach showed little confidence in the entire year? Again, we were only down two points. As bad as RJ was playing, he was capable of delivering at any moment more so than Lefty. There’s a reason Lefty hasn’t played much this year.
I love that Coach P is here. However it felt as if the momentum was beginning to swing in our favor when he decided to pull RJ. The season was on the line. I’d rather go down with RJ than place a turnstile on the perimeter. Maybe the ending wouldn’t have changed. Or maybe there could have been a March Madness magical moment, but instead the BE Player of the year is on the bench during the most important point of the season in favor of a player Coach showed little confidence in the entire year? Again, we were only down two points. As bad as RJ was playing, he was capable of delivering at any moment more so than Lefty. There’s a reason Lefty hasn’t played much this year.
When no one can hit an open shot, spacing on the floor changes dramatically. Literally we had no shot at winning.