I'm gonna hit on both topics.
First Jamont. Jamont Gordon is the best player our basketball program has seen since Donta Jones. In some ways he might be considered better since he can bring the ball up the court and go straight to the rack almost at will. When we signed Jamont it was a huge deal. His first year he was basically all we had and was forced to carry the team. Since then he's had a better supporting cast and has had to adjust, and I think he's done a good job. He's grown less selfish over time. Still, if you are as good as Jamont you need to be a little selfish because there are times the team needs him to put them on his shoulders and carry them. The final minutes of the Memphis game is a perfect example. He single handedly gave us a chance to tie.
What was Stansbury supposed to do? Not run the offense through Rhodes and Jamont? Run it through Ben and Barry even though they are notoriously inconsistent shooters and cannot create their own shot half as well as Jamont? If Stansbury didn't run his offense through Rhodes and Jamont he would get heavily criticized for it, and rightfully so. On top of that Jamont would have left long ago, and without him this year we would have been NIT bound aGAIN. The things he did for us - creating shots for others, the defense, the rebounding, the huge baskets when the team needed to stop a run by the opposition - we don't have anyone else that could do those things. Rhodes and V need the ball fed to them in the post. Ben and Barry need open looks, and even then they are far more likely to miss than hit. And let's not even get into all the times Jamont is fouled in the paint and it goes uncalled, which are numerous. I fail to see any justification for Ben to be unhappy with his role with respect to Jamont's. I don't know why people are so against us running our offense through Jamont, it seems like a total no brainer to anyone. The guy takes some terrible shot at times, but every player takes bad shots here and there. When the game was on the line Jamont was the guy stepping up to take the load. Jamont is hated on here for some reason, but I'm telling you we will miss him badly once he's gone.
About the cheating, here's my take. I'm not saying we don't cheat. I don't know, I'm not inside the program. What I do know is the NCAA investigated every sport when they were here in the early part of this decade and they did so throroughly. They really wanted to fin something wrong so they could really hammer us. They found nothing in basketball. They also looked heavily at Mario Austin after receiving complaints and found nothing to warrant not allowing him to play. We've long heard Stansbury referred to as a cheater, but with all of these accusations there has been nothing turned up. Again, I'm not saying he isn't cheating, but it seems highly unlikely that we are paying players at the level some are suggesting. I find it interesting that MSU, a school known to not be on the NCAAs favored schools list, hasn't been found to have done anything against the rules in hoops by the NCAA yet our fans know so much about all this rampant cheating.
First Jamont. Jamont Gordon is the best player our basketball program has seen since Donta Jones. In some ways he might be considered better since he can bring the ball up the court and go straight to the rack almost at will. When we signed Jamont it was a huge deal. His first year he was basically all we had and was forced to carry the team. Since then he's had a better supporting cast and has had to adjust, and I think he's done a good job. He's grown less selfish over time. Still, if you are as good as Jamont you need to be a little selfish because there are times the team needs him to put them on his shoulders and carry them. The final minutes of the Memphis game is a perfect example. He single handedly gave us a chance to tie.
What was Stansbury supposed to do? Not run the offense through Rhodes and Jamont? Run it through Ben and Barry even though they are notoriously inconsistent shooters and cannot create their own shot half as well as Jamont? If Stansbury didn't run his offense through Rhodes and Jamont he would get heavily criticized for it, and rightfully so. On top of that Jamont would have left long ago, and without him this year we would have been NIT bound aGAIN. The things he did for us - creating shots for others, the defense, the rebounding, the huge baskets when the team needed to stop a run by the opposition - we don't have anyone else that could do those things. Rhodes and V need the ball fed to them in the post. Ben and Barry need open looks, and even then they are far more likely to miss than hit. And let's not even get into all the times Jamont is fouled in the paint and it goes uncalled, which are numerous. I fail to see any justification for Ben to be unhappy with his role with respect to Jamont's. I don't know why people are so against us running our offense through Jamont, it seems like a total no brainer to anyone. The guy takes some terrible shot at times, but every player takes bad shots here and there. When the game was on the line Jamont was the guy stepping up to take the load. Jamont is hated on here for some reason, but I'm telling you we will miss him badly once he's gone.
About the cheating, here's my take. I'm not saying we don't cheat. I don't know, I'm not inside the program. What I do know is the NCAA investigated every sport when they were here in the early part of this decade and they did so throroughly. They really wanted to fin something wrong so they could really hammer us. They found nothing in basketball. They also looked heavily at Mario Austin after receiving complaints and found nothing to warrant not allowing him to play. We've long heard Stansbury referred to as a cheater, but with all of these accusations there has been nothing turned up. Again, I'm not saying he isn't cheating, but it seems highly unlikely that we are paying players at the level some are suggesting. I find it interesting that MSU, a school known to not be on the NCAAs favored schools list, hasn't been found to have done anything against the rules in hoops by the NCAA yet our fans know so much about all this rampant cheating.
