Doug’s Four-Point Stance: Giving some credit
Mar 25, 2013, 6:04 PM | Updated: Jul 26, 2024, 1:15 pm
1) TOM CHAMBERS
I didn’t think Tom Chambers could do anything to make this town love him more than they already do. He did on Friday night.
He challenged Lindsey Hunter to use the post-game press conferences as a message to the team. Chambers sounded tired of hearing the term “culture change” because there was nothing wrong with the Suns of the 90s, in the D’Antoni era, or through Gentry’s run to the Western Conference Finals.
Chambers deserves a firm hand shake of respect from every Suns fan.
2) LETDOWNS
I know it’s only one game out of 30, but how can you not read into it somewhat?
The NCAA tournament is the highest pressure any young player has every experienced on the basketball court. It is a window into their soul. How they handle the moment must go into your draft evaluation without allowing it to dominate your decisions on their future.
Three of the top 7 players in the upcoming draft completely laid an egg. Otto Porter Jr, Anthony Bennett and Ben McLemore were total no-shows in losses for Georgetown and UNLV. Kansas won two games and got little from McLemore over North Carolina. Those players must meet higher expectations during their draft workouts in order to erase the taste in the mouths of general managers
3) VICTOR OLADIPO
I’ve been talking about him all year. I’m not about to stop now.
Even more impressive than everything you’re seeing now is watching his tape from last year. It’s just not that impressive and that’s the point. He improved so much in one offseason, every GM has to be drooling over the work ethic.
4) FLORIDA GULF COAST/GEORGETOWN
The story has two focus points. It’s a wonderful story for FGCU to be the first 15 seed in the second round. Give them a ton of credit. Winning one game in the tournament is a wonderful moment but in actuality, it’s not the most difficult mental test. It’s much tougher to bring yourself down from the ultimate high and compete again without the feeling you’ve already accomplished something.
However, I’m much more focused on how overrated John Thompson III is as a head coach. Every coach suffers tough losses, but not like this. So far, here’s the last six years of Georgetown in the tournament: a #2 seed losing to a 10, a #3 seed losing to a #14 (Go Bobcats), a #6 seed losing to an #11, a #6 seed losing to an #11 and this year a #2 losing to a #15. This is not a small sample. This is an epidemic. This man continually takes stronger teams to the tournament and can’t win with them.
There are quite a few factors that keep him employed. I’m confident none of those factors are his ability to coach a major conference program.
