Re: NBA Talent

From: Madhusudhan Gurumurthy
Date: 03 Nov 2005 - 05:15 PM EST

"We always choked at bigs games (recently we do most of the time). Maybe not, maybe Huggins is the reason they got as good as they did. (i.e.-Huggs molded Maxiell, got through mentally to Bobbit, and improved Nick Williams a ton last year).

Exactly what I always thought. esp about Nick Williams , you could see a quantum improvement in his game in his senior year. There was this intensity and confidence to his game all of a sudden. (Recall that super dunk he made taking off from the 5/3 logo last year).
He probably was the only player who didnt choke against the bigger teams last year.
- He was really good against Louisville (if i recall it right) and Xavier (he made amends for his last min mess up the prev year)
- by far our best against UK.

I have friends who are die hard fans of UK and they couldnt stop talking Nick after that game. Apparently he had them shakin in their boots when he kept draining 3 pointers in the 1st half!
The UK people just could not get over the physique of Mac and Hicks. Since they feel UC is inferior, the'd never checked the team out and were blown off the arena when Hicks and Max took position.

But it seems he had trouble tapping the talent of James, Armein, etc.
James seems very similar to Francisco Garcia in terms of build , versatility and definitely superior in speed. Wonder if he can start posing the kind of threat and develop the intensity Garcia brought to a game?

---- Original message ----

Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2005 14:49:53 -0500
From: address@hidden
Subject: [UC Basketball] NBA Talent
To: address@hidden, address@hidden

I also noticed that from the 2003-2004 team, we had
3 players who have been in the NBA (Bobbit, Whaley,
and Maxiell) with potentially 3 more (Hicks,
Kirkland, and White). Other than traditional
powerhouses like Duke, NC, Arizona, etc., most
schools never have that much talent. Add Nick
Williams, Chadd, the role play of Kareem, Field
Williams, etc. and that's a solid ass team with tons
of talent. We should have been a lot better than we
were? We always choked at bigs games (recently we
do most of the time). I have always and still am a
loyal Huggins supporter, but do you think AK or
other coaches could have done more with this
talent? Maybe not, maybe Huggins is the reason they
got as good as they did. (i.e.-Huggs molded Maxiell,
got through mentally to Bobbit, and improved Nick
Williams a ton last year). But it seems he had
trouble tapping the talent of James, Armein, etc.
Also, ever since Kenyon's senior year, we have
had trouble keeping a full roster. Donald getting
kicked off. Flowers leaving. Hubbard basically
never playing, same with Derek Hollman. All of this
year's troubles. Banks. Giving huge roles to walk
ons like Lucas, Crawford, even Antwan Peek. It
would be nice to have a full roster of scholarship
players to practice with and learn the system (for
3-4 years).

Any thoughts?

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