Has anyone improved in 1 summer as much as Roquez Johnson?

[mstateglfr]

He certainly isn't an elite conference player all of a sudden or anything like that, but last year he was 0-4 from the floor and 1-6 from the line. That was his impact for the entire season.

And here he is, a couple games not the season, and he has shown he can rebound, penetrate from the perimeter, hit free throws, shoot it from 3, and hustles like a mad man.

Did he have all this last season and just not get the chance to show it? Did he really suddenly learn to put the ball on the floor and also shoot?

He has a long way to go before I think he is a legitimately good player, but damn I don't remember another player improving so much in just 1 summer.

 

[DAWG61]

I posted last year he should be getting more minutes than he was and got blasted for it. Look it up if you like. He's always been athletic. Stansbury wasn't going to play him just cause he had his mind set not to play him from the start I guess. Stansbury always did that. Rimmer and Osby are two others that should have been getting more minutes and Stansbury refused so they just transferred. Phil Turner hustled more than anyone in the last 8 years just about and Stansbury kicked him off the team.

 

[MSUDawg4Life]

Roquez looks like a totally different player. I don't remember seeing a MSU basketball player improve so dramatically from one season to the next.

Even Wendell showed me something different yesterday. That shot from the wing and handling the ball away from the basket, I'm not sure I've seen him do much of that before.

I think if we give these freshmen and the new class a little time to develop, we might have a pretty good squad on our hands one day.

 

[xxxWalkTheDawg]

I'm happy to see that there isn't two or three players standing around on offense and no more feet nailed to the floor on rebounds. That drove me freakin nuts about the past teams.

 

[DawgatAuburn]

He certainly isn't an elite conference player all of a sudden or anything like that, but last year he was 0-4 from the floor and 1-6 from the line. That was his impact for the entire season.

And here he is, a couple games not the season, and he has shown he can rebound, penetrate from the perimeter, hit free throws, shoot it from 3, and hustles like a mad man.

Did he have all this last season and just not get the chance to show it? Did he really suddenly learn to put the ball on the floor and also shoot?

He has a long way to go before I think he is a legitimately good player, but damn I don't remember another player improving so much in just 1 summer.

Perhaps if he had smoked pot, walked up and down the court, openly disagreed with the head coach, or any of the other things we saw from out starters last year, he would have played more. That hustle crap wasn't cutting it.

I hate losing, but there were times last year when winning was painful.

 

[SallyStansbury]

Stansbury wasn't going to play him just cause he had his mind set not to play him from the start I guess. Stansbury always did that. Rimmer and Osby are two others that should have been getting more minutes and Stansbury refused so they just transferred. Phil Turner hustled more than anyone in the last 8 years just about and Stansbury kicked him off the team.

You are dead on.

I have been thinking the exact same thing about Johnson and how Coach Stansbury would never allow him to develop/play this role. Coach Stansbury would allow his 4 & 5 to both stand around under the basket last year and clog the lane with defenders making drives to the basket for Moultrie more difficult than they should have been with proper spacing and movement. We have done that forever, just insert the names of different players, then there is the replace our 4 with a little guy (like Dietric, Turner, Harper, etc...) move and have that guy play on the perimeter thereby opening up the lane for our 5 to work. That was often met with limited success. Time to move on from all that crap though.

There are (3) guys on this years guy's scrimmage squad against whom the ladies team practices that could help our team right now. There are probably several football players that could contribute too, but not sure if Coach Mullen wants Malone slimming down to play basketball? Man, who knows. It is time for Ray to figure something out, but recruiting for this upcoming season doesn't look too bright at present. If Coach Stansbury's flaw was stubborness, lack of intelligence, or lack of control of this team, Ray's flaw might be the inability to bring players. To quote Shmuley, this may be a long three years. UGH.

 

[maroonmania]

The Phil Turner debacle was one of the biggest negatives to me...

I posted last year he should be getting more minutes than he was and got blasted for it. Look it up if you like. He's always been athletic. Stansbury wasn't going to play him just cause he had his mind set not to play him from the start I guess. Stansbury always did that. Rimmer and Osby are two others that should have been getting more minutes and Stansbury refused so they just transferred. Phil Turner hustled more than anyone in the last 8 years just about and Stansbury kicked him off the team.

ever in the Stansbury era. That guy put forth twice as much effort as his teammates from what I saw and yet because he apparently "offered" his opinion from time to time to the coaching staff he was summarily dismissed.