No, not by whupping (sarcasm) a great (much more sarcasm) Providence team but here we are tied for third in the Big East with no 'bad conference losses' as the talking heads like to say. To be honest when the year started I thought if Otule continued his improvement we would be no worse then where we are right now in conference but I thought we had a chance to be 18-2 overall rather than 16-4.
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Here we are, without the improved Otule, not only 16-4 but with a great chance to end the month of January at 8-2 (19-4) and 8-2 (19-4) is very achievable. Last year we ended January at 5-4 (14-8). Last year too, we ended January by upsetting #9 Syracuse at home in front of 19,000+ fans and Junior Cadougan looked like an All American guard of the future in 10 minutes of play with two outstanding assists and a sense of urgency like I never saw from him before. |
Unfortunately he has not progressed a lot from there until his 10 assists yesterday. In between then and now, Gardner has become a serviceable player (4th leading scorer and 3rd in points per minute, behind only our two seniors DJO and Crowder) while being our second best rebounder and first in rebounds per minute. Talk about improvement and coaches' player development, wow!!! But hopefully Jamil Wilson is the real story from yesterday, 16 pts, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocked shots in 33 minutes of play. He finally played like 'the best player in practice' from last year. Is this THE Jamil Wilson or is he the Junior Cadougan from last year? I will venture that he is not this year's version of last year's Cadougan. While both were 4 star recruits, as was Erik Williams who left after last year and Jeronne Maymon who left before one semester was over, I will admit to not fully appreciating Cadougan's skills....so far; and since Wilson is from WI we heard all of his hype and none of Cadougan's. I just don't think Cadougan has looked much like a point guard so far but you never know. We should beat South Florida on Tues, Villanova on Saturday, and a slumping Seton Hall on the 31st, who by then may be in a four game slide. We will need these wins because @ ND will be no fun and five of our last six games are against teams who have earned serious respect...UCONN, Cincy twice, West Va, and Georgetown. A top four seed in the Big East is a realistic and very important goal for now and with that we will be dreaming of a Sweet Sixteen spot just like last year. Even more realistic in the short term is that we will end the month tied for the conference lead with Syracuse and maybe someone else, as Syracuse, with Fab Melo sitting out at least one more game to study, could easily lose one more before February comes around. Here's hoping.... Joe |
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I disagree about Cadougan. He's not another Chris Paul but he has been more consistent than Joe gives him credit. He averages, 5.6 assists, 69% on his free throws, and only 2.4 turnovers for a better than 2/1 ratio of assists to turnovers. His 5.6 assists/game ranks 5th in the conference. He may not be an all conference player but he's been a solid contributor on this team.
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