Originally Posted by farfromtheshow

James is dealing with a set of circumstances in his personal life that very few young men have too... they put basketball in perspective and they are why I'm not jumping on him about his performance...

Originally Posted by usslider

Thanks.
Things like that are why I generally try not to jump all over ANY of the kids for their performance - I don't know whats going on in their heads, or behind the scenes. At the same time, he is a basketball player on scholarship at a D-I university so performance-related questions may be justified.

I wonder how a situation like that would be handled/covered/seen at the high-major level or in the pro's. (The likely answer partially explains why I'm mainly a fan of this level instead)

Originally Posted by UVM Hoop Cat

I've been pretty critical of Morris so I should take this opportunity to point out how well he's playing thus far this season, that's only fair.

When I left the BU/NU game in season opener my thoughts were "It's junior year, kid looks the same, just doesn't get it, disappears out there" but since that game and maybe the second game, he's been terrific. He's now averaging 11pts and close to 7 boards, and shooting 57%- highest of his career (because he's taking realistic shots he can make). He's pretty much stopped shooting a bunch of 3s which is good because he can't really make them and BU has a handful of players that are better 3pt shooters. He's shooting 95% from the line, about 30% above his career average. He's averaging 1.1 steals, so actually trying to play defense.

In short, Morris is playing about as well as he can be playing. If he keeps it up, definitely one of if not the most improved players in the conference.

As for Kennedy, I don't think I've ever said anything about him outside of he sounded like an exciting signing at the time. I'm usually only critical of players that play the lions share of the minutes, and Kennedy simply doesn't get enough time/ever play to even consider or warrant any opinion one way or the other. The few times I've seen him in a game I haven't been wowed, I guess I can say that. He seems pretty raw.

Originally Posted by drbell

he only shot 22 threes total last year. he can make threes, but this team has other people for that so there's no need for him to be hanging out back there.