Originally Posted by
CDu
I totally agree (as you can see in my response to Kedsy in another post). I was never intending to place blame/fault on the players in this thread. I was just pointing out facts. High school success doesn't always translate to college success. Paulus, to a lesser degree McRoberts, and to a greater degree Sanders, Domzalski, etc., illustrate that.
Those guys weren't as good as scouts, recruiting "experts", and even coaches thought. That's not their fault. Recruiting isn't an exact science, and you can never tell for sure how well a kid's talents will translate as the quality of competition increases.
Paulus looked to the world like the second coming of Bobby Hurley in high school. He was an assist machine. Clearly, he wasn't as talented as folks thought, as his lack of quickness made him a liability defensively and (combined with shaky ballhandling) made him unable to attack with the dribble and create for others against pressure defense (the infamous turning of the back to the hoop whenever a defender got near him).
Again, that's not Paulus's fault. It's the experts' fault for misevaluating him. But the result is still a disappointing outcome for the fans. And if Jones' career follows the same path as Paulus' career, it will be disappointing for fans though in no way his fault.
Paulus had an rsci ranking of 13. Tyus Jones currently comes in at #5. It would be a larger mis-evaluation if Jones ends up having a career similar to Paulus. But I certainly get the point about not letting expectations get too high. I'm actually feeling that way more about Winslow, who I really like as a player from what I've seen, but appears to have a ways to go in developing offensively. Which is perfectly normal for the majority of players not ranked in the top 5.
Originally Posted by
tommy
If he's not, I'll eat my hat.
I don't think there's one aspect of the game in which Tyus isn't superior to Paulus, and in several, he's clearly superior. Possibly long-range shooting could be the only exception, but Tyus can stroke it too, and I won't be surprised if he hurts a bunch of teams who don't guard him closely enough out there.
Paulus' 3 pt shooting improved a great deal by his sophomore year over his freshman year.
"Just be you. You is Enough."