but we've had two outstanding Freshmen point guards who started as Freshmen, leave before their Sophomore seasons. Alex Finger and Bryan Crislip. What might we have achieved if they had stayed for four years? Makes you wonder about Hagins and Gillon. How long will they be here?
Thinking back, some of our more successful teams have had transfer or juco point guards who played their Junior and Senior Seasons. Brandon Patterson, Zack Graber, D'Andre Williams come to mind.
This experiment will be interesting to watch. Let's see how the transition to bringing in Freshmen instead of Jucos works out. Probably 17 to 18 wins in a good year. I think we could bring in Labron James and Dwayne Wade and still win 17 or 18 games a year. Just seems to be the pattern, doesn't it?
(03-26-2013 09:51 AM)outsideualr Wrote: [ -> ]but we've had two outstanding Freshmen point guards who started as Freshmen, leave before their Sophomore seasons. Alex Finger and Bryan Crislip. What might we have achieved if they had stayed for four years? Makes you wonder about Hagins and Gillon. How long will they be here?
Alex Finger was outstanding. I don't recall him being that good. Don't even remember him playing all that much. I seem to remember thinking that might have been the reason he quit playing. Crislip yes, but not Finger. He wasn't nearly as good as Festus Hagins has been this year. But, I must admit that my memory isn't what it used to be either.
I'm nearly certain Alex started his Freshman season. Maybe one of the other old coots on the board can recall. He wasn't a big scorer, but he was a true point guard and could get the ball to the scorers as I recall. He was the point guard on the great Central High team which also featured Mark Green and Joe Johnson. They were head and shoulders above every team in the state. They just crushed a pretty good North Little Rock team in the state final game in Pine Bluff. I saw that game. Tremendous display by Central.
(03-26-2013 01:10 PM)outsideualr Wrote: [ -> ]I'm nearly certain Alex started his Freshman season. Maybe one of the other old coots on the board can recall. He wasn't a big scorer, but he was a true point guard and could get the ball to the scorers as I recall. He was the point guard on the great Central High team which also featured Mark Green and Joe Johnson. They were head and shoulders above every team in the state. They just crushed a pretty good North Little Rock team in the state final game in Pine Bluff. I saw that game. Tremendous display by Central.
I viewed Alex Finger as a borderline D-I player. Probably the only reason we signed him was that he was local. No big surprise he gave up basketball. He was a reasonably good ball handler, but couldn't shoot with a lick.
Did he start for us that year? I thought he did, but I could be wrong. It's been a long time.
(03-26-2013 05:39 PM)outsideualr Wrote: [ -> ]Did he start for us that year? I thought he did, but I could be wrong. It's been a long time.
Do you mean it's been a long time since he was here, or that it's been a long time since you've been wrong?
As you say, it's been a long time, and since my memory fails me every time I call on it, I'm hesitant to say that I don't remember him being a starter. Like Mickey, I remember him being a poor shooter, and thought also that he was certainly borderline D-1 material. I thought at the time that lack of playing time might have been the reason for his decision to quit.
No. I've been wrong many times. But I recalled he was the starter and played a lot. That's why I recall being so surprised that he quit. At least that's my recollection which could certainly be incorrect.