Brian Roberts, one of the greatest, had just graduated, along with Jimmie Binnie and Andres Sandoval. That's 3 of our top 4 assist guys leaving to graduation so who was going to handle the ball next year?? Together they accounted for 31 PPG + all kinds of heart and soul of the team. Sure, we had some returning talent for the following year with sophomore
Chris Wright, junior Marcus Johnson, and senior Charles Little.
But the only returning ball handler was junior
London Warren.
LW just finished his sophomore season where he had an A/TO ratio of 0.84 (WOW). He averaged 4.3 PPG and 2.6 fouls in 18 minutes as a sophomore. Everyone assumed transfer Rob Lowery would take over the starting PG position with LW relegated to the bench, maybe even with sophomore Stephen Thomas playing some to cover for the wildly inconsistent LW. And let's not forget that shooting guards Mickey Perry and Marcus Johnson could surely play a few minutes at PG as a backup as well as this freshman Paul Williams kid--anything had to be better than the turnover machine that was LW as a sophomore.
The rest of the story: LW started 33 of 35 games. He played 21.5 minutes per game (compared to RL's 18.2), had an A/TO ratio of 2.33 (compared to RL's 1.68), dished out 154 assists which is 10 MORE than SS had last year (compared to RL's 84, Johnson's 54, Perry's 27 and Thomas's 20), and UD went 27-8 that year.
Oh we also won our first tournament game against WV.
Now, are the situations EXACTLY, PRECISELY the same? Of course not. LW was forced to play as a sophomore because after Roberts there really was no other option to play PG, and Roberts had to spend a lot of energy leading the team in scoring so unlike SS he needed breaks (34.7 MPG) so LW was forced into action (unlike SS (31.3 MPG) who could play almost the whole game but conserve some energy by letting others score). SS also had more help on defense from KD who was a maniac on defense. LW couldn't shoot but JC can reasonably shoot from outside. Wright took a lot of the pressure off of LW with his pure athleticism. JC's A/TO ratio as a sophomore was 1.15 but in far fewer minutes per game and far fewer total assists. . . but he made more 3's as a sophomore than LW did in his career.
No, it's not exactly the same. But that's not the greater point.
The point is that nobody gave LW the sophomore any reasonable chance to become LW the junior. And of course he didn't have to turn into LW the junior; he could have failed and we never talk about him again. But he didn't fail. And similarly no one is really giving JC a chance as a junior. He may fail, I obviously can't say for sure. He might fail and we never talk about him again. But with few other options . . . he might just succeed.
But when you compare him to LW, it's not totally crazy to imagine. He's not as quick as LW but he's a far better shooter. LW took a shot every 20 seconds of game time as a sophomore, JC took a shot every 23 seconds. LW was a 51% FT shooter, JC was a 44% FT shooter. LW made 1-2 from 3, JC made 11-23. LW had a rebound every 16 seconds, JC had a rebound every 15 seconds.
But, it could actually happen.
