Is it just me or is Drew struggling lately...

[Lead Guitar]

One thing to remember is the focus or emphasis the other team places on Drew. Most feel that he makes our team go. They wantt to keep it out of his hands, if possible. Most have been unsuccessful. By comparison, if you look at Jason Kidd's numbers game to game, he takes what they give. (I am not saying, Drew is Jason Kidd. They play the same position.)

A point guard is not a shooting guard. He does not need to score for us to win. Usually a shooting guard has to score for the team to win (Roberts). I think a better judge of Drew's performance is his overall involvement--assists, rebounds, FT's and TO's. What is his contribution?

If you have noticed, most of Dante's extra playing time has come at the 2, not the point. (He comes in for Lavender, but Burrell runs the team.)Last night he did not play the point until both Burrell and Drew had two fouls and we were up by 16-18 in the last few minutes of the first half and then again when we had the walk-ons in the game.

Miller is using him wisely. He realizes that other teams autmatically go into the pressure mode when Lavender goes out, and early in the year, this sceanrio was not good for Jackson's confidence.

UMass likes to press 40 minutes. Unless we get the lead, I expect that Lavender goes 30+ at the point. I expect 15+ pts from him Sunday--if we are going to win.

[joebba]

One thing to remember is the focus or emphasis the other team places on Drew. Most feel that he makes our team go. They wantt to keep it out of his hands, if possible. Most have been unsuccessful. By comparison, if you look at Jason Kidd's numbers game to game, he takes what they give. (I am not saying, Drew is Jason Kidd. They play the same position.)

A point guard is not a shooting guard. He does not need to score for us to win. Usually a shooting guard has to score for the team to win (Roberts). I think a better judge of Drew's performance is his overall involvement--assists, rebounds, FT's and TO's. What is his contribution?

If you have noticed, most of Dante's extra playing time has come at the 2, not the point. (He comes in for Lavender, but Burrell runs the team.)Last night he did not play the point until both Burrell and Drew had two fouls and we were up by 16-18 in the last few minutes of the first half and then again when we had the walk-ons in the game.

Miller is using him wisely. He realizes that other teams autmatically go into the pressure mode when Lavender goes out, and early in the year, this sceanrio was not good for Jackson's confidence.

UMass likes to press 40 minutes. Unless we get the lead, I expect that Lavender goes 30+ at the point. I expect 15+ pts from him Sunday--if we are going to win.

I totally agree. Some good points., especially on Dante ciming in at the 2. Miller is doing things as a coach that are good for the team down the road as well as the now.

[vee4xu]

I like knowing that Drew, or any other starter for that matter can struggle and X still wins by over 20 points. That my friends is called balance and X has plenty of it.

[japer]

I'm not too concerned about this situation, but I do think it was a luxury to win the UD game by such a large margin and rest drew as much as possible. He might be a little nicked up right now, and he will be needed down the stretch run into late Feb/early Mar and subsequently early April.

So after the UMass game, X has a 6 day break. Good timing for possible healing here and a much needed 'breather' for this team.

[tacitus]

Drew is one chilled out mo-fo. It of course scared me how calm he and others were at Temple... He had no emotion on his face. It was as if all the players "knew" we would somehow pull it off... or maybe they knew they had already lost and were thinking about what they did wrong. I dunno... that's the past. Generally, when we are up, Lavender knows that he just has to maintain control of the game. When we are down or it is a close match and/or for whatever reason others aren't scoring, he drives to the basket a lot more, draws lots of fouls, makes amazing lay-ups over (around) guys twice his size, or drops the floater. He can also drop fairly deep threes when we so need. He is quick as hell and athletic. Most importantly, it doesn't seem that he needs to be the top scorer. That is good basketball IQ. I like him so much at point. Honestly, more than Chalmers, no offense to Chalmers. Lavender is a stoic and doesn't need to get the points in addition to assists. When have you seen him force a shot, except with the shot clock winding down or a floater here or there (which he makes more times than not). He is doing what he needs to do. I like that.