I think it was Cervantes who coined the phrase in Don Quixote. This is just for discussion.
Talking with a guy at work who I shoot the shit with daily about sports, he had a pretty high level recruit son about twenty years ago so he’d been through the AAU stuff, recruiting visits and all that jazz. So he was familiar with all the local talent back then, from the mid 90’s through the early 2010’s, had UNLV guys over to his house many times (UNLV was recruiting his son) ….
Anyway; it’s surprising (to both of us) some of the stuff that comes out when we talk. And it got me thinking back to the way I viewed things before this site, as a fan who just saw games, that’s it.
I made so many assumptions that were flat out wrong, even the complete opposite of what the facts were in my mind. For instance, like many, I was all about Greedy and didn’t like Dickel. That’s when I started regularly attending practices and pick ups. And I was so far off on that one.
But there are many other things you assume …… this guy is tough (he’s a complete wimp), this guy is soft (toughest guy on the team), this is a great teammate (he’s a POS who divides the team), this guy is a headcase (he’s glue). This guy is disrespectful, a problem to coach, this one is a coaches dream, etc, etc, etc.
We also do it from video highlights and that one drives me crazy, it’s like a dating profile, you only see the good.
I always say trust your eyes and draw conclusions for yourself because you know what you see, don’t let others tell you how it is. But even that can be dead wrong …. About the only thing you can assess with any degree of success is actual level of talent and that’s only if you can see both the good and the bad, as in live games vs similar competition, not highlight reels.
We had a long discussion about this sort of stuff and it was an eye opener.
Anyway, just some food for thought.
Talking with a guy at work who I shoot the shit with daily about sports, he had a pretty high level recruit son about twenty years ago so he’d been through the AAU stuff, recruiting visits and all that jazz. So he was familiar with all the local talent back then, from the mid 90’s through the early 2010’s, had UNLV guys over to his house many times (UNLV was recruiting his son) ….
Anyway; it’s surprising (to both of us) some of the stuff that comes out when we talk. And it got me thinking back to the way I viewed things before this site, as a fan who just saw games, that’s it.
I made so many assumptions that were flat out wrong, even the complete opposite of what the facts were in my mind. For instance, like many, I was all about Greedy and didn’t like Dickel. That’s when I started regularly attending practices and pick ups. And I was so far off on that one.
But there are many other things you assume …… this guy is tough (he’s a complete wimp), this guy is soft (toughest guy on the team), this is a great teammate (he’s a POS who divides the team), this guy is a headcase (he’s glue). This guy is disrespectful, a problem to coach, this one is a coaches dream, etc, etc, etc.
We also do it from video highlights and that one drives me crazy, it’s like a dating profile, you only see the good.
I always say trust your eyes and draw conclusions for yourself because you know what you see, don’t let others tell you how it is. But even that can be dead wrong …. About the only thing you can assess with any degree of success is actual level of talent and that’s only if you can see both the good and the bad, as in live games vs similar competition, not highlight reels.
We had a long discussion about this sort of stuff and it was an eye opener.
Anyway, just some food for thought.
