mccoy fell off the ladder at the combine. Some saying he could go undrafted. This is unfortunate to hear, considering Myers Leonard is still in the nba. I don’t think the blazers set a very high bar when it comes to talent and front court players though. Maybe it all means nothing, but I’ll certainly feel bad if he ends up being this drafts Chris wood.
Sounds like
- Thread starter BrianGregory
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It was a knock on CWood in HS, not working hard. Same with Bennett. It was a knock on McCoy as well.
Both proved to be just who they are. Part of their makeup. The chances on that changing are low. I know we’ve argued it here many times, but kids in this type of situation rarely change from one extreme to the other ... and when the other extreme is required to “make it”.... well, this is what can happen. Sad to say that it doesn’t surprise me at all.
The thing is, these kids are in the top percentile of the world when it comes to their talent in a specific area. They get to a certain point with talent alone. If they know that but they can’t bust their ass to be one of the tops in that group... well, they just won’t make it. You can reach/change a lost HS student who is searching. Even a college student. But the older they get, the tougher it is. And they aren’t “experts” in anything to were they’ve topped out. Much easier to reach, change, whatever term you want to us, a basic kid - much harder to do it with an expert, a superstar.
If a college hoops player reaches college extremely lazy ... no coach is going to turn them into a go getter.
How many examples of kids who did grow into the capacity to work and focus would you need before you change your mind? Can you change or is endless negativity and nasty dismissal of 19 year old kids just in your DNA? McCoy needed to stay in school; needed to learn how to work. If a kid is a good student, a good kid, who learned how to play a bunch of different instruments, who’s mother kept him purposely out of the youth basketball factory which produces far more disasters than NBA players, why couldn’t we have expected McCoy to improve? He should have stayed in school and Rebel fans should have supported him and recognized his youth and potential rather than vilifying him as a lazy fraud. I still wish him the best even if I think the decision he made to leave early is horrible and, ultimately worse for him than it is for the team.
I’ve seen ample evidence of it at UNLV, other schools. A player that doesn’t have work ethic isn’t going to magically get it.
If he would have stayed, he wouldn’t have worked. That’s who he is, somebody that will get by just enough because he has talent and size than most others don’t have.
He was lazy before he got here. UNLV didn’t turn him lazy and they weren’t going to turn him into a focused beast.
Being lazy doesn’t make you a bad person, a villain, a monster, a criminal. Just means you don’t have the work ethic required to make it to where other people want you to make it. Happened with many, many others.
If I see a lazy freshman turn into a work ethic monster, it will be the very first time.
It was a bad decision, but it’s his decision and his families decision and it was made long before he stepped foot on campus.
If he busted his ass in HS and his one year here, he’d have been a top 20 pick. He didn’t. And he’s not. Doesn’t make him a bad kid. But everyone with two eyes saw how nonchalant he was when he played. That’s just him.
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As in many things, we have to agree to disagree. But blanket formulations about someone’s DNA or their laziness, which when without qualification implies laziness in every arena, are always gonna set me off, particularly when they are repeated thread after thread, post after post, ad nauseam. Whatever. I wish him good luck and I hope he learns how to put in the consistent kind of work that can get him a good ten years in the league. And I hope you’ll learn to give people a chance to grow and change.
Unless you are gifted with talent that eludes even the elite NBA players, most NBA players have to work hard at their craft. Unlike Bennett (and maybe Wood), I feel like McCoy did not want to be seen as a one-dimensional person where basketball was his only skill. I am guessing Wayman Tisdale put in a tremendous amount of work. I just don't think McCoy had that kind of desire for basketball.
That's okay. I don't have that kind of desire to run half-a-mile.
That's okay. I don't have that kind of desire to run half-a-mile.
Lazy is a bit harsh to label a kid that had a D1 basketball scholarship, plays multiple music instruments, and I believe also had a high GPA. He put up great stats and had a great season.
Another season here would have helped the team, probably more so than it would have helped him but I wish he was returning.
Another season here would have helped the team, probably more so than it would have helped him but I wish he was returning.
This sad but predictable. Saw it coming all season.So....no education and no draft. Europe is looking good for about 1 season...Lack of fire in the belly.
I have said before "give my an over achieving 3 star who is here for 4 years and is a team player".
Joel Anthony, Curtis Terry ...... guys that really came into their own from hard work.
Nothing against McCoy. Wish him the best. Wish we could have gotten 1 more year. Talked to his mom briefly in Logan, UT at the Utah State game. Nice people. But I also have to agree with it's hard to instill in people certain traits. In the end, that person is the only one that can make the change. But people can change, if they so desire. It's just rare.
Wendell White.
And maybe the biggest turnaround I have seen in a UNLV D1 player from Freshman to Senior - Mark Dickel.
Did I mention I was a Mark Dickel fan lately?
And maybe the biggest turnaround I have seen in a UNLV D1 player from Freshman to Senior - Mark Dickel.
Did I mention I was a Mark Dickel fan lately?
Wendell White.
And maybe the biggest turnaround I have seen in a UNLV D1 player from Freshman to Senior - Mark Dickel.
Did I mention I was a Mark Dickel fan lately?
Mark busted it. Louis A busted it. JLew busted it. Umeh busted it. There are a lot. A lot of players that never made more than the roster busted their ass.
I can’t think of one that came in really lazy and left as a guy who busted it.
Most players fall in between those extremes, call busting their ass 8-10 and lazy being 1-3. Most are 4-7 I’d say. Never saw somebody in the 1-3 end up higher, never saw one 8-10 drop lower.
And apparently saying the same thing over and over again without ever even considering the point of view of others who have long experience actually coaching and/or teaching kids who do change their work habits because they learn how to do so is something other than laziness itself. Whatever. I just don’t understand what makes grown men want to slam teenagers. But this is the site in which Mooring was routinely called a pig with no comment, let alone condemnation, from the moderator. I guess I have to work on taking the good, the informative and the insightful with the bad, the unfair and the bitter.
I’ve considered your point of view and I’m not saying it isn’t valid. You’re telling us based on your experience, as am I.
Mine is simple. I’ve never, ever seen a UNLV basketball player come in with poor work ethic and leave with strong work ethic. I’m not applying that to schoolwork, in the workplace or anywhere else.
Some may come in with poor work ethic and still improve as a player over time. Some with great work ethic might not improve a ton because they are limited by their overall ability. But, based on my experience, with my own eyes, in the scope of college basketball, I’ve never seen a low work ethic player all of a sudden develop a killer work ethic.
I think that regardless of the scope, the younger they are, the better the chances. And regardless of the field, I believe the less they’ve been coddled or have the tendency to play the victim, the easier.
In the field of college basketball, if they’ve been coddled, butt kissed by everyone, always get their way and they have little work ethic, odds are very high that they are not going to develop a strong work ethic while in college, if ever.
+1. Wendell "The Baby Bull" WhiteWendell White.
And maybe the biggest turnaround I have seen in a UNLV D1 player from Freshman to Senior - Mark Dickel.
Did I mention I was a Mark Dickel fan lately?
But that’s the thing. You’re talking at the end of your post about bad work ethic as something that is learned by kids as a function of the way they have been treated and taught. 1) If it’s learned then it’s not genetic, not a function of their DNA, not just some unalterable way they are. 2) If it was taught it can be untaught.
I saw, in McCoy, a kid with a lot of bad habits defensively and offensively; he didn’t move his feet and he didn’t fight through adversity in a play by play basis. What made me think that he wasn’t just naturally lazy was the way he rebounded. You don’t get rebounds by being naturally lazy or just because you’re tall. He needed to learn how to work through opposing players’ physicality and how to move his feet after never having to do either in high school. Maybe you saw his slow rotation on help defense as laziness. I saw it as the kind of bad habit that it takes time to change, the kind of bad habit that might seem fixed in practice but which resurfaces under game pressure. And I also saw signs of improvement. Not consistent, certainly intermittent, but real.
I don’t challenge your experience watching the Rebels over the years. But I do know that in basketball, just like anything else, you not only have to put in effort but you have to learn how to put in smart and effective effort. I don’t know about McCoy’s DNA and neither do you; the same DNA that is linked to his effort on the court is linked to his effort in the classroom. I have a feeling that he was sent to a high school that taught him how to make that classroom effort while having a basketball program that wasn’t able to do the same kind of teaching in the court. That he came here without that work ethic is clear; that he is leaving before having a chance to develop it is sad for him and for us. I wish him the best and I think you do, too. If you could refrain from the DNA stuff I’d be glad but if not I’ll survive.
On another note, from another thread, just this once: you say that you’ve seen no evidence of the building of a culture or an identity; well, I think the team GPA stuff, along with the fact that kids are not transferring this spring and summer, are both evidence of something new and good. These are important parts of what is needed to build a program that will be sustainable at UNLV—two bricks in a much needed new foundation!
APR is a four year rolling average. I believe the first two years were near perfect which plays into it.
It is nice that for once that we didn’t have anybody transfer. It’s the first year since.... I’d have to look it up.
