bearister said:
oski003 said:
I argued with a dozen people on this site that Sueing was better than Vanover.
Can we now confirm that I won the argument? I understand that Vanover is a unique player. However, Sueing was underrated at Cal and is simply better. The problem he had at Cal is we had too many slashers and it made Sueing look like an average Joe.
I was mad at Sueing for leaving (smart move, however) and I never liked his on court demeanor. With that said, I always thought he was a baller and it hurt us when he left. Vanover, on the other hand, with all due respect to Big C (that phrase is always a prelude to something bad) was a one trick pony and very few teams can afford the luxury of that type of player. I would have paid for his airfare OUTA HERE!
LOL, now you would have paid him to leave? Congrats, you got me going again on this!
Sueing the sophomore was clearly a better basketball player than Vanover, who was a freshman.
What I said about Vanover was that he improved
enormously over the course of his freshman season, like I had never seen happen before. At the beginning, his minutes were limited because he struggled to even get up and down court. By a dozen games in, he could play ten minutes at a time, but was a huge defensive liability (literally). His last several games, he was actually helping us out there and had learned to conceal the weaker parts of his game.
By his last game against Stanfurd (or one of his last games, I forget), he was really turning into something. I was there; I am a season ticketholder; I saw it with my own eyes. Or, you could look at how his stats progressed throughout the year.
Reportedly, Vanover had a good relationship with Wyking Jones. Heck, in retrospect, maybe we should have kept Jones (instead of what we did): His contract would've been up right now and we would've saved a bundle.
Going to Arkansas was a terrible basketball decision for Vanover. His game is not suited to Musselman's style, I guess. Furthermore, just looking at him now, he seems to have struggled with injury or not done his full share of S & C, which a 7-3 guy really needs.
Maybe he is a happy individual, being back in his home state. Who knows?
Sueing is a good all-around player. Were he healthy and a Bear, he would've been far and away our best player (after Kelly went down... maybe even before). Instead, we are bereft of players with any combination of talent and skill.