Walker not giving the ball up.

[Chris Littlefield <chris@mjr.com>]

Actually, Kevin, Walker did turn the ball over.  He was called for an
offensive foul on that play.  It was a bizarre sequence, because up to that
point Walker had been playing within himself, seeing the floor well and
picking the defense apart with some pretty sweet passing.

Then, all of a sudden he's barreling down court on the break.  He refuses
to give the ball to Mercer, ahead of him with a clear path, and gets called
for an offensive foul holding off his defender with his arm as he tried to
lay it in.   It was as if Walker had gone psycho; one minute he's Larry
Bird, the next he's Dominique at his most selfish.

And Walker should have had 5-7 assists last night.  No one he passed to
could hit the ocean.  Besides that, last night's game was pretty fun.
Bowen and Edney put on a clinic in the third.  Declerq is looking more and
more worth his contract.  John Thomas also impressed me, as did Dontae
Jones in his garbage time.  Thomas had some good moves, that one follow-up
slame, and his passes were actually pretty decent, though Jones did bail
him out on one alley-oop pass.  It was _way_ too high.  Jones, whose hand
at the peak of his leap was even or slightly above the box on the
backboard, just got his fingers on the ball to tip it in.  The boy's
definitely an athlete.  I know that with Mercer, Bowen, and McCarty it will
be tough for him to get minutes, but I think he has some real tools.
Heinsohn was saying last night that he's an affable, funny, intelligent kid
as well.  That's cool as I had heard he was somewhat of a headcase.

Well, I predicted 20-25 wins.  I'm not saying I'm going to eat that, though
I happily will.  But in ML (easy, you bashers)'s first season the team was
12-12 right before Christmas, went 0-4 on a Western Swing through the New
Year, and never recovered, finishing 33-49, or 21-37 the rest of the way.
I think this team has poise and direction that that team did not,
particularly from a coaching standpoint, but I'll be curious as to where we
are at the end of February.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm happy as all get out that we're winning good games
and improving.  But the beef of the season is still well ahead of us.  I
hope the team can hold on.

Additionally, if we were in the Western conference and the playoffs started
today, the C's would be tied with the T-Wolves for that 8th spot.  In the
East, they're in 11th.  Scary.

Have a good Holidays.


Chris




Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 12:01:35 -0800
From: "Kevin Crawford" <176012@email.msn.com>
Subject: Re: How many could they have won?

Therese with an "E"... If you don't agree with my opinions, that's fine.  I
didn't miss your point with Walker and his selfishness, you just chose a
poor example to use for your point of Walker being a ball hog.  If you would
have chosen an example where he turned the ball over or missed a basket and
wasn't fouled it would have been a different story.  However, this was not
the case, and if your feelings are hurt by me saying "chill out", I'm sorry,
but "chill out" perfectly describes what my point was...
- -----Original Message-----
From: Theresa Lee <tjoyce@MIT.EDU>
To: Kevin Crawford <176012@email.msn.com>
Date: Tuesday, December 16, 1997 6:31 AM
Subject: Re: How many could they have won?


>Kevin,
>
>Don't tell people to chill out....it's rude. And it's Theresa with an A,
>not an E. You missed my point entirely about Walker giving up the ball. If
>you read Pitino's book, you'll see that he notes that Walker was a ball hog
>in high school and at Kentucky. It's not a matter of one pass on one
>drive...it's a pattern.
>
>TJL