Cheaney

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

I was at the University of Illinois when Cheaney was tearing up the Big
Ten so I have a healthy appreciation of his skills. He was player of the
year, led Indiana to the Final Four, and was drafted sixth. Sounds like
the player we just traded away? What's more, he's a solid jump shooter
that doesn't have three point range at the current line, and he's just
about the same size. His second year stats compared to Mercer's:
  Cheaney 16.6 ppg (45.3% fg), 4.1 rpg, 2.3 apg, 1.03 spg.
  Mercer  17.0 ppg (43.1% fg), 3.8 rpg, 2.5 apg, 1.63 spg.
In fact, when I saw Mercer play when he got here, I thought, "He's like
Calbert Cheaney back when Cheaney didn't suck." Cheaney was automatic
from around 18 feet and consistently scored a lot of points within the
flow of the offense.

Since then though, Cheaney's career has gone south, culminating in a
horrible season this year which even saw his free throw percentage
drop below 50% (and this guy has shot over 80% over a season). A few
things though; playing with Webber (and now Richmond), Strickland, and 
Howard hasn't given him many offensive opportunities. Hopefully a change
of scenery, a better defined role (scorer off the bench), and Pitino's 
influence will revitalize Cheaney's career; leaving Washington certainly 
proved to be good for Webber. 

I'm a big fan of this signing (via the $2M exception I assume). He's a
28 year old veteran and a better scorer than anyone we had on the second
unit last year. 

Alex