sophomores

[gene kirkpatrick <gk_tyler@xxxxxxxxx>]

Well, so what if we won't have any rookies to salivate over.  Remember how chaotic it was just one year ago?  I was even reading the ESPN list daily with a wild, insatiable desire to get a fix on our possibilities.  Then, when our prize rook became a starter--CW, the genius!  Oh, well.  I don't think we misjudged talent as much as failed to bring it along--Johnson too fast, the others not at all.  Still, we now have three rookies, make that sophomores in Brown, Forte and Cook.  A one, a two, a three.  The only one we're questioning seriously is Forte.  Interesting.  He was the freshman of the year in the ACC and for 2/3s of his sophomore year he looked like the player of the year in the whole nation.  I still think he's a player, even if I wanted Tinsley.  Forte is a basketball player, where many of the young men in the league merely play the game.  It's what or who he is.  I believe that whoever gives him a chance will have a player.  

I also believe that the early season success took away Wallace's dream of bringing along the rookies.  O'Brien won the power struggle and we became veteran oriented at the expense of the rookies.  It was a good, short-term solution and took us to the Eastern finals.  The proof will be in '02, 03, etc.  Hope we allow our sophomores to develop (beyond just playing at Shaw).  Gene
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