McCarty's still a perplexing individual, How many 6'10" guys can dribble,
run, and shoot like Walker, and not be more of a consistent contributor? One
year he hit something like 6 3's in the first game and I am not sure if he
made 6 the rest of the year.
Yeah, he's supposed to be a really nice guy and plays like someone you WANT
to root for, but...Walter's immensely frustrating. What seems pretty clear
to me is that he's someone whose athleticism and attitude and even his
basketball skills are MILES advanced on his basketball sense. Thought so
during the Pitino years when things were made even worse by everyone
needing a serious clue hunt, and thought even more so when his play
improved after having had a few clues installed by O'B and the rest of the
coaching staff following some extensive time on the bench. It's an
assumption on my part with Walter, but a fair one I think from what I saw
with him and more generally based on something I've said before about a key
difference between the Cs under RP and the Cs under O'B - under RP they
played like a team that had merely been told and screamed at about what to
do and maybe even punished for not doing it until they'd lost whatever
sense they had but still didn't 'get it', while under O'B they play like a
team that's been coached and drilled and knows what they're supposed to do
most of the time, whether or not they actually do it. The epiphany hit the
first time I watched them properly execute an actual inbounds play under
O'B and realized I'd never seen them do that most basic of basics under RP.