Welcome Malik Henry

If you really didn’t see him have the quickest leash on him soph year we were just watching different games. Which apparently we are because your Twitter makes it seem like we are consistently overachieving when it fact it seems to me the exact opposite

I saw it, and I hate to say it, but it seemed deserved. He would make a big play or two, but then he would blow a defensive assignment, and he would just sort of give up, you could see it in his body language. This article alludes to that a bit: https://theathletic.com/1401781/201...teresting-man-on-campus?source=shared-article

It’s a great article. But to me this didn’t happen directly overnight because of some magical bean Paulsen used on AJ. Aj put in the work and even undisciplined soph year he deserved double the minutes. The Richmond home game highlighted that. Now we see it 75% of games. It’s always been there he just now gets the mins and he refined his game.

I am hoping that Malik will be like a sponge under AJ this year and be ready to take over his sophomore season.

It definitely wasn't overnight. It was months of hard work. You make it sound like AJ was always this good, if Paulsen had just played him. I don't think that's fair to AJ (it downplays his hard work) or to Paulsen (it ignores the need for a coach to instill discipline).

He’s going to have to because there’s no other 4 on the roster after AJ graduates.

There’s a super fine line between instilling discipline and killing a players game by giving him no leash and I think it’s a fair point to debate for how AJs sophomore season was handled. Paulsen certainly didn’t apply it evenly across the board that year, look at Reuter’s minutes. Otis defense also left a lot to be desired that season..

Yeah, this. Seconded.

Otis's defensive shortcoming were a necessary evil, and I thought a lot of those were more physical limitations. He gave us all he could. It's a lot harder to explain what happened with Reuter's minutes, especially if he really was playing injured (as some have speculated). But I didn't often see the slumping body language from either of those players after they blew assignments, either. (I did see it from plenty of other younger players that season, I don't mean to single AJ out here. That was a clear point of emphasis this past offseason)

Since you mentioned fouls, another thought - hopefully AJ won't have any trouble with early fouls next season, but if he does, hopefully Malik can step in and make sure we don't have the same dropoff in athleticism and defensive identity that we sometimes had this season. He doesn't need to be AJ, but if he can be a passable imitation for a few minutes at a time, that could be huge.

Reuter was constantly slumping

Hmm. Maybe I've just suppressed my Reuter memories already.

Playing injured or not, if the deciding factor for minutes was blown defensive assignments then Paulsen didn’t apply it equitably between Reuter and AJ that season. At the end of the day it’s a moot point, but I hope that Paulsen handles Henry’s fresh/soph seasons better than he did with AJ.

Coach L used to do the same thing.

That is the most uninsightful comment I have ever seen from you. It's like you posted that just to say something. Everything that I've seen is that his players like him and they respond to him. Paulsen's players have three of the last four A10 MIP awards. By definition, coaches "coach" and players execute. Do you really think AJ improved himself in a vacuum? The credit for AJ’s development is split 50/50.

that is your opinion sir. Some are in the camp that Paulsen made AJ and that the kid went from total project to what he is now.. that is fine. Some others are of the opinion that AJ refined his game quite a bit but would have been much better his SOPH year if he would have just been allowed to play real minutes. You can't really prove either opinion so that is exactly what they are. He had the shortest leash imaginable and was buried in the bench behind a dude that was not very good. I also believe Greg's growth was stunted as well by it.

Back to Henry, can't wait to get him on campus and have AJ take big brother role with the kid.

I think we all can agree it’s an enormous sigh of relief that AJ is staying. It would’ve been a dagger in the balls to see him blow up next season in somebody else’s uniform.

Looking forward to giving that young man a standing ovation on Senior Night, assuming we all don’t die and there is a college basketball season.

I think you're forgetting how often AJ was getting in foul trouble his first 2 years. In conference games both years he averaged 7 fouls per 40 minutes. This year 3.5.