Good or Bad, he's our Brandon

[FrazierFanatic]

Yeah, I had to grab for my portable defibrillator last night when Indy posted the mindboggling news. Yeah, my first thought was to scream and rant and rave that BB should be buried on the bench for the rest of the game, the week, the season. But whatever flaws he may have, I know one thing - we are going NOWHERE this season without Brandon. He has the ability to lift us to victory when he is on. We have other talent for sure. But we need everything he can give us to move up in the BE, to make a run in the BET, to make the Big Dance, and to make some noise once we're there. So all is forgiven, lesson undoubtedly learned - let's move onward and upward. HOYA SAXA!

[prhoya]

And we love our Brandon... Keep your focus for 40 minutes and you'll be fine.

[GUHoya07]

I agree 100%, great post.

We believe in you Brandon, kick some a$$ against Cincy.

[aggypryd]

As long as he's playing hard, I don't care about the points...but he should be stuffing the stat sheet in other ways...

[YB]

It was a bad mistake but it does not negate the good he does. He learns, he dominates, we move on.

[MCIGuy]

Most importantly....he's academically eligible. Unlike a certain senior at another school.

[1984alloveragain]

GOOD POST!!! Thank you for that Frazier... Whether it was a foul or not is questionable, but Brandon and the team knew right away that it was not good to even be near Falls in THAT particular situation. Brandon is a HOYA 4 LIFE, and he's WON a hell of a lot more games for us than anyone who has bashed him in this forum. The same fair weather fans were overjoyed saturday when BB BLOCKED JJ's 3 with under 30 seconds to go that bounced off Dockery out of bounds. Brandon is a WINNER and thank GOD he and the whole team learned a valuable end of game situation the hard way--- and IN A WIN!! WE NEED you BB!! HANG IN THERE AND let's all let it go!! BIGGER and BETTER things to focus on...

[MEGAFAN]

1984alloveragain said:

GOOD POST!!! Thank you for that Frazier... Whether it was a foul or not is questionable, but Brandon and the team knew right away that it was not good to even be near Falls in THAT particular situation. Brandon is a HOYA 4 LIFE, and he's WON a hell of a lot more games for us than anyone who has bashed him in this forum. The same fair weather fans were overjoyed saturday when BB BLOCKED JJ's 3 with under 30 seconds to go that bounced off Dockery out of bounds. Brandon is a WINNER and thank GOD he and the whole team learned a valuable end of game situation the hard way--- and IN A WIN!! WE NEED you BB!! HANG IN THERE AND let's all let it go!! BIGGER and BETTER things to focus on...

Great post both of you! I even said yesterday that you can't expect a player with the aggressivness of Brandon to do great things like block Reddick and yet turn off his instincts easily when it comes to trying to block another three at the end of the game.

However, despite the terrible call, there is almost no excuse for that kind of foul at that juncture in the game, and the coaches and players need to make sure everyone knows this. Of course, both DJ and JW were shouting this out, as was the whole bench, so obviously this was a lone mistake by BoBo. But it's hopefully a learning experience, and I really think JT III sitting him down was probably more a function of being worried that Brandon wouldn't perform well, rather than it being a punishment. Of course, in part, it may have served as one, and will hopefully prevent BoBo from committing such a foul again. But he is human, and human's do make mistakes. And I still want him maintaining his agressiveness defensively and on the boards!

And oh yeah, anyone who can honestly say that this team would be or will be better off without Brandon is mistaken.

Am I excited that we have a guy like PE, Jr. coming in to possibly replace him at the SF position?

Of course.

Am I excited about some of the immensely talented players scheduled to arrive on the Hilltop come the Fall?

No doubt.

Am I excited about losing a 4 year senior who was been through the thick and thin with this team, gone through a coaching change, adopted to a new system that doesn't necessarily maximize his NBA status (arguably it does), resisted the temptation to transfer, decided not to go pro, and is scheduled to graduate as one of the all-time leaders in mutliple statistical categories at Georgetown?

Not at all!

I understand that some have been disappointed with Brandon's drop off in production, and others don't care about the numbers, but have problems with his attitude, and yet others just think that he's not right for the system, etc. However, the Big East season is young, and so far, I think Brandon has played very well throughout our conference schedule (and against that team we played on Saturday, who was that again?) Even yesterday, he got a huge offensive rebound/tip-in, and hit two clutch free throws, and he was clearly having an off day. Everyone at the bar in NYC was like, oh no, Brandon's going to the line, and I was like, "he's gonna make both, baby, 'cause I believe!"

Do you believe?

LET'S GO HOYAS!!! COOK CINCI!

[PopeJohn2]

Now this is the kind of board we should have!

[SFHoya99]

My hope next year is that we can offset the loss of three very good players with:

- Additional maturation of the sophomores
- Huge pickups from the freshmen class, including Spann and Thornton, who will get more PT
- Have hopefully two of the three frosh ready to significantly contribute
- Have PE, Jr., in some ways a senior step up
- One more year in the system for everyone

Failing that, we'll need just a monster season from Sead.

[hoyanick]

Speaking of Sead - and this applies for Tyler too - these are two guys who took on quite substantial roles in previous seasons and have been relegated to the pine recently. You wonder what this does for their psyche. As a frosh, Sead got quality minutes. Last year, his minutes per game were cut in half and sat out most of them. Tyler Crawford was my pick as the most important backup behind DJ and now he finds himself behind Sapp and Egerson too. Coming in to the Duke game I would have liked to see Tyler's athletic and intense presence on the court, hounding JJ. Alas, he did not enter the game. I feel bad for him.

[SFHoya99]

Sead seems to be pretty comfortable as a practice player, contributing to the team in mostly non-playing-in-game ways. Every team relies on players like this. I think like a lot of us, he's probably really enjoying Georgetown and in the end he'll have no student loans.

I'm sure he'd love to get more PT, but I've seen nothing that makes me think the guy is unhappy with his lot in life, ya know?

As for Tyler, I though he'd get more minutes this year. I guess Marc has beaten him out for the PT that was available, but I know the "Drill Sargeant" is a very valuable part of the team. Keep in mind, also, that Tyler is a very smart kid who values the education as well -- so while his PT has been unfortunate, again, I think he's enjoying the school and education.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

I am still suprised by this boards fascination with tyler. I liked him as much as anyone but if he's not getting playing time it's for a reason. Coach obviously feels more comfortable with sapp and egerson and i respect his descion. You can't argue with the results we've doing well with out him. and you can't tell me that tyler really could've made a difference in any of the games we lost.

[YB]

I'll take BB on balance, every game.

I like Tyler also, I suspect he'll get a bunch more PT in DJ's role once he graduates.