From the 2 stories that were published this week, we learned that Grennan is healthy, can play multiple positions, and is being looked at as a player to "take the reins" of this team. It looks to me that Grennan will be given every opportunity to succeed, and my guess, is that he will play all 3 guard positions (PG, 2G, 3G). IMO, he reminded me a little of Pistol Pete Maravich in HS, but that was 3 years ago. Here is the missing Q&A that never made it in Paxton’s story:
Paxton: How is your other transfer, guard Sean Grennan, coming along…. and has he recovered from Achilles problem? In a young backcourt, I’m guessing Sean’s college experience could be helpful.
Johnson: We need production out of him, we need leadership and we need competitiveness out of him. He did spend a full year at Seton Hall, spent a year with us….. so he is one that should be a bit more experience and he needs to show that. It’s his time really to perform, and he’s got to perform for us to have a fighting chance. I do know that (young backcourt) is something that’s a question mark about us. If he can be better, than we can be better than a lot of people think.
If he can be better -- I wonder how close Sean is to getting to where the staff wants him to be. And does SJ expect Grennan to get there. He is a huge key to the season.
Post by reindeerfan on Oct 1, 2013 22:57:35 GMT -5
I have long felt Sean is going to be a big part of the rotation. He is an efficent offensive player like we haven't had in some time. 1) efficent three point shooting 2) draws fouls while still making his shot, 3) he makes his "and ones", an 87% foul shooter.
I think he's going to put points on the board and be a better guard then most of our experienced seniors were last year. That's one reason why I am not as worried about the youth of our guards.
reindeer, how do you know Sean can do all those things against Div. 1 players? I assume all those things you claim he can do are from high school. None of us have seen him in competition except for last years Red/White game. I have confidence that he will be a good player, but I am from Missouri, SHOW ME!
P.S. How do you not know if Lincoln Davis will not be a better player than Sean? Look at his tapes from High School.
A 6-2 two-star guard out of Sea Girt, N.J., Grennan originally had committed to Davidson out of high school, but changed his mind and chose the Pirates over such mid-majors as Charlotte, Fordham, La Salle, Tulane and Vermont.
Sean Grennan is headed to Fairfield after one season at Seton Hall. (Photo courtesy of SHU) But he played sparingly for Kevin Willard's squad after missing much of the early season due to an emergency appendectomy.
He played 66 minutes in 18 games with a total of 10 points, nine assists and two rebounds for the Pirates.
While there is no guarantee he will be better than the freshmen, he has shown that he can at least compete at the Big East level, and has more experience, having played at Seton Hall and practiced with Fairfield last year. The fact that he played point at Seton Hall (albeit in sparing minutes) gives me hope that he has the game to be a solid player for us this year.
My take is that we still do not have a set of guards that our "taking the reins" of this team. If that is still true, then Sydney seems to be making a prelimnary decision that Grennan is going to get a shot at a lead role on this team..... because of the reasons he stated.
We don't know who our best guards are and it seems that Sydney has not seen 2 players distinguish themselves from the other 3 guards. IMO, thats not a good thing. I would rather hear that 2 or 3 players are having heated-words or fisticuffs at Practice on who should run this team. We cannot go into the season with rotating 5 guards..... thats like a football team changing their quarterback on each offensive series.
I have heard good reports on Lincoln Davis, but is he ready as a frosh to be our take charge guy. Might be a lot to ask a frosh who never has really played PG. I have seen 5 players come in as take-charge guys as a first year player .....Ryan, Desantis, George, Todd, Han and Needham. If Davis, Rose or Chappel can do that, then that would be great. At least Rose comes in with prior PG skills and is a self proclaimed Pass-First guy.
Back in '75, if we had a blog, we would probably have been going bananas debating whether Joey D was a point guard or a shooting guard, and if we decided that he was a 2, we would have argued that we had to have a 1 to play along side with Joey or Kim Fisher. They couldnt play together. I am not worried at all that guards like Grennan and Jenkins and others have enough play-making skills to run this team, no matter how we label them. And it seems that Coach is also fixated on that issue. How does Rome differ from KJ, other than that he is 3 inches shorter? I am concerned that we may have been overly focused on a 1, and our failure to get the one we really wanted, and acted compulsively rather than waiting for a higher rated player. I really hope that I am wrong. We will see.
Back in '75, if we had a blog, we would probably have been going bananas debating whether Joey D was a point guard or a shooting guard, and if we decided that he was a 2, we would have argued that we had to have a 1 to play along side with Joey or Kim Fisher. They couldnt play together. I am not worried at all that guards like Grennan and Jenkins and others have enough play-making skills to run this team, no matter how we label them. And it seems that Coach is also fixated on that issue. How does Rome differ from KJ, other than that he is 3 inches shorter? I am concerned that we may have been overly focused on a 1, and our failure to get the one we really wanted, and acted compulsively rather than waiting for a higher rated player. I really hope that I am wrong. We will see.
diso, it would have been fun if we had a blog during those years, right? But if my memory is correct I believe Fisher didn't come in until the next season. On the other hand I believe Danny Odums was the other talented guard on the team when Joey was a freshman. Truthfully though what I remember was that having watched him play in the JCC Classic Allstar game, I thought he was ready to immediately take over the reins of the Stags as a high scoring PG (and lead guard). In fact I remember being very upset in the first game up at Springfield against Niagara when Fred Barakat did not start DeSantis, but rather Peter Holland in his place. Finally near the end of the first half with Fairfield down by around 19 points Joey finally got inserted into the game. And while he led a great comeback that just fell short, I do think this was the last time in his career that he wasn't considered the true PG (and best scoring guard) on the team. And he certainly could work well with Odums and then Fisher the next season. How this connects to the current team and the guards I'm not sure until I see what we have. I guess at this point we just have to trust Sydney that he knows what he is doing in putting together the team. As I have said before, his success and legacy will depend a lot on these initial recruiting classes that will determine success or failure in the next few years.
No arguement here. The chemistry was really good on those teams. Barakat did a good job of efficiently melding all the parts together. Joey D. was the quintessential point guard, who could score, distribute and run the offense. We ran a three guard offense that liked to get out and run. It made for some very entertaining games in Alumni Hall. Kim Fisher and Flip Williams were perfect wings for that style. Neither would be confused as a point guard or even a combo guard.
If we had Desantis on this years team there would not be need to be discussing who would be playing PG or 2G cause he could play both..... and he did it Very Well. And I agree that Fisher and Williams were a perfect pair for that team (even though Fisher-Strickland would have been even better). The reason why that team had good offensive chemistry was that both Fisher and Willians also had a perimeter game. IMO, any offense needs to have at least 3 perimeter players on the court ..... thats why 3-guard offenses work.
If we had Desantis on this years team there would not be need to be discussing wheo would be playing PG or 2G cause he could play both..... Very Well. And I agree that Fisher and Williams were a perfect pair for that team (even though Fisher-Strickland would have been even better). The reason why that team had good offensive chemistry was that both Fisher and Willians also had a perimeter game. IMO, any offense needs to have at least 3 perimeter players on the court ..... thats why 3-guard offenses work.
And don't forget that team (and the subsequent ones for the next 3-4 years) had such talented big players Mark Young, Steve Balkin, Mark Plefka, etc. to augment the guards and wings. Hopefully our big players this year as a group will have somewhat of the same effect as those guys. However to be truthful, it would really be a stretch if anyone came close to the level of excellence as Young, who really was one of the best big men in the East if not the entire country!
reindeer, how do you know Sean can do all those things against Div. 1 players? I assume all those things you claim he can do are from high school. None of us have seen him in competition except for last years Red/White game. I have confidence that he will be a good player, but I am from Missouri, SHOW ME!
P.S. How do you not know if Lincoln Davis will not be a better player than Sean? Look at his tapes from High School.
Rave: I love your statement that you are a show me guy, I feel the same way about the incoming players. I hear a lot of hype and the reality of what we get rarely matches the hype. So I need to be shown before I am as gun ho as others about he recruits. I also don't like to put a lot of stock in these highlight videos because they are just that. Any starting high school player can put together a video showing 8 or 10 good plays over the course of their junior and senior year. What does that really mean?
So its fair to ask the question you asked about Grennan. Here's why I feel a little better about him than some of the other recruits. First, there are some guys that when they get fouled can't finish. While I recognize the competion level in college is better than high school Grennan had a reputation for making shots when he was fouled at the high school level. He also had a reputation for making his foul shots. Few players go from shooting 87% of the free throws in high school to 60% at the college level. The free throw line is in the same place. While you can teach shooting to some degree, there are some players that are naturally gifted with shooting touch and other kids that just don't have it. How many college players practive foul shooting every day for 4 years of college and never develop an ability to hit more than 70% of their free throws. Quite a high percentage of them. So a kid who can hit 87% of his free throws must have some level of natural shooting ability.
Surely Grennan still needs to show us that he can do it at a division 1 level. He might be a little slow. He might not be a good defender. He might not have super ball handling skills. But I will be surprised if he turns out not to be a highly efficent offense player, and that is the one thing this team lacked the last 3 seasons.
If we had Desantis on this years team there would not be need to be discussing who would be playing PG or 2G cause he could play both..... and he did it Very Well. And I agree that Fisher and Williams were a perfect pair for that team (even though Fisher-Strickland would have been even better). The reason why that team had good offensive chemistry was that both Fisher and Willians also had a perimeter game. IMO, any offense needs to have at least 3 perimeter players on the court ..... thats why 3-guard offenses work.
Agreed about Strickland. Good guy. Daryl was in my Western Civ class with Dr. DeAngelis. He was a stud. But unfortunately for some very good Rutgers teams that included James Bailey and Roy Hinson.
I have always believed that some of Mark Young's offensive success, as well as Steve Balkun's, was attributable to Joey D. He was so good at getting them the ball, open, down low. What a fun team to warch. My point, not well made, was that because Joey was a point guard that could also shoot, we would have callef him. a combo guard, and so we would have felt that we needed to get a "pure point guard", which, I guess means a guy that cant shoot! I believe that we have 2 or 3 guys that can do both very well and. I think that it may have been better to use our last scholarship on a stud front court player.
I have always believed that some of Mark Young's offensive success, as well as Steve Balkun's, was attributable to Joey D. He was so good at getting them the ball, open, down low. What a fun team to warch. My point, not well made, was that because Joey was a point guard that could also shoot, we would have callef him. a combo guard, and so we would have felt that we needed to get a "pure point guard", which, I guess means a guy that cant shoot! I believe that we have 2 or 3 guys that can do both very well and. I think that it may have been better to use our last scholarship on a stud front court player.
I have to agree wholeheartedly with DiscoBuck. Sometimes I feel like certain fans believe that is you are a scorer you can't play point guard. Almost like the prequistite to being a point guard is that you can't shoot. I think Players like DeSantis, Todd and Han, show that view to be wrong. They could be assist first players at times but when the game was on the line and we needed points they could put it in the net. I want us to have a point guard that can score.