In Reply to: Yeah, Derrick Rose. I really liked his game. posted by ej on June 26, 2024 at 16:14:35
CDR had a massive height/weight/athleticism advantage over Collison, so it is understandable.
BUT.
Rose was dominating Collison anyways, and CDR was mostly standing around being a 3pt shooter.
It would have been risky (and we didn't get blown out, just fell behind by about 10 and could never close the gap), but what did we have to lose? has always been my thought.
I have far bigger issues with Howland's ego impacting on court strategies re: not jettisoning the B2B double v. Florida, and stubbornly refusing to ever play zone when it was clear the team wasn't as good at his regular schemes later in his career.
Still, if the oncourt ego/stubborness was the only issue - he'd have retired with UCLA. It was how it impacted everything off the court which was the problem.