The notion that a kid would bust his ass and practice “great” but then intentionally sit out a game feigning injury is absolutely ridiculous. Terrible thread. Mag Is arguably our most important player. Our defense is totally pedestrian without him. Just ask MD’s head coach Willard. We had Mag and no J. Will in the 1st game v. Purdue and held them to under 70.
I think this is where fans lose complete perspective and there's a loss of perspective. Something tosses something out into cyberspace, it gets repeated enough and suddenly, fans start to believe it, when it's not close to reality.
Here is the reality of the situation.
A) Mag is a complimentary player...saying Mag is arguably our best player or defensive player is nowhere near reality......there's Cliff, is who literally the baseline of the entire defense, then the 3 guards, who play excellent on the ball, pressure defense in Davis, Simpson and now JWill.
Mag is not 100% healthy and it shows on the court...there's no game changing athletic plays, no consistent rebounding, it's more narrative than reality.
What's also reality is next year. In terms of "what or who is more important ", that list changes dramatically with Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey, Lathan Sommerville, Bryce Dortch and Dylan Grant....these are LEGIT players and prospects.
B) If a choice was made or someone keeps repeating "Mag is essential to our defense" it would be fine, but more essential than who exactly next year....??
More essential than Cliff?? Please stop and ask yourself, are fans saying Mag is essential for next year, but Cliff isnt? That's 1000% false.
More essential than JWill....?? Not remotely close, these last 6 games clearly indicates that Mag is not more essential or impactful than JWill....
Do we even want to try and say, more essential than Dylan or Ace....not even going to entertain the discussion....
So we are now at 5th at best in terms of importance and that's not including 3 very good Top 150 prospects....not including 2 young guards in Davis and Simpson that duplicate the efforts of Mag on defense....
I think fans are conditioned to mediocrity....and it's somewhat concerning to a degree that a lot of fans want to accept or play make believe, about how good a player is.
Mag is a complimentary player folks. There are dozens of players that can replace his production.
He's a 26% career 3 Point shooter and now is missing key games down the stretch, when we could sneak into NCAA contention. And he can't play ANY minutes??
I'm extremely interested in seeing a better player compliment Ace Bailey next year in the starting lineup. I actually want to win as many games as possible.
If we want feel good stories and want to ask Pike to navigate having to deal with as much hype and press, with this incoming class, which is already going to be things unseen at any point at RU since the 70s.....and we want to add another huge red flag and unknown with Mag, I'm not quite sure why fans would want more uncertainty.....Mag is an uncertain or unknown item as of today and certainly next year.
If we can step back off the ledge and stop exaggerating a players impact, we are all better off.
And I've posted multiple times, this staff has recruited 2 Top 150 wing forwards in Dortch and Dylan Grant in the 2024 class. Those are the replacements for Mag in the future and for the RU program. They compliment what Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper do on the court. Mag has not warranted with his play or production on offense, this "essential " label being tossed around. It's simply not reality.
