Jerry McNamara: Overrated or REALLY Overrated?

And YES this is totally because McNamara & his scrappy bunch of scrappers scrapped into a UConn team that couldn't shoot Dick Cheney w/ a nuke and scraped by w/ a 2-pt OT win because JM actually hit 3 of FOURTEEN shots. Kudos, slappy!

Really overrated, but college commentators love those spunky white boy guards so ya know it's no shock.

He's been pretty great in the conference tourney though. I don't think anyone actually thinks he'll be a good pro.

Might his shooting percentage be partially explained by the fact that he's an undersized shooting guard playing the point without another reliable ball-handler on his team? If he had a true point guard playing with him (see: Billy Edelin, alongside whom he flourished as an underclassman) or a reliable outside shooter to pass to (Devendorf being the closest thing McNamara's ever had, and an erratic freshman at that), he might not have to force as many looks or take as many contested shots. As it stands McNamara's basically the only competent passer on that team right now, and the majority of the time he sets up his own shot.

I'm a Syracuse fan and an unapologetic McNamara defender, but broheim's been playing out of position for three years, and if there was a case to be made for him being overrated, I think it's a moot point now - I can name a dozen games off the top of my head in the last four years that Syracuse would have lost if not for some improbable McNamara heroics, and Syracuse is where they are right now because Gerry played out of his fucking mind this week (Villanova game included!).

This is what I get for being a fairweather college b-ball fan - SERVED!

Nah, it's cool. I think there's a definite case to be made for the fact that McNamara has a reputation as a better outside shooter than he actually is, but there are mitigating factors behind that.

This is not by any means a great Syracuse team, but they really managed to come together at exactly the right time, and the issue of McNamara being overrated probably saved the season; everybody cops to the fact that Boeheim's speech after the Cincinnati game was a huge motivating factor, and having watched Syracuse play lazy all season, I think they've only started to act like they've got something to prove in the last eight days.

That being said, what gets lost in the discussion about Gerry is how good a defender he is; he's really quite versatile and adaptable in the zone/trap/press, and he was a huge reason why the UConn guards went 14-44 from the field in that game; extending the zone and running baseline traps all day, Syracuse was able to handcuff a team that they frankly had no business beating.

The main reason why the UConn guards went 14-44 from the field is that they couldn't have given a shit about the result of the game cuz they had absolutely squat to play for.

That bodes not well.

Also: d4nie1 c0h3ng, there is a matter of international importance (& ROCK importanct) at That Baseball Place that requires your presence & roffletastic ways.

the argument that uconn had nothing to play for is such bullshit. they may have been looking past syracuse, but no fucking way calhoun was disinterested in that game. at minimum, he had a rather large bonus to play for. i'm pretty sure his, uh, motivational speeches reflected it.

spunky mcspunkenstien goes 0 for 6. david r, you are a prescient man.

Nah, I'm just a cranky punkass. He was hurting - I doubt he wanted to end his collegiate career on the bench, watching the replacement point guard drive drunk to the hoop every trip down court. Also - WTF was up with the boner Boeheim had for the press down the stretch?

I love Melo, but there's no way Syracuse wins the National Title without G-Mac. Period. Six 3s in the first half? That buried Kansas and gave Melo, Hack, et al the advantage from which to work. G-Mac's a winner. Period. He did it again throughout the Big East Tournament. Put him on my team anyday - I don't give a s_ _ t what his stats are. His hero is Derek Jeter. He plays like D.J. He doesn't care so much about his own stats, or how he may look, he wants to win. Talent's great. Talent's cheap. Winners are hard to come by. G-Mac's a winner. Period. Put him on my team. He may coach it one day, or he may be the G.M. who puts the championship together. Never forget what he did for the 'Cuse. No one ever has before.

'Cuse fan in L.A.