Quote :

"He's gonna be good. He's still just a freshman."

this is ncstate. by your real-world logic costner would be an all american by now and acc poty by the time he's a senior.

2/21/2008 1:05:00 PM

I don't see Javi gaining weight to the point where he has trouble running down the court.

2/21/2008 2:04:33 PM

I like Javi's mean streak.

2/21/2008 2:16:57 PM

Me too. Something turned on for that kid about 8 games ago, and he's not backing down from anybody anymore. There was a timeout last night, and as Javi walking back up the floor from the far basket, some hole player walked in front of him. Javi just raised his hands and was going to walk through the motherfucker even though the UNC kid had 6 inches and 40 pounds on him.

Hell yeah javi, you get your bitch on. 3:1 turnover ratio against UNC as a frosh (second game against them. The first was ugly). I'll take it.

2/21/2008 2:24:07 PM

We were clearly better with him in the game last night.

2/21/2008 2:28:39 PM

i cringe when marques is coming in for javi. javi has got some fire in him, and he's certainly been improving. 9 assists? yeah i'll take that from him any game.

2/21/2008 2:31:35 PM

Javi can clearly shoot also. He hit a few big ones in the first half. He just has to get the confidence up and quit jacking them from 5 feet behind the line.

2/21/2008 2:33:45 PM

Quote :

"i cringe when marques is coming in for javi"

Same here. Early in the season, it was the exact opposite

Quote :

"He just has to get the confidence up and quit jacking them from 5 feet behind the lin"

And quit the Gavin Grant 'Limbs flailing in all directions on a jump shot' shooting form

[Edited on February 21, 2008 at 2:36 PM. Reason : ]

2/21/2008 2:35:36 PM

Something that everyone keeps forgetting also is that Javi had thumb surgery earlier in the year, which could in part account for his awful shooting.

Lemme look up some stats...

2/21/2008 3:23:15 PM

^yeah his shooting has definitely improved greatly over time.

also, he hasn't really been that bad about jacking up long 3's. almost all of the 3's he's taken in the past several games were ones that he absolutely had to take b/c of how wide open the defense was leaving him. he has to force the defense to respect him as a decent 3 point threat or his passing lane into the post will be nonexistent.

2/21/2008 3:26:54 PM

Since he's started 6 games ago his ACC stats are:

37% FG, 37% 3-point, 5.4 PPG, 2 RPG, 4.2 APG, 2.8 TO

Before that it was:

33% FG, 25% 3-point, 4.7 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 3 APG, 2 TO

So while 37% isn't that great, it isn't that bad, especially for this team. For comparison, Grant is shooting 38.7% from 3 for the year, and Costner is at 30.8%.

2/21/2008 3:39:41 PM

I couldn't help but laugh at Javi last night when he was just running all over the place and running up to Hansblow trying to swat the ball away from him. Then I realized that Smith had to cover two guys and how bad of a strategy it was to double team Hansblow with our shortest guy.

2/21/2008 3:52:24 PM

^It's actually not bad strategy at all. We were cheating on QT or Ginyard, their two worst players and trying to funnel the ball to them.

Also, it works well to have a big and a small doubling on a dominant big man...for obvious reasons.

Teams have been doing that to us all year, successfully....cheating off Johnson/Javi to double JJ and strip him.

2/21/2008 3:56:16 PM

*thud

That's the sound of Javi's head hitting the ceiling. You get all excited when he hits a couple wide open threes, then he bricks the next three or four. And...

Quote :

"I like Javi's mean streak."

I would like it if he were better. I was watching the Duke/State game with a hole fan who commented, "you know he's a punk like Steve Blake, but I can't really hate him like Blake because he's not good enough to hate. You would get pissed at Blake for dirty punch to the nuts, then hate him even more because he would follow it with a dagger 3 or amazing assist. You get pissed at Javi for an inappropriate shove then he goes and makes a turnover or bricks a three. Big difference."

I will say bravo on the 3:1 assist/TO ratio...I didn't know the team made enough baskets for him to get 9 assists. Javi is definitely not the problem on this team...but he's not the answer either.

And good lord Johnson sucks. When the two PG's first started playing, I actually though Johnson might be a little better. But for the amount that Javi has improved, Johnson has probably digressed the same amount. I would kill to have Quentin Thomas on our team right now.

2/21/2008 3:58:23 PM

javi had some real nice sequences running a 2man w/ hickson.

he's not the next chris corchiani, but he's doing fine.

[Edited on February 21, 2008 at 4:49 PM. Reason : and certainly a ton better than johnson. degand is in the air, but i'd take javi at this point.]

2/21/2008 4:49:03 PM

javi wasn't supposed to be the answer. he was supposed to be a backup that we could develop over the years. it's not his fault we lost degand and he got forced into the spotlight so soon.

2/21/2008 4:54:42 PM

javi's probably my favorite player on the team right now

probably because of how well he plays in comparison to all the crap he gets on here and in the media.

and plus he's play with more heart and energy than anyone. personally i think he was a great pickup. not as the answer to our point guard troubles obviously, but he would be a great spark to come off the bench in the future. just sucks he had to get thrown into the fire this year before he was ready.

and this "javi has hit his ceiling" crap is just crap. how athletic was engin? how athletic is greg paulus? javi has improved throughout the season (probably the only player to do so) and will continue to do so.

2/21/2008 5:03:57 PM

This guy has really stepped up and shown us that he can perform.

at one point in the game last night against Carolina he was jukin left and right and got around his man guarding him (forgot his name but he's a senior).

if you're a 2nd string freshman pg playing Carolina, and you can get around their defense the way he did, i think we've got nothing to worry about with him in the future.


he has to keep improving though, and hopefully we'll see him as a big playmaker next season.

2/21/2008 5:06:33 PM

Quote :

"[quote]*thud That's the sound of Javi's head hitting the ceiling. You get all excited when he hits a couple wide open threes, then he bricks the next three or four. And... Quote : "I like Javi's mean streak." I would like it if he were better. I was watching the Duke/State game with a hole fan who commented, "you know he's a punk like Steve Blake, but I can't really hate him like Blake because he's not good enough to hate. You would get pissed at Blake for dirty punch to the nuts, then hate him even more because he would follow it with a dagger 3 or amazing assist. You get pissed at Javi for an inappropriate shove then he goes and makes a turnover or bricks a three. Big difference." I will say bravo on the 3:1 assist/TO ratio...I didn't know the team made enough baskets for him to get 9 assists. Javi is definitely not the problem on this team...but he's not the answer either. And good lord Johnson sucks. When the two PG's first started playing, I actually though Johnson might be a little better. But for the amount that Javi has improved, Johnson has probably digressed the same amount. I would kill to have Quentin Thomas on our team right now."

Do you even watch college basketball? Javi is shooting 37% from the 3-point land. That's pretty good for any freshman not named J.J. Redick. And I'm so glad you and your Tar Heel friend are NBA talent evaluators. Maybe you guys could help Sid and the rest of the staff identify hidden prospects from here on out because the last time I checked, we didn't have Eric Gordon beating down our door to come play here.

And did you ever stop to think your Carolina fan friend was trying to get your goat? You know, along the same lines as "you guys aren't good enough to be our rivals"?

I'll take 9 assists and 2/5 from behind the arc from our point guard any day. Sure he made turnovers, but in comparison with the rest of the guys on the team who handle the ball 1/10th the amount Javi does (and still they manage to turn it over as much if not more), he's doing alright.

Oh, and Quentin Thomas is a senior. There's the guy you want to use your *thud* stand-up on. He's going nowhere fast. You know, kind of like our offense did when Javi wasn't on the court. I mean, even I could look good passing off to any of 3 different McDonald's all-Americans that may be on the court with you at one time.

2/21/2008 5:52:28 PM

^

2/21/2008 6:23:19 PM

why can't our players, whether it be Javi, Marques, or anybody else learn NOT TO PICK UP YOUR DRIBBLE ALL THE TIME...that is so frustrating, especially in trap areas like halfcourt corners, etc

2/21/2008 6:27:59 PM

^i agree about picking up the dribble. when hansblow is stealing passes from our guards, it's depressing.

but on javi, since i'm out of state, I don't get to see many NCSU basketball games. I was impressed with him last night. he's playing one of the best teams in the nation, but he had poise. he'll be fine.

2/21/2008 7:17:22 PM

it'll be interesting to see what happens next year because i was never impressed with degand and if javi continues to improve and gains some confidence i cant really tell who would be better. degand from what i can remember never scored points

2/21/2008 8:57:25 PM

Javi doesn't pick up his dribble NEARLY as much as he was a few weeks ago.

But jbrick, the problem with a guy like Blake is that he was just a punk. Javi really hasn't done anything unprovoked. Blake is a guy that will drain a 3 in your face and talk the whole way down the court to you and the crowd. Javi hasn't done that. He's more of a guy thats not going to take any shit. He's going to get pissed when he's losing, and throw some bows when he's getting abused unfairly.

I see your point about Blake, but I think its a different type of mean streak. Blake was a punk. Javi doesn't seem like that.



^Degand didn't impress me in the first few games, but he played really well the last few games before the injury. He started shooting better and as soon as that happened, he could penetrate and dish/finish. He got to the free throw line, made plays, and didn't make dumb turnovers. He played a little too fast but I think 4 or 5 games before he went out he really started to play well...which is really all you can ask from a guy who hadn't played in 2 years.



[Edited on February 21, 2008 at 9:02 PM. Reason : ]

2/21/2008 8:59:15 PM

thats true i just hope it doesnt become him and javi rotating and we never have a real point guard that knows how to run shit effectively. maybe one or the other will stand out before next season. im sure it will be hard as hell to come back from an acl tear but atleast degand has had a while to heal

2/21/2008 9:05:14 PM

Mays will be in the mix. I think with those 3 rotating at the 1-2 position we'll be fine. Everything I hear about Julius Mays says he's a smart basketball player. He isnt great, but he apparently can take over a game and has been clutch down the stretch in close games for his high school team.

2/21/2008 9:41:36 PM

i wasnt even thinking about them, hopefully out of the three of them we can make one pretty good point guard and a decent backup also

2/21/2008 11:14:50 PM

Quote :

"hopefully out of the three of them we can make one pretty good point guard and a decent backup also"

replace marques johnson w/ julius mays, rinse, repeat.

2/22/2008 3:28:49 AM

i wonder if degand is even going to be fast as before. he was just starting to get the gumption to blow by defenders before his injury.

2/22/2008 3:46:56 AM

i think javi will end up being the better distributor between he and degand. farnold seemed like he was reluctant to give up the ball on those fastbreaks sometimes. it's fine when a PG wants to look for his own shot, just not to the point where you're actually missing out on points from him not passing. that was something he was definitely improving on before his injury though.

2/22/2008 10:18:07 AM

javi has quick hands on defense, he's not always consistent but with more experience and maturity i think he could be a good defender also. not too sure about degand and mays

2/22/2008 2:59:45 PM

yeah he does a pretty good job on defense already. plus he does lead the team in steals.

2/22/2008 3:26:54 PM

You all are tripping. This kid has shown zippy potential.

2/24/2008 8:01:22 PM

ha yeah. nooow you come out of the woodwork after his bad performance tonight. how did the rest of the players on the team do?

2/24/2008 8:07:06 PM

Quote :

"nooow you come out of the woodwork after his bad performance tonight"

You mean when people like you come out of the woodwork when he makes 2 out of 5 wide open threes.

Again...you definitely can't put the blame on him tonight for the loss...but he still didn't do shit. And the games everyone is praising him for are mediocre games for good point guards.

2/24/2008 8:36:21 PM

we're praising his IMPROVEMENT. he looked like a lost cause at the beginning, but now he has potential. he hustles and is a ball hawk out there.

2/24/2008 8:43:26 PM

^^ actually this thread was made january 23rd and has been going strong ever since. so no, not really out of the woodwork.

2/24/2008 8:45:56 PM

javi is a piece of shit for an acc point guard.


/thread

2/24/2008 10:43:18 PM

he's playing pretty well today

3/1/2008 12:38:02 PM

yeah, javi is totally not acc caliber


dumbfucks


OH MY GOD I CAN'T GIVE A PLAYER A YEAR TO GET THE FEEL FOR ACC PLAY, ESPECIALLY AFTER HE WAS THRUST INTO THE STARTING ROLE

3/1/2008 12:43:10 PM

^ the problem was we had NO ONE at point (or 1/2) that had decent acc experience. at least degand had some decent ncaa experience prior...

true shouldnt bash on him much for the first season but you gotta get used to shit quick around here, especially when you're the only viable option

3/1/2008 1:04:21 PM

gg javi so far vs. duke


you have proven my comments to be inaccurate. keep it up.

3/1/2008 1:06:03 PM

pretty good first half for javi.

that hesitation move on the drive was sick.

3/1/2008 1:06:46 PM

Quote :

" the problem was we had NO ONE at point (or 1/2) that had decent acc experience. at least degand had some decent ncaa experience prior... true shouldnt bash on him much for the first season but you gotta get used to shit quick around here, especially when you're the only viable option"

degand had no experience dude

infact, degand and javi had the exact same amount of ncaa experience

[Edited on March 1, 2008 at 1:09 PM. Reason : j]

3/1/2008 1:07:44 PM

ahh i thought he played a little at Iowa State... oh well

3/1/2008 1:13:19 PM

3/1/2008 1:28:45 PM

this is probably javi's best game all season... against one of the best teams in the acc.

he has come a LOOOOOOOONG way.

3/1/2008 2:03:03 PM

ok javi. go home and watch this game over and over again and learn to play just like you did today.

3/1/2008 2:04:11 PM

All we need to do is for him to hit open 3-pointers and not handle the ball like Johnson.

Today was a perfect example of what Javi's role on this team should be (actually, he doesn't need to go 6 of 7....4/7 on a consistent basis would be enough...gg Javi).

3/1/2008 2:37:04 PM

i've been trying to tell you people this dude can ball.

3/1/2008 4:42:32 PM