Junior should have redshirted his freshman year

[trublufan]

Everybody talks about how different things would have turned out this year if Vander Blue had stayed for his senior year. I agree, but what would have boosted MU's chances even more would have been if Cadougan redshirted his freshman year. MU's offense was painful to watch this year. Junior's court vision and pushing the ball up court made all the difference. Defenses were on their heels last year. Davante Gardner was a rare jewel who will be missed greatly next year. I don't see where MU improves next year. With Junior this year MU would have had Final Four potential.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

Disagree. The difference between Junior and Vander is Blue would have lived at the line under the new rules and been a huge offensive injection. I know some disagree, but Junior wouldn't have added remotely the same punch to the offense Van would have. Having Junior would have helped depth, but I don't think it would have been worth more than 2-3 wins. While Junior certainly had his positives, he also had the ability to lose us games almost single-handedly. Though maybe he could have avoided that without Louisville on the schedule. We'd probably be on the inside of the bubble, but no way adding Junior alone would have taken us to the Final Four.

[Markedman]

Final 4?

You have to be joking.........

As Brew said Junior would obviously have made us stronger...likely a tournament team but not even close to final 4 caliber

Compare our last final 4 team to this one + Junior if you need proof

[CaribouJim]

We actually had the Junior discussion in the Fighten' 218 yesterday after the game while waiting for the Senior Night festivities. Agree that he could have been a big difference maker this for all the reasons trublufan stated, but FF potential? Don' t see it all. Now if both Vander stayed AND Junior had red-shirted I could see a scenario where MU could have reached the Elite 8 again and maybe sniff the FF, but still doubt it.

Don' t know where brew gets the Junior "had the ability to lose us games almost single-handedly" though. He only was at the helm of a team that was 7-3 in the NCAA's, 37-17 in BE conference play including 28-8 his last 2 seasons. Really strange comment on his part.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

See also: Junior v Louisville.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

Largely, CJ, I think we simply disagree on our assessments of Junior as a point guard. Just one of those "is what it is" type situations where neither of us will convince the other.

[DCwarrior]

It would have benefited MU to have Junior redshirt his Freshman year, but why would it have benefited Junior? He graduated in 4 years and he was never going to advance to the NBA with an extra season. Why not get started at his real job instead of spending another year in college?