This whole thing is a disgrace and it is time for answers. Why does the school and Lavin constantly hide the problems with this kid? Lavin loves to take credit for how he makes these athletes become solid young men and all he has done is hurt this kid. This kid obviously comes from a horrid background but from day one Lavin has babied him (and those in the know really know how much he's given him.) It's way worse than you can imagine). Rysheed needed someone to get into him and teach him right from wrong. Whether you liked it or not, Lavin did that with Harrison and it seems to have worked. It's too late now with Jordan and now the whole team is going to suffer. I'm disgusted by what has been happening with the program lately and quite frankly can't wait for the day Lavin is gone. I was right there as Jarvis destroyed the program and Lavin is getting very close to doing the same. I'm also tired of these wimpy writers. Someone have the balls to call him out and stop being scared of Lavin not answering your questions. They all have pulled the same crap with any of our coaches. Lavin said it best when he stated there is no pressure to win here. The NY media is so soft on these guys and lets them skate through because they use this job as a stepping stone and don't want to turn any feathers. On that note, I hope these seniors rally together and beat the piss out of Butler tomorrow.
The sissyfication of America. You blame the coach here? Rysheed Jordan has been prancing around like an entitled diva for two seasons. It didn't start here either...look at the end of his game against Austin in the Philly public school league...it was disgusting how he acted. This is the only chance Lavin has to have this kid and this team reach the ceiling of play. He selfish play has been killling this team. He had two turnovers that led to open threes against SH and his stupid tech took away a 5-4 possession, led to two made fts by SH, and then a three pointer. That is a potential seven point swing in a matter of twenty seconds. He did his best to hand the Syracuse game away as well. Jordan needs to swallow his pride...fall in line...and get on the same page as the rest of the team. Hopefully we beat Butler handily and improve to 2-0 without him to send him a message he so sorely needs to receive.
Who let him be a diva for two years and gave him a different set of rules to play by? Who didn't notice the traits you saw so clearly in HS? Let me be clear, of all of coach's transgressions I blame him less for this than most people will. Young kids, especially spoiled athletes, can have major character defects that society wouldn't ignore if they were a step or two slower or couldn't put a ball in a net. But they can do awesome things on the field or court, so we brush it under the rug. Certainly not Lavin's fault. Rysheed has been given every chance to turn his life around, and he keeps doing his own thing. But at the end of the day, Steve Lavin is the one tasked with managing the program, and for one reason or another he keeps failing at that. I blame him for the overall lack of control and development. One bad apple wouldn't be his fault, but you can look at this from a number of angles and see how it fits within a larger pattern of disfunction.
First, we all saw the same thing at the end of the game between Jordan and Austin. We all knew his rep...and we all wanted him in spite of it because of his sheer talent. His twitter handle is Black_Jesus!
Second, Lavin hasn't been letting him get away with murder--hence all the friction and subsequent incidents. He doesn't speak to the media, he doesn't start, he's been punished, he's been spoken too.
We would have killed Lavin if he passed on Jordan. It just got to a point where the kid was doing more harm than good. +/- of -23 against SH in 23 minutes. WTF? He's too talented for that.