Nobody said that Jake did a bang-up job today, dude. The point that we're trying to make is that on our myriad list of problems for this team, Pullen doesn't even crack the Top 5. And Spradling's mistakes basically cost us any chance at sustaining the comeback momentum. If you don't think that momentum isn't a huge part of college basketball, then I don't know what to say to you.
Thx for a thoughtful response, 42. To make it clear, I'm not defending Sprads' play this game -- he indeed have some bad turnovers. He wasn't all bad -- he hit a clutch 3 w/ 1 sec. on the shot clock after saving the ball in-bounds, and also made a nice xtra pass to assist Pullen on his only 3-point make of the evening.
The point is, however, this kind of play is expected from a freshman (unless he's a projected lottery pick or something). Pullen had a lot of bad plays when he was forced on the court as a true frosh (take your best shot, Rusty) as well, remember? He (Sprads) makes some bad decisions, but also makes some good ones.
And the point w/ Pullen is, that when you are one of only 2 seniors on the team (the other is a transfer), you're playing PG (rather often), and you're regarded as the best player on your team, you expect him to make good decisions, not force shots, show some leadership on the floor, and make clutch plays. Pullen didn't play terrible tonight, but he didn't play great either. He hasn't had a "great" game all year long, and while he indeed does make some nice plays for stretches in a game, the true clutch plays are not there.
In short, much more is expected of Pullen than of Sprads, and rightfully so. It is my opinion that Pullen overall has failed to meet expectations more so than Spradling. As far as momentum goes, sure that stretch was key, but as a few others have said, Sprads was certainly not alone in contributing to the momentum loss.
