I was waiting for this hoping you'd light Will up, horribly disappointed. I don't know what his issue is or why Frank continues to shelter him. I thought Frank is just like Will's dad and he could handle Frank? He is the only player of consequence that has played for Frank for more than a year that didn't either get benched or roasted in a post game interview, why is that? My problem with him before was that he didn't make things happen, he was very close to a non-descript entity. He's crossed over to hurting the team, he is not doing the things he did did well before and he is making losing plays. Yes, the defense on Paige was good, very good, but it was a team effort. Additionally, Keaton Paige isn't the type of player that a high level guard should be patted on the back for being held to 17. There isn't a sane person in the world that would take Paige over Spradling, yet we're going to wet ourselves over Paige scoring 17.
Sorry but Frank needs to do something, I'm not going to hit the panic button yet but something is clearly wrong with Will.
I am disappointed in Will. I also think he is just struggling through a patch. Look at his conference stats. He is playing a ton of minutes, he is not turning the ball over more than our other ball handlers, he's scrapping through a tough shooting/offensive stretch and rebounding/playing decent D against players that are not going to out-quick him to the rim. I mean I'm just not sure what you want. I kind of agree with what you're saying about him not getting Frank'd, but then again, he played fewer than his normal minutes. We've seen Shane Southwell play the point because he was sick of Will @OU. I don't think he gives Frank a lot of ammo because he listens and he does not make a ton of mistakes. Frank yells at him, the difference is he is usually in the game. With Will I think Frank has run into a lack of alternatives that are less frustrating for him than Will. I never got too in love with Will so Sprads is fine by me. When I think about Clent Stewart I feel like we're getting the best of this.
I agree with what you are saying about Page, but then again Will would essentially be Page if our team sucked. And someone has to score their points. They chucked 3's all day to no avail, Sprads kept a slow white guy in front of him. Fine. He's going to struggle against the Taylors/Kabongos/Thomas' of the world, those are facts of life. I just don't see the point in breaking him down for it.
His minutes are down at times because he's been in foul trouble since conference play started. His conference numbers are really really bad.
9.0 PPG, 15-49 from the field good for a robust 30.6%, 15-20 from the stripe but he had two games in which he played 33 & 32 minutes and didn't attempt a FT we lost both games, 9-29 from the 3 point line 31%, 16 turnovers only 18 assists, he has 21 fouls to put 21 fouls in perspective its one less than Jamar.
No spinning those numbers they are awful by any standard. His assist-to-turnover ratio is horrid considering what he is asked to do. It was fun to mock Clent but even as a sophomore he was a much better Will than Will. I liked him better when he was just a ball mover not willing to do anything.
