Unfortunately, somebody brought my name up in a thread title on Scout today. I told Fishy I wouldn’t post there anymore, and I meant it. But if anybody cares to post a response to Fishy regarding his contention that it’s crazy to say that we were better off without Dyson last year because we were 20-1 and ranked 1 with him, here are some thoughts.

Let’s break Dyson’s career down into 4 years.

In years 07 and 10, with Dyson starting all games, we failed to make the dance.

In year 08, we were, after cupcake season, 5 and 5 with him, then 8 and 1 (nice tear!) without him with the one loss being a closely fought game, as I recall, then 2 and 3 with him back, including a 1st round loss with him at the reins after AJ went down. It’s hard for me to understand how anybody can look at the above numbers and not conclude that Dyson’s presence was bad for the team. We were 8 and 1 without him in the middle of the Big East season, and we were about a 500 team with him at about 7 and 8. It was almost laboratory conditions!

Looking at the above 3 years, it seems to me impossible to make the argument that Dyson was anything other than a net negative for the team.

So all that’s left is 09. And it’s easy, although not rational, to conclude that “we had a great record, so he must not have been a negative.”

But what changed from 08 to 09? Fact is, the core of the team was the same, AJ recouped and came back and got stronger by the game, and so on.

So why should we assume that the guy who so clearly was a net negative to the team in 08 would be a net positive just 5 months later, with the starting players virtually the same? Answer – we shouldn’t.

But what about the 20 and 1 or whatever when Dyson went down? My answer? So what? Mandeldove was on the team too when we were 20 and 1. Was Mandeldove making the team better? The fact that we were ranked 1 and 20 and 1 is indicative of how good we were, with JA, AJ, and Thabeet all having monster years. Dyson was along for the ride – AJ and Craig’s solid game made Dyson better and limited his negative impact on chemistry. Stan was getting the hook too fast and was producing very little. I recall he played something like 2 minutes against LVille.

With regard to the losses after Dyson went down, it’s very misleading. If you just say – we were 20 and 1 with Dyson and 8 and 4 after, or whatever, you lose site of exactly what the losses were – Two were against Pitt, and Dyson wasn’t going to change that result, unless we were going to put him on Blair. One was the Syracuse 6OT game in, as I recall, the CD. Maybe Dyson, by manpower alone, makes a difference there, but I submit that he’s a net negative, so I think not. The fourth was the final 4. When you look at it that way, suddenly the “4 losses” don’t look so much like missing Dyson but rather losses that likely would have happened with him on the roster – we just happen to draw Pitt twice late.

Finally, our run to the final four was made substantially easier by the emergence of Stan, who Craig and AJ integrated into the offense beautifully ONLY AFTER Dyson went down. I’m not going to pull the stats, but the bottom line is Stan’s minutes went up by about 15 a game after Dyson went down, and you know the rest – he was probably our MVP during that run. With Dyson, that doesn’t happen, if for no other reason, because Stan would not have gotten those minutes.

Bottom line is, we went Final Four without him in 09, and so the final analysis is this:
07 and 10 no dance with him full time starter
08 was 8 and 8 with him and 8 and 1 without him,
09 did will with him in spite of him, then really played well and went FF without him.

If you’re not convinced at this point, you’re not convincible.

But stick this in your pipe and smoke it – Jerome Dyson will be the only 4 year player at UConn in the last 18 years or so to never win an NCAA touri game. I suppose you can, if you’re inclined, consider that a really awful coincidence – oddly like our team performance with and without him over the last four seasons.

Dyson’s getting his now, and I feel bad for him. As I’ve said before, although I really, really hate his style of play and his low BBIQ, I don’t necessarily hold him accountable for his negative impact – he is what coach allowed him to be. It’s like when you see a kid a supermarket telling their parent to go toss off because he want’s candy now, or some thing. How can you blame the kid? You can’t. The kid has only been on the planet for 3 years, half of which he didn’t even know how to talk. You blame the parents, ultimately, in most cases. Same here. A tight leash on Jerome, limited shots, and so on, and he MAY have been a contributing member of the team. Not sure, however, given that I’ve always thought he played a very non-team type game. Some guys just don’t have it in them to play in a team structure.

I really enjoyed watching UConn for the last 15 minutes. It was fun. What a great comeback. By kids! It was fun to see them fight!

To Ater Majok – I love this guy. I love Kemba, and I love Ater. Fighters – winners – both.

Dyson – never ever liked. Stan – I loved Stan, but I really always loved him for what he could be. His potential. Stan needs to have somebody light a fire up under his ass. Like in Call of the Wild, when the tame house dog is thrown into the surly world of sled dogs and men and goes from tame pet to beast quickly. I’ll always have a warm spot in my heart for Stan, but I’ll always be a bit sad that he didn’t do more at UConn – either by his own will or by us insisting on it.

Gavin got caught up in the flow. He did nothing wrong. He gave us close to the max he could – something that Stan couldn’t say at all. I feel bad for Gavin.

No points to make, no punishment to mete out – it’s too late for all of that now. Give the ending 5 the start as a reward for their effort. Give Stan and Jerome sub-level minutes. Tell the CT faithful that we’re looking forward to next year.

I’m really happy that JC did this thing. I view it as the first time he’s publicly censured JD, and I think it’s long overdue.

Who knows? Maybe Stan and JD will figure it out at their next stop in life.

I watched the game late – was boiling maple sap today.

I was extremely psyched to see benchgate happen! Holy crap, I haven’t cheered for this team like I did the last 16 since early in the year.

Not to be negative, but LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG overdue.

Bench ‘em in the BET tourni too JC. DO IT! Let ‘em watch.

They’ve earned the rest.