re: What freshman year was more anticipated between...

quote:

---

or make a jump shot.

Shaq was such a disappointment

---

I know this answer is tongue-in-cheek to make a point, and it’s received. But in retrospect, he kinda was. For as physically dominant as he was, he should have been able to will a team to at least the Sweet 16 in once in 3 years. He simply could not make free throws, and that weakness showed up at the end of close games. Hell, the strategy even spawned a name (“hack-a-Shaq”) that is still in the lexicon over 25 years later. And whether fair or not, we fans feel like not being able to shoot something as close as a free throw is simply a matter of not caring enough to practice it enough to fix it.

Same thing with Simmons. He doesn’t pass so much out of some selfless, philanthropic sense of teamwork, he passes because he can’t fricking shoot. And again, we feel like that is directly related to how much (or how little) he cares to work on it. We want them to care as much as we do, to emotionally live and die with each win or loss. And since we literally can’t do anything to affect the result, when we see as something that even we could do (practice shooting) it being done, it frustrates us immensely and we project that frustration onto the player. Which isn’t fair, but comes with the job.

Anyway, sorry for the tangent. The answer to this OP is Fournette, nobody else is remotely close.

And a lot of folks were offended by Simmons’ refusal to play in the NIT. It left a sour taste in our mouths and confirmed his suspected apathy.