I'm sorry but most of this is garbage ..
Pledger is a better basketball player in about every "metric" you want to use
better shooter (not close), better passer, better rebounder, better at taking care of the ball, better team defender, smarter player, better team player, better communicator, better post player, more clutch.
Newell is better and getting his shot off 1 on 1 on the outside and maybe a better one on one player (i say maybe because in the post it is not close and because turnovers are a big deal) and newell is a better 1 on 1 on ball defender ..(this happens for 5-10 sec at a time) he is an average at best team defender ...
does losing calvin hurt sure he would have been a bench spark this season and averaged 7-10 ppg ... is he better than pledger and should he have been starting ... not on any team in the world
you say Coach was harder on Calvin then every one else ... then say that he wouldn't run the sets and that he wouldn't look the coach in the eye ..... sounds like the coach should be hard on him ..
I said I didn't want to get into a Pledger Newell arguement. I'm telling you what I saw. And I resent that you reference my opinions as garbage.
My opinion on this topic are informed to this extent. I went to enough early practices, and paid close enough attention, that I understood how Kruger was rotatating players thru scimmages and drills. That understanding enabled me to understand who the starters were at that particular point.
While Pledger started out ahead,Calvin was never far behind. Somewhere between the inter-squad scrimmage and the exibition games there was about a 5/6 day period that Calvin was clearly going to be the starter. It came as no surprise at all. Calvin was outperforming Pledger in practice.
But, he imploded. He couldn't handle prosperity. He never shook his attitude. Remember that game or two when Pledger was suspended. Kruger started Blair at the #2 in front of Calvin. I'm sure that was Kruger's last ditch attempt to get Calvin's attention. Appartently, it didn't work.
As far as Pledger, if he can play 30 minutes a game and keep doing things as well as he has, mayby Calvin won't be missed much. But, let me be perfectly clear on this point. This years Calvin is a vastly superior player than last years Pledger.
Now, if you want to get all balled up with the belief that this years Pledge is also vastly superior to last years Pledger, that may be true. I sure hope so. But, at this point in time that is just your opinion.
So far this season, we have played several Eastern Popcorn States and one decent team. Against the decent team, well, no evidence yet. Mayby later down the road and deeper into the season you will be proved right about Pledger. So, I'm not quite ready to call you opinion garbage. But, I'll reserve the right.