This is something I have wanting to do for sometime.
I don't get the infatuation with Jelon Hornbeak. He was a good player with potential when he was at OU. That's all he was. I was guilty of building him up myself, as "one of the most fundamentally sound" high school players I had seen before he arrived at OU. The truth is, he was not as good as I thought he'd be. While he had to work through injuries from time to time, he still logged 18 minutes in 29 games his sophomore season, averaging an unimpressive 5 points and less than 2 rebounds per game. His 22% shooting from three point range was nothing to write home about either.
Je'lon was a good defender, I'll give him that. But, it's not like he was a budding superstar who left OU to "seek his fortune" at another school. If he was, he didn't find it. He is averaging 8.3 points, 3.4 rebounds and almost as many turnovers (2.1) per game as assists (2.3) at Monmouth. Now he's suspended, which makes me wonder if the attitude we saw at OU on occasion had anything to do with it?
I don't bring this up because Catoosa started another Hornbeak thread. Je'lon's suspension is definitely newsworthy. It's that some posters have continued to tout Je'lon as a future star OU has missed in a big way. No doubt about it, he would have helped us last year and the year before that, even if it would have been as a back up player off of the bench. But, no way he would be a starter on this year's team, which is why he decided to leave two years ago.
If you believe I'm wrong, who would he start over? I'm not even sure he could have beat out Dinijyl Walker as a back up off of the bench. The one advantage Je'lon would have over Dinijyl is size and the fact that he was an outstanding on-the-ball defender. Nothing else makes me believe he would be get starter-like minutes on this year's team. He may have been missed in the past, but he is not missed now.
Best of luck to the young man! That's all I have to say.
