MOST people thought the same of AJ too when JC took the job, but it's been argued by many (by you too) that AJ was/is far superior to Blair, but in a recent post some people (you included) indicated we could never win the NC in 2008 because we couldn't handle a press and bring the ball up the court.
I'm REALLY confused now...
Just because I argue AJ was superior to Blair doesn't mean he was able to handle the press like Isaiah Thomas.
To me, AJ was a great defender (Blair is not), AJ was a decent to good shooter (Blair is not), and AJ could get the team into the offense before the shot clock was under 15 seconds (Blair struggled with).
Now, Blair is very good at getting to the rim, maybe better than AJ but AJ had long arms and the elite 8 season he got to the rim quite a few times when we needed him. Blair has some parts of his game that are good (get to the rim, good FT shooter, etc.) but he has some huge holes in his game (defense, shooting touch, etc.).
As far as ball-handling goes, AJ wasn't a great ball handler and neither is Blair. I think AJ's height hurt him as a ball handler, but it never seemed to bother Jalen Rose, but I'm not arguing that AJ was comparable to Jalen Rose
.
I will also add that AJ was probably the 2nd best player throughout the entire season in the elite 8 season. WW had some great games, but he disappeared a few times too.
