Ok...i will admit one oversight...he admittedly didnt say he was saving himself for the offensive end.....but even you should be able to admit that Pledger is an offense first guy.....he isnt a defender (probably average to below) so he PROBABLY wasnt saving himself so he could try harder on the defensive end. Im smart enough to know he meant to just conserve his energy but my point isnt a 'bias' as you seem to think. Im not AGAINST Pledger or think he shouldnt be on the floor at all. I simply know enough about the game to know that his ppg average last year doesnt make him so great that a frosh couldnt beat him out or take minutes from him. It isnt going to hurt my feelings if Pledger starts, or even if he plays 30 minutes a game.....my post was simply an observation and you seem to think it is some kind of personal vendetta against Pledger or something. I just pointed out that we have been a mediocre team for a while now and being the leading scorer on a mediocre team doesnt make you a great player. Pledger is a fantastic shooter but if you put him on a GOOD team (Kansas, UK, UNC, UCONN, etc) he would simply be a role player...are you old enough to remember Dave Sieger?
Dont take someone else's observation so personal.
I agree with you a bit, but I just get sick of the "well, we haven't been winning games, so all of our starters must stink", argument. Gary uses that one a lot. Our biggest problems last year were two things. First, we had zero bench. Killed us. That can be seen in the number of games we lost late. We were beating KU at halftime one game, and only down three in the other. They beat us soundly in the second halves. Why? Personally, I think a lot of it was because they wore us down. KU is/was a deep team. OU's 6-7 guys simply didn't have the energy to keep us with KU's 8-9 guys. Secondly, we had really, really bad shooting from both Grooms and Cam, both of whom started and played a lot of minutes. If either of those guys just shoot the ball at an average clip, we probably win 2-3 more games. With a solid bench, another 2-3. That gives us 4-6 more wins, and boom, we're an NCAA Tournament bubble team at that point. Just my take.
As for Pledger, how does he compare to other OU players on good teams? I don't think anybody, myself included, is trying to argue that Pledger is our Hollis, or Ace, or Eduardo, or Minor, or Cory Brewer. He isn't. But I think he compares favorably, offensively especially, to a lot of the next best players. He can score it as well as Ere. Detrick. Neal. Newton. Heskett. Johnson. The list goes on. Hard to compare him to the good bigs we had (Bookout, Gray, etc), but I think he compares favorably to most other guards. If that is a role player, fine. Doesn't matter what label you give him, it's a VERY important role to have on a good team.
