Bottom line- Kihei took a lot of flack while here while giving it his all and due to *questionable roster construction, and is now still dealing with the insults while gone; and so far Chance is being unfairly used to demean Kiheiās 5 year career here and not acknowledge some of the highlights which I shared via video. Posters being snarky about Chance being āWorldās betterā etc. Which world is that? The world that Kihei helped us win a Championship? All of that has to stop.
Some of the same people that are undermining Kyle Guys 3 years of contribution and negatively trying to compare him to Jacariā¦again all of that has to stop.
And if nobody is going to set straight and *remind people who some of our most dedicated players were then Iāll be that guy.
I feel like youāre conflating emotional attachment with player assessment here.
Iām not going to work through the former or opinions on how much reverence need to be shown to past players - but I would definitely argue that Chance is a better player as a Freshman than Kihei was as a Senior (not by a ton - thatās a closer discussion than Kihei as a Freshman - but would still make the case for Chance comfortably)ā¦ so the idea that he has a lot more upside and that heās more of a ābuild aroundā player than Clark was holds true, I believe.
Your take that all Chance has shown heās better at is shooting is what I was contesting; because I donāt think thatās accurate.
If Will Wade does leave NC State for LSU (which I think would be dumb), I would want an all out blitz to get Paul McNeil Jr. Would fill that missing shooting from Jacari White and giving us some offensive punch.
Also if we do bring back those 4 key pieces, I think it may be worth getting into the PJ Haggerty sweepstakes. Heāll have only 1 year remaining after having made probably near $7.5M in college to this point and hasnāt made a run in the tournament since being a bench guy at TCU in 2023. Feels like he could be sold on being a huge part of a high scoring fast offense poised to compete for a title.
These both are probably unrealistic but these are my āI want a Final Four or an Elite Eightā next year vibes.
I agree we shouldnāt use this thread to demean Kihei and really Iām not sure why he even came up in this thread AT ALL tbh so if anyone sees ā¦ [checks thread for first discussion of Kihei] ā¦ @Gna2r please let him know that we should be able to have this thread without discussing Kihei.
Looks like he used the year pretty well - 17-6-5 on almost 40% from three. Played a good game against BYU, but otherwise not a lot of high level of competition
Iām not sure Odomās style really fits a super super high usage guard like PJ, heās been more spread it around. Not to mention he was asking for 4 million last year and ended up making close to that IIRC.
Itās okay to talk about Kihei, London Perrantes, Reece Beekman, Ty Jerome and Chance Mallory but only one seems to get the vitriol and condescension. -Kihei is as much a Champion as Ty Jerome is and of course saved our bacon with the Mama-D pass and against Oregon in the sweet 16.
Letās all have the Chance vs. Kihei discussion in three years. Not worth debating now. Freshman are easy to love and 5th yr seniors are easy to rip apart.
How about we go get some guys that are going to play in the NBA one day? Easier said than done but look at the sweet 16 teams still dancing. Most/all have those dudes. We need those NBA guys like the desert needs the rain.
