Dave Sez

The expectations game cuts both ways, too. Why does McBob get 2nd team all-ACC, and Ben McCauley get honorable mention? FWIW, SFN put McBob on the 3rd team, which is what his numbers would dictate.

You can also point to their progress from last year. McBob was pretty much the same guy (IIRC) as a frosh, while McCauley barely played (and didn't do anything when he did, really). Thus, based on projections for development (and the standard Duke hype machine treatment), McBob is a preseason POY favorite while McCauley is on nobody's radar.

BJD95 wrote:

The expectations game cuts both ways, too. Why does McBob get 2nd team all-ACC, and Ben McCauley get honorable mention? FWIW, SFN put McBob on the 3rd team, which is what his numbers would dictate.

Absolutely. Another factor there is that while the final records were fairly close, Duke did finish three games ahead of State in the ACC standings. And of course, they are Duke.

I see no reason why McCauley can't continue to improve to where he's a shoo-in for all-league honors next year.

If you don't mind a brief thread hijacking, does Conley remind anyone, besides me, of a lefty version of a certain Wake PG that won ROY last year? Neither is a great shooter, but they seem to be able to get into the lane with either hand at will, even though their defenders are giving them a step?

Roy wrote:

If you don't mind a brief thread hijacking, does Conley remind anyone, besides me, of a lefty version of a certain Wake PG that won ROY last year? Neither is a great shooter, but they seem to be able to get into the lane with either hand at will, even though their defenders are giving them a step?

That's a good comparison. Conley has been extremely impressive.

I disagree somewhat. Though this falls into the expectations category, McRoberts was supposed to be the guy who carried Duke this year and McCauley was supposed to be just another guy, just like Duke was supposed to be significantly better and State probably significantly worse. Also, McCauley wasn't the No. 1 scoring option on his own team, nor did he need to be (that was Brandon Costner). Heck, McCauley averages fewer points a game and one fewer rebound in fewer minutes, even though that time literally had no depth! In my opinion, it is sort of like being a Notre Dame football player or a the Dallas Cowboys' QB - you get the hype and so you get the criticism, both in unfair doses. But the expectations cut both ways. In the same way that McCauley fails to get recognition, McRoberts has to deal with criticism. I just think that a lot has to do with the fact that State was "supposed" to have a down year and Duke, not so much. Also, I think that playing the position they play, the field-goal percentage difference is fairly significant.

McRoberts proved to be just a big baby, unable to take the heat or the pressure and McCauley, though not under half the scrunity of McRoberts, played with a lot of heart and mental toughness, IMO.

Lauren wrote:

I disagree somewhat. Though this falls into the expectations category, McRoberts was supposed to be the guy who carried Duke this year and McCauley was supposed to be just another guy, just like Duke was supposed to be significantly better and State probably significantly worse. Also, McCauley wasn't the No. 1 scoring option on his own team, nor did he need to be (that was Brandon Costner). Heck, McCauley averages fewer points a game and one fewer rebound in fewer minutes, even though that time literally had no depth! In my opinion, it is sort of like being a Notre Dame football player or a the Dallas Cowboys' QB - you get the hype and so you get the criticism, both in unfair doses. But the expectations cut both ways. In the same way that McCauley fails to get recognition, McRoberts has to deal with criticism. I just think that a lot has to do with the fact that State was "supposed" to have a down year and Duke, not so much. Also, I think that playing the position they play, the field-goal percentage difference is fairly significant. McRoberts proved to be just a big baby, unable to take the heat or the pressure and McCauley, though not under half the scrunity of McRoberts, played with a lot of heart and mental toughness, IMO.

Actually, it sounds like we mostly agree. My point, and maybe I wasn't clear enough, was that if you leave out the names and by extension, the expectations, they had very similar years. But because we do know the names, it doesn't feel like they had similar seasons.