Jake Thomas

[mufansince72]

This really pisses me off. Vander is Buzz cut to open a scholarship for Jake!

Well played Mac!

[WindyCityGoldenEagle]

Consider me a bit confused: Jake says he is leaving to go to a program to get more playing time. Vander leaves and now he is going to get more playing time at MU despite us having mayo and jujuan johnson at the two? Someting isn't adding up here. Either Mayo is gone or buzz and staff do not have much confidence in the mayo/johnson combo and therefore jake is going to get more playing time. We can talk all we want about an insurance policy, him being a good kid to have in the program and I'm not arguing that, but the reason he was leaving was due to lack of playing time so clearly now he is going to be getting more playing time which is a direct indictment on mayo/johnson. Am I missing something here?

[IWB]

Look at it this way. Next year at the 2G it would have been Vander, Mayo and JaJuan. Vander would have gotten 35 minutes per game. 35! Now Todd and likely Jajuan are looking a serious time, but with Vander gone, that completely ones it wide. MU will also often go with 3 guards. Whether they go with a 2 guard lineup or 3, Vander would have been in 35+. Him leaving opens up 35 minutes. I don't care who gets the majority, Jake will get a lot more than he was looking at two weeks ago.

[mufansince72]

Consider me a bit confused: Jake says he is leaving to go to a program to get more playing time. Vander leaves and now he is going to get more playing time at MU despite us having mayo and jujuan johnson at the two? Someting isn't adding up here. Either Mayo is gone or buzz and staff do not have much confidence in the mayo/johnson combo and therefore jake is going to get more playing time. We can talk all we want about an insurance policy, him being a good kid to have in the program and I'm not arguing that, but the reason he was leaving was due to lack of playing time so clearly now he is going to be getting more playing time which is a direct indictment on mayo/johnson. Am I missing something here?

Yeah, you are missing the fact that if he was going to stay before the defections that he would be shelling 45 grand out of his own pocket.

[kneelb4zerg]

I think saying that this is an "indictment on Johnson/Mayo" is quite a stretch. From Buzz's perspective, Thomas has been here for 2 years, he takes a roster spot for only one more year, and he adds depth and provides competition for those two. From Jake's perspective, the opportunity is there, he'll be back on scholarship, and that's better than transferring somewhere else where he isn't as familiar. Win-Win.