Josh is the hare. Mitch is the tortoise. Let's see who finishes the race in first. Which Jayhawk will put up bigger numbers over their career? It will be Mitch by a long shot. Okay... he has 4 years to do it versus Josh's single season. But the end results will make a big statement on how valuable Mitch is to Kansas basketball.
Now Mitch gets thrown into the limelight, earlier than planned or projected. He is bound to make the most of it and the very least we will get out of his situation this year is the productive fruits in the years to follow.
Mitch is a big keeper. He represents the glue we need, especially since we seem to be bringing in more short term players.
Mitch has so many qualities that will help us; high basketball IQ, poise, athletic talent, hustle, and more. He will be earning some important minutes this year. Will he help us more than hurt us? I believe he will help us. And I won't be shocked if he helps us considerably. We are not expecting him to contribute much this year, so when he does contribute, it is well appreciated. He may need to build his body into something bigger, stronger and faster. He will. But the gifts he has now is enough to help us perhaps when we least expect it. Hustle is the great equalizer, and Mitch has plenty of hustle. Combine that with his basketball IQ and what we have here is a player that finds ways to contribute.
Mitch needs to identify his role on this year's team. What should that role be? What should be his calling card? Hustle.... Bring lots of energy into the game. Wear down opponents. Snag 50/50 balls. Rebound. Defend. Screen. Attract floor burns.
In some ways, Mitch actually fits into our rotation better than Doke did. Doke represents the opposite from the other 4 players he was playing with on the court. Doke was the muscle. The weight. The size. The post defender. Mitch just looks like another guard on the floor. Light, fast and agile. Mitch has the potential to help us maintain a higher pace. That is something we shouldn't disregard as meaningless.
I spent the last days watching a lot of our old game tapes. Doke glows with potential. But in all reality, we don't know how much of that potential was going to come this year. He has so many areas of his game that needs to be brought up just to prevent him from hurting us; free throw shooting, fouling, scoring, passing, getting up and down the court. I feel sure young Mitch, now given some of those minutes, can maintain good enough fundamentals to not hurt us as much as Doke would. But the $64,000 question; can Mitch HELP us like Doke would? I think when you balance both the good with the bad, Mitch has every bit the possibility of equaling the net effect Doke would have.
Don't get me wrong... Mitch will never be Doke. And sometimes we will need plenty of girth on a match up. We just won't have it this year in these situations. But won't we have advantages going our way at most of the other positions on the floor? Will we be so disadvantaged because we don't have an advantage in this one area?
We should make some changes now that Doke is gone. We should consider some game tweaks to compensate for a less physical post presence. When we face a team with a strong post player that is dominant, we should take the ball right at him and challenge him. Get him in foul trouble. if we can't do it with 4 gifted driving guards, then when the heck would we ever be able to do it?
We need to stay focused on a glass half full instead of half empty. Losing Doke was painful... mostly because he has worked his tail off to get in condition to contribute this year. He wanted a productive year sooo sooo badly. But we must now roll with the punches and deliver a knock out. For all the potential we lost in Doke we may make up for in other ways. Stay positive, my Jayhawk friends!
I remember this broken record from the past. How in the heck were we ever going to compensate for losing Archie Marshall?
