To put Don James into perspective, Mack only really started to recruit him after Mack's first priority 10-15 recruits went elsewhere. At that point, Mack was looking for warm bodies. When James committed, he was ranked around 500 in the recruiting rankings. After his commitment to X, he moved up to around 225, which many of us thought was only because the recruiting "experts" thought, "He's going to X. So he must be better than 500."
He chose X over the likes of Campbell, South Alabama, and Austin Peay. He was primarily being recruited by small programs.
Now that said, I thought when he did get minutes, he hustled his ass off. He just didn't have the talent to play at this level. Good luck to him.
P.S. I just read an interesting article about James- Kansas gave him an offer. Yes, Kansas. Why? Because James played on the same AAU team with and was friends with Zion Williamson. I suspect that offer was withdrawn once Zion committed to Duke.
https://www.aseaofblue.com/2017/8/8/...ontarius-james
Results 21 to 30 of 137
Thread: Don James transferring
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03-25-2020, 09:32 AM #21
Last edited by XU 87; 03-25-2020 at 09:52 AM.
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03-25-2020, 10:02 AM #22
- Join Date
- Jan 2008
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- 1,771
I always liked and pulled for Harden even though it was apparent he wasn't going to be a quality BE-level player. Curious as to where Harden ends up and what's he's looking for. At Jax St, maybe he didn't get along with the coach. He was given a starting spot out of the shoot on a team that lost a lot from a good team the previous season. He avg. (Pt/Reb/Ast/TO) 7.3/2.6/1.6/1.3, while leading the team in minutes. He shot 34.4%/30.6%(3). Didn't really light it up and was a disappointment, at least when measured against this pre-season write-up:
"A big reason for excitement is Xavier transfer Elias Harden, a 6-5 junior guard whom (Coach Ray) Harper sees as a potential first-team All-OVC player. 'He's talented,' Harper says. 'He's probably been the hardest worker we had [in the] summer. He's kind of been a leader.' "
Don't know where he goes from here. Maybe he's looking for a Lloyd Dobler "dare to be great" situation.
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03-25-2020, 12:48 PM #23
You know what I don't like?
-Going 19-16 with a team that had talent- you know a National Champion Division 2 POY plus guys that played in an Elite 8- in a Down Year Big East.
-Going 19-13 with a team that had talent and couldn't even finish .500 in a league where other coaches picked them 3rd. Chiefly because *someone in power* couldn't figure out A) It might be a good time to go zone defense against a team that lost their best player and another guy is allowed to score 13 straight points? B) It might be a good idea to have somebody shadowing/harassing the other teams' best player for about 8 seconds rather than letting him dribble up unencumbered and move right to where his teammate was setting a screen in his favorite spot to shoot from?
Going 38-29 and *probably* missing the NCAA two straight years. With this talent. THAT'S pretty much what I hate."I Got CHAMPIONS in that Lockerroom!" -Stanley Burrell
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03-25-2020, 12:51 PM #24
And the fact that the guy who he finally replaced in that game was worse...and in many other games....but those Xavier Way points, ya know.
How bad did it have to get before the guy in the suit said enough? Welp, pretty bad because Don finally got a chance and played well. Then he barely even saw the floor again.
That reality."I Got CHAMPIONS in that Lockerroom!" -Stanley Burrell
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03-25-2020, 01:17 PM #25
James played 27 minutes in the last three games of the season and scored a total of three points. He simply didn't have the talent to play consistently at this level on this team. Period. End of story. The fact that he had a career game of 6 points (1-4 from the field and 4-7 from the free line I might add) when playing 25 minutes against St. John doesn't change that fact.
There was a reason that his alternatives to Xavier were schools like Austin Peay and Campbell.
James also had a Kenpom offensive rating of 80. That's terrible. To give it some perspective- Q had a rating of 86, which is also bad. (Carter had a rating of 95, which ain't too good either, but a lot better than 80.)Last edited by XU 87; 03-25-2020 at 01:43 PM.
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03-25-2020, 01:38 PM #26
What constituted playing well? That he stayed on the floor had some rebounds and maybe didn't get totally torched on defense. I think some people were surprised he wasn't a total disaster and that skewed the perception. The reality is that Don is not a good enough player at this level. Let's see what the interest level is from other programs. If the coaches felt Don could help, they would have played him.
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03-25-2020, 02:26 PM #27
Comparisons between James and Carter are an absolute non-starter. Give me a break. This will bear out when James is at South Carolina Upstate (or similar) next year putting up pedestrian numbers, just like it did with Elias Harden. Although, I guess MOR is still going to bat for Harden so all bets are off..
Totally understand why James moved on. Wish him the best of course.
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03-25-2020, 03:14 PM #28
Don't be dissing on the Upstate of South Carolina. Great place to live.
...he went up late, and I was already up there.
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03-25-2020, 03:18 PM #29
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03-25-2020, 03:41 PM #30
- Join Date
- Feb 2019
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- 347
OMG, JEHARDI is right......you CAN'T help yourself. Another rant. Instead of continually playing the role of armchair quarterback how 'bout telling us in advance what's going to happen next year. Best player(s). Most effective newcomer. Position in the BE. Record. Post season. You seem to have all the answers. I would like to know if I should be looking forward to next season or not.
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