RMU received some unfortunate news earlier in the past week
when they learned center Mike McFadden had quit the team. As some may recall,
McFadden left the team last year but came back after a few games. McFadden has
dealt with numerous injuries throughout his collegiate career.
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Mike McFadden is no longer with RMU (p/c: Toledo
Blade)
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My thoughts on Mike’s game this year has been well documented
on this blog and on-air. He is a very talented player but the expectations for
him were raised and instead of getting better he seemed to plateau and fell in
love a little too much with his jump shot. McFadden was averaging 7.8 points on
43 percent shooting and was third on the team in rebounds per game, grabbing
3.8.
I’m not fully convinced Mike is calling it a career. History
has a tendency to repeat itself and it’d be foolish to totally throw out the
notion that Mike gets the itch to play ball again, so we’ll see. Under the assumption
that McFadden has called it a career, here are some of the impacts that can be
seen:
-Growing thin on the
frontcourt: Due to the likes of Keith Armstrong leaving, Lijah Thompson
and Vaughn Morgan transferring, and McFadden quitting, there is relatively no
depth in the frontcourt. This means Stephan Hawkins, Aaron Tate, and Jeremiah
Worthem are going to have to play smart basketball and avoid foul trouble or it
could put the team in a tight spot when it comes to rebounding.
-More minutes for
Hawkins: Stephan Hawkins is certainly starting to play better and will have
to continue to play at an elevated level. Even if McFadden were to return,
Hawkins would likely remain the starter (sort of what we saw with Velton Jones
and Anthony Myers-Pate last season). The thing I like most about Hawkins is he
is starting to find his identity. He can hit that baseline jumper, rebound, and
is doing well with his defensive positioning.
-More small ball:
I’m always a big proponent of a smaller lineup because RMU’s guards are simply
better than just about anyone else. A lineup that see’s Chuck Oliver at the
three and Lucky Jones at the four will space the floor and has the potential to
shoot the lights out. The biggest knock on Oliver has been his defense but as
the season has gone on Chuck has come into his own on that side and can take
over a game offensively. This obviously will thin out the bench even more (Worthem
is the only one who can come off the bench and score in this situation) but I
can live with it. The positives outweigh the negatives.
-Back to the basket:
Offensively, McFadden was the only guy on the team who had a polished game
working with his back to the basket. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Hawkins back
anyone down before and Worthem is still raw in that aspect. RMU is going to
have to get creative if they want to score points in the paint.
-Talking about
practice: One of the more underrated aspects of McFadden (and Juanie
Newton) leaving is practice. When the team wants to run 5v5 scrimmages in
practice, the drop off in talent from the first to second unit is much larger.
That’s not a slight to a walk on like Shaire Tolson-Ford, it’s just the truth. Everyone’s
role on the team has gotten larger.
--Chris Cappella
--@C_Cappella
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