As most know from the many Advils knocked back with a swig of whiskey, the Wildcats’ season has been a tough one to handle.
Headache, heartache and hullabaloo have followed the Arizona men’s basketball team, and after senior guard Chris Rodgers was dismissed, it appeared that that answer might have been the right thing.
Arizona went on a three-game winning streak without the aforementioned Rodgers but then dropped the next three to tough opponents on the road.
North Carolina ranks No. 23 with the best freshman in the nation, Tyler Hansbrough, No. 13 UCLA is the only team that could make a deep tournament run and then there is Southern California.
With that said, Rodgers does not deserve to be allowed back on this team.
My grandmother told me that if the horse bucks you once, it’s his fault, but if he bucks you twice, it’s your fault, which may hold true with Rodgers.
He has been suspended and let back on, showed up late to a meeting, denied to the media that he was late, pounded his chest after a 3-pointer making him 1-of-9 from the field and has done everything except kick Wilbur in the face and make some ludicrous “”I found Viagra in Lute’s locker”” joke to the press.
The team misses his on-ball defensive pressure, which might have been the best in the Western United States, but one thing it doesn’t miss is what Arizona head coach Lute Olson said needed to stop last week – 3-pointers.
In 16 games, Rodgers shot seven more triples (97) than senior guard Hassan Adams and freshman forward Marcus Williams have put up (90) in 44 games combined.
With that said, he only converted on 33 of them, putting him at 34 percent from the field, far less than 45 percent from Williams, the only person Olson said is allowed to chuck it from downtown these days.
Looking at Rodgers’ scoring in two of the biggest “”how the hell did we lose to them!”” moments of the year, Houston and Oregon State, he combined for a whopping six points.
Against NAU and St. Mary’s, Rodgers scored six points and two points, respectively.
In his 16 games, Rodgers was shooting 34.6 percent from the field, which puts him No. 11 out of 14 Wildcats on the team if you include redshirting sophomore guard Jawann McClellan, who played two games and never had the time to WD-40 the rust from almost nine months of break.
So what are we missing from Rodgers?
We miss his 2.5 steals per game average and his inability to turn the ball over.
What we don’t miss is his selfish need to keep the ball, seen in assist stats that show him helping out only 31 times in 16 games, compared to freshman point guard J.P. Prince’s 49 assists in 173 fewer minutes on the court.
If Olson is looking for a spark, I don’t blame him, but do you really think it’s a good idea to go looking for that spark at a gas station?