And for the majority of the season, he didn’t. The way I remember it, at the beginning of the season Pitino wanted to get Ron Mercer in the starting lineup so he tried putting a square peg in a round hole by making Tony Delk the point guard. That team didn’t truly hit its stride until Epps replaced Mercer in the starting lineup and Delk slid back to the 2. That’s how I remember it at least.
You are absolutely right. It is an insult to Ron Mercer to have Edwards compared to him at any point in their careers. Ron wasn't on the court jacking up untimely shots all over the court. He wasn't getting blocked by the rim or mishandling easy passes that should have resulted in easy baskets. The poster describing Edwards running stride is analogous to describing a sprinter or a horse. What the heck does his running stride have to do with anything? It certainly is assisting him with scoring points or jumping.
I kinda thought that at first also. However, Prince was a defensive menace - college and pro. Prince was also taller and longer. Much better shooter than JE.
Must confess that I was guilty of under appreciating the guy then but when I go back to rewatch film, I couldn't agree with you more. There was so much talent around him it was easy to overlook his contributions at the time but he may have been the reason that team was so dominant. I honestly didn't see that guy coming because I was watching his teammates. Hope he is doing well these days.
When Justin stops and shoots that pretty left hand mid range jumper reminds me a lot of jack goose givens that's who I would compare him too
Mercer was not close to Edwards if you are comparing just the freshman season. Mercers productivity doubled during his sophomore year.
Mercer was a better player than Edwards as a freshman, in my opinion. Edwards is just getting more minutes than Mercer did.
I have been a dedicated UK fan since I was 7. Rupp was still the coach when I started. If you are picking Mercer just because he didnt play for Cal, then you are an idiot. Mercer was a great player, just not during his freshman season.
Has nothing to do with Cal. I’m picking Mercer as a better player as a freshman because I believe Mercer was a better player as a freshman. He just played 6 mpg less than Edwards and his numbers are slightly lower. But I believe all of his %s were higher. FG%, FT%, 3 point %.
The difference is that RP didn't give players playing time just because of their high school greatness. A player either earned his playing time or his butt stayed on the bench.
It is likely the posters making this crazy comparison didn't actually see Ron play. They are simply looking at raw numbers without ever seeing him play. I never hated seeing the ball in Ron's hands as I do Edwards. When Edwards gets the ball it is a greater chance than not that he will take a bad shot.
What has Edwards done as a freshman? He is a train wreck who has been gifted a starting spot. It doesn't mean that he can't get better, but you are posting as if he has produced. At this point he isn't even playing at an average player level.
Pitino’s decision to remove Mercer from the starting line-up and replace him with Derek Anderson was the very best thing that happened to the team and to Mercer in 1996.
It is a move that would never be done by Cal. Cal has too many promises that he has to follow through with no matter what.
Did I misremember? The way I remembered it, Pitino replaced Mercer in the starting lineup with Anthony Epps.
Any player who is consistently given starter minutes is likely to show some flashes of decent play. It certainly isn't like opposing teams are scheming to stop him. He is likely being guarded by opposing teams' worse defenders.
It really doesn't matter that much . I think I will give it a season before I can make a real comparison. Mercer was such a high level prospect, fans were expecting more from him as a freshman. It was a challenging time for him because he did play less than expected.
He's his own worst enemy at the moment. But I've seen progress even though it doesn't jump out. It's becoming harder to stay true in this microwave society.
UK was loaded with talent, so I don't know where you get the idea that there was a lot of pressure on him to play. During that period of college basketball, there was no one-and-done concept. It was extremely rare for a player to skip college or only play one year. So, there were typically a solid cast of older players who were more than capable of performing at a high level while younger players were developed.
If he wasn't stealing minutes from a better player, I think most fans would be patient with his progression. If you are about team success as opposed to player success, you don't like the idea of a player getting starter minutes when it isn't earned.
He had a few different lineups that year. At the end, it was Epps, Delk, DA, Walker and McCarty. Not sure exactly when and exactly how that transpired.
There wasn’t a lot of pressure on Mercer to play his freshman season. That’s one of the biggest reasons he came to UK, so that he didn’t have pressure to produce at a high level immediately. However, he was better than Edwards his freshman season. No comparison.
Not disagreeing. I think Thiero is the better player right now.
You may be right, but I believe it was the 15th game of the season, against LSU in mid-January, when DA began starting and Mercer came in off the bench. I think Epps had been starting prior to that. Mercer seemed more relaxed coming off the bench and played much better, imho.
