Sports Illustrated released a list of the 9 most disappointing players in college basketball earlier in the week. Of course as we know, many were disappointed, even down-right made at Kaleb Joseph at times this season. But he also had two pretty tough young point guards to follow. No, I am not going to try to say that 5.9 points, 3.8 assists and 2.3 turnovers per game are good numbers, but was Kaleb really one of the most disappointing players in the country?
No, I’d like to think the disappointment from us was more that Kaleb wasn’t Tyler Ennis, a player who from day one began destroying what we came to expect out of a freshman point guard. The disappointment in Kaleb was as much a disappointment that he wasn’t Ennis or MCW as it was in his play on the court.
Look, 2.3 turnovers a game really isn’t bad, it’s actually quite good. But after Ennis played so carefully with the ball and made us forget that MCW averaged 3.4 turnovers a game the year before, Kaleb’s 2.3 felt more like 10.
Of course, Joseph didn’t score as well as either of his predecessors, and he may have looked lost on defense at times. But he was a freshman point guard tasked with running a team in one of best conferences in the country, if not the best conference in the country.
MCW had his freshman year to adjust and grow into the college game. Tyler Ennis was clearly some kind of crazy mature freshman who always did and said the right thing. Kaleb Joseph showed what it is like to be a freshman point guard. There are some ups, but there are a whole lot of more downs.
Is it too early to put Kaleb on a “most disappointing” list? In my opinion, yes. Let’s give him another year, or at least part of another year, to prove he has grown, he has learned and he can play point guard well enough to lead an ACC team.
Posted By: Seth Goldberg
