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I suspect Mason will become as good a point guard as several guys we've had starting at UC, including recently. It might take him a while, but that depends on how others develop too. He's going to fit into Brannen's system likely better as a shooter, so it might be a new-look Bearcats for us. He might actually turn out to be a good two guard outside decoy just because he could be a drive and dish guy.
I think people are calling out this discussion as very extreme, when it's not. To say a recruit is a risk isn't the same thing as saying they shouldn't have been recruited. It's acknowledging what might become a pitfall. No one said Brannen shouldn't have recruited Harvey or Gabe. We said they were players that carry risk, because they do. That's okay more often that not.
And yeah, you can push that to say all players do, but a storyline with those two guys rises up to the lead paragraph when talking about them, which is really all you need to know. It might be the end of the discussion, but not saying anything is just having blinders on.
It's not even a harsh criticism on Brannen to point it out, because I'm sure he would recognize it too. Cronin also needed to take risk guys like Stephenson, who brought such an odd media circus for college, but I'm guessing that it bothered him that it was the route he had to take.
And to those justifying Mason's spot by pointing out how many low-level recruits Cronin brought in...well I thought little of Cronin's recruiting in recent years and I'm guessing fans just learned to live with it. But to his credit he always seemed to develop enough upperclassmen to play his system of slow ball that he found ways to win games. But most of those lower recruits were largely forgettable. Sprinkle in some fortunate diamonds in the rough and there's UC in past 13 years. Successful, but frustrating all too often.
Excited to see if Mason can make use eat our words about counting him out.
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