Cronin looks for better things from Parker

[bearcat jeff]

Cronin looks for better things from Parker
Written by bkoch

If there was a forgotten man on last year’s UC basketball team it was sophomore guard JaQuon Parker, who went from starting eight games and averaging 13.2 minutes per game as a freshman to one start with an average of 8.5 minutes as a sophomore.
Parker made a big splash during his freshman year when he scored 15 points with five assists as the starting point guard against South Florida. That earned him another start in the next game at Louisville, where at times he appeared overwhelmed, but he recovered to start the last five games of the season and seemed poised to become a productive player for the Bearcats in 2010-11.

But it didn’t happen.

“He got caught in a numbers situation in our perimeter rotation,” Mick Cronin said. “He came up on the wrong side of that because he rested on his laurels from his freshman year. He didn’t improve in the off-season. He didn’t put in the effort last summer and he paid the price. When the team improves, it gets harder to get playing time.”

Cronin and Parker had a little chat after the season. Parker took responsibility for his lack of playing time and vowed to do better this off-season. So far, he has made good on his promise.

“He’s had a great April, May and June,” Cronin said. “I’m a firm believer that it’s going to pay off for him. We’re going to need him because he’s a veteran and he’s a physical perimeter player and he brings toughness to the table. But he’s got to be able to knock down open shots and be an effective upperclassman defender.”

I’m scheduled to talk to Parker tomorrow afternoon. His story will appear in Thursday’s paper.

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/uc/2011/06/28/cronin-looks-for-better-things-from-parker/

 

[GoCatsGo]

Interesting. Provides a little bit of information on what happened to JP last season. I think everyone wondered about it.

 

[psax889906]

Mick pretty much laid it out there... the gauntlet has been thrown down and with all the freshmen coming in it will be up to JP... he can have a significant role on this team and if he puts in the work to make that a reality there's no doubt the 'Cats will be a better team for it... it's all up to him.

 

[bearcat jeff]

Mick pretty much laid it out there... the gauntlet has been thrown down and with all the freshmen coming in it will be up to JP... he can have a significant role on this team and if he puts in the work to make that a reality there's no doubt the 'Cats will be a better team for it... it's all up to him.

He could be huge in terms of spelling the 2/3.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

I still think Parker's best role on this team will be a defender off the bench and assuming he finds his shot, a (gulp) possible three-point specialist when we need a scoring punch. As the only bench player with experience, he plays a very important role for us. The first thing that needs to happen is he needs to accept his role as a back-up player, even to underclassmen. I don't think he did that too well last year and I'm guessing that's why we didn't see him alot. Plus, when you're trying to prove your worth as a starter in a back-up role, you're going to press and push too hard and make mistakes and take bad shots. We clearly saw that out of him last year. I've said this numerous times, but I hope we can get out of him what we got out of Larry Davis last year. Good role players make a team better and are necessary for a team to go that next level. Parker hopefully will be able to provide that for us.