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42 & 14 in his first career NBA start today.
Yes, a franchise record rookie start
https://twitter.com/memgrizz/status/...444659717?s=20
Great highlight video to his first rookie NBA start
https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1645196039249330181?s=20
Great!
they allow walking and they don't play defense in the NBA (except for a little in the playoffs). Junior should excel in such an environment.
Some tidbits from Twitter press ---
His 42 points in his first start is the most from any rookie dating back to 1970.
Kenneth Lofton Jr. is the first #NBA rookie in over a decade, and only the 5th rookie over the past 30 years, to produce 40+ points and 10+ rebounds in a game. Last 5 players to do it: Junior, Blake Griffin, Kevin Durant, Elton Brand, Shaq
Our people spent more time promoting Junior this year than the actual Tech Basketball team.
He went from transferring to UAB to the NBA, and yet he's the celebrated hero of Tech people right now.
Because all of the press he gets highlights Louisiana Tech. I don't see how this is bad for us.
One of those actually makes us look good.Originally Posted by revf
Our people spent more time promoting Junior this year than the actual Tech Basketball team.
He went from transferring to UAB to the NBA, and yet he's the celebrated hero of Tech people right now.
NOBODY other than (a limited number of) our fans know or care that he was looking at other options in the portal or what those options were. His alma mater is always going to be listed at Louisiana Tech, his success is good for us. The Grizzlies roster doesn't say "thought about UAB in the portal" next to his name.
It was a bad look, I wish he hadn't considered transferring at all much less listing out other schools being considered much less including conference-mates. But it didn't happen. Best I can tell, he was very involved in promoting basketball on-campus when he was actually a student.
It's good for us that he does well. We can wish him well. It's fine. It's more than fine.
Turns out Junior just had more foresight about not wanting to play for Talvin Hester than our other basketball players did.
Playing for Hester would have probably killed Junior's career chances. THAT'S what the LA Tech AD should remember.
Alma mater? Did he actually earn a degree at Tech?
It's still your alma mater if you attended.
That phrase isn't restricted to graduates.
a school, college, or university which one has attended or from which one has graduated
Tech Graduate Kim Mulkey won the NCAA Tournament. Is that good for us? I am not sure how much success of former athletes actually benefits Tech.
Paul Millsap had a long and really good NBA career, and yet we never made the tournament while he was here or gone. It didn't help us get new recruits. It didn't help us up our profile. It actually moved the needle very minimally. I think the myth of "more athletes in the league" actually improving the product at Tech is just that...a myth.
In fact I rarely see pro athletes actually give back to their alma mater. Kim Mulkey got huge bonuses this year. Do you think she sends a single dime to the athletic foundation? I can almost guarantee that most of the posters on this board give more to the athletic foundation than Kim Mulkey does.
It sure seems like you'd rather have people associated with Tech athletics succeeding (particularly at the professional level) than not, right?
I don't know if it correlates to better recruiting or not. I know we really liked it for the past few years having the third most G5 players drafted or on rosters or whatever that stat was. I wouldn't expect it to be important without factoring in all the other stuff going on, but it can't be worse for us to have players doing well in the NBA or NFL.
Mulkey is coaching another college team. I think that's a little different (and something impossible for me to root for). But generally, you don't think you'd rather have Tech alumni doing well?
Nah! just another case of "dumbing down" another element in our society. Can't actually hold someone accountable and expect them to actually accomplish something...like actually finishing all requirements to actually EARN a degree. But, that is anti-wokeness! Not in my book. I hold 9 credit hours at LSU-Baton Rouge, yo! my alma mater! Ah, no...
Junior ATTENDED Tech and no doubt earned some credit hours toward a degree. He can come back and finish, graduate, and then refer to Tech as his alma mater. If he wants. Probably doesn't care to and with a $7 million contract and more to come, he doesn't need an "alma mater."
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