Mayo vs Rose…disappointing
I’ve written many blogs on the stellar play of Derrick Rose and Oj Mayo and how they are 2 of the top 5 freshman in the country but they didn’t show it last night. I was able to watch a recorded version of the game, as I had a city league game myself last night, and needless to say I was a little disappointed. This just wasn’t the same Derrick Rose that I had seen play the previous 6 games for Memphis.
For whatever reason Rose often took the easy way out and was looking for teammates in obvious situations. When a chance arose for him to attack he would often defer and hope that Douglas-Roberts would do something with the ball. The Derrick Rose that I know has always been a combination of fearless and unselfish but this game called for him to try to do something more than what he was doing because his team needed it. Where I noticed it was with a few seconds on the clock Rose decided to pass to an open teammate rather than take the shot himself. Rose is a great player and it is hard to criticize such a talented unselfish player, but he needs to be the one to shoot that ball and his teammates want to see him shoot the ball.
OJ Mayo has the opposite problem. He is not afraid of shooting any shot and is a very talented player. He’s athletic and can handle the ball well and can shoot it pretty well also. He wasn’t hitting at all last night and ended 6-20 from the field and missed his last 7 shots. I really like his game though and his teammates seem to feed off of him. He has incredible energy and presence on the court like Rose but Mayo is a different type of player and brings something different than Rose. It was intriguing to watch but disappointing for me. I wanted to see Mayo and Rose go at it for 40 minutes and instead I feel like I got Mayo’s best effort and Rose’s best impersonation of a football team in a prevent defense or a prize fighter just trying to not get knocked out.
After this season I’ll have plenty of chances to watch these two go head to head for years to come. I can see these guys as players who will linked in high school, college and the pros and I wish them both well.
