I called Clarke a "ball boy" and didn't hear any criticism from that. I'm made several comments about Washington and I'm not hearing any criticism for that. I've said things about Welsh and Britt and I've not heard any criticism for that.

You guys should notice that I had nothing to say until late December, and that I've only ramped it up lately. Reason – I wanted to give them time to develop and see how they were going to look around the middle of conference season on. As to the comment that I should consider his stats for the entire season to be fair – Nope, don't agree. It's not okay to make 5 turnovers in the last 7 minutes of an SEC game in the last half of the conference season just because you played lights out for 7 minutes in early December.

The point guard makes or breaks a team. The leadership from point guard makes a huge difference down the stretch. The bigger question is, "why isn't he growing?" I know, the answer is "he is just a freshman, what do you expect?" My retort would be, "I expect to see him getting better – which in his case is mostly mental".

They are losing games by 1-3 possessions. Turnovers are a huge deal. Fix that and I'll move on to someone else.

Owasso makes a good point about the same Freshman mistakes being made over and over, but some kids just take longer than others.

I do believe that it wouldn't be fair to just single out Fortson, anymore than it would be to single out Sanshez, Clarke, or Henry.

He's the PG, and naturally will be handling the basketball a lot more often, leading to the most turnovers.

One of these days though, that proverbial light is going to come on, consistantsy will prevail, and the arguments we're having over these youngsters will be all but history.

GO HOGS GO BABY!!!!!

To your point about the slight difference (about 1+ net difference)… just how many games could have turned on this 1+ difference? I'm in the camp that says… go 70 mph vs. 90 and the impact may be significantly greater but in the other direction… that is, he probably has more assists and fewer turnovers. Wouldn't that be a huge difference? Could the wins be more and the loses fewer… I'm thinking so.

Finally, the difference between first game of the year and the last game of this year is important from your freshman comments. Has Fortson grown much during this timeframe or is he still making freshman mistakes? Keeping in mind that he's play significantly more than most freshmen. I really don't know the answer to this question but that's what is probably troubling folks. He can't be doing the same thing all year and not growing as a player. The quicker he (and all of the other freshmen) make this transition, the sooner we make it over the hump.

You may be speaking about facts… but you need ALL of the facts to tell the true story.

My point….in my opinion, the commentary you and others portray as 'telling it like it is' is not accurate. A reader would be led to believe that Fortson is the primary cause for our performance this season. That is not true at all. The facts are Fortson is one of the best players in the league based on PG relevant stats, AND HE IS ONLY A FRESHMAN. Freshman teams do not win close games. Expereince plays a key role in tight games, of which we have very little. The killer for the Hogs this year has been our 3 pt defense and rebounding, not necessarily point guard play. My suggestion is to focus your diatribe on that vs bashing a kid that is doing an outstanding job this year straight out of high school.

Like I said before, shame on you. I'm just telling it like it is based on facts.

Carolina – I agree on the Memphis thoughts. Good points.

Reason – yep, I said fair. I would be nuts if I thought Clarke was the point guard of the future. However, I never said anything even remotely close to that. We can disagree all day long over things we think and actually say and I'm fine with it. Disagreeing with me over something I didn't think as well as telling me I'm nuts is not fair. I could easily say, "thinking the JuCo point guard that you are 'looking to' is better option than Forston is a stupid opinion on your part". Of course, that's not exactly what you said and is an unfair take-away from your thoughts. See how it works?

Pelphrey was quoted as saying after the SC game, he just wants Henry to concentrate on the other important things in life right now, (like going to class) and that he's comfortable with Henry just continuing to come off the bench.

Moore and Fortson have had their episodes with disapline as well, so I think at this stage in their carrers, Pelphrey's doing his very best just to make sure these kids keep everything that's really important in perspective.

If he continues to do that, and these players continue to progress under the right guidelines, the sky will be the limit in couple of more years.

Just like Petrino exsperienced this past season, you have to endure the bad times, be patient, and stay the course, before you can implement your own system into place. That's just the way it is.

On the subject of Wally Hall's article this morning and coaching dominoes, the most important thing that could happen to help us out is for Calipari to head to Arizona. Our decline in b-ball has coincided to a great degree with being shut out of Memphis. Nolan's great teams always had a heavy dose of memphis products and we need to get back into that market. And this tall kid from Memphis is not what I have in mind.

Some of you guys – you are putting more words into my post than I'm actually saying. I never said Clarke was the point guard of the future. Never even thought it. I never said he was better at point guard than Fortson. Never even thought that. I just think he will do a better job of taking care of the ball. He rarely turns it over. I don't worry at all about his quickness or ball handling or strength. I've seen every home game in person, so I've watched him quite a bit to form my opinions.

I would play him there about 10 minutes a game and see what happens. After all, the season is done and we need to look at options and combinations and try and improve for next year.

It's not fair to state something I didn't say and take me to task over the thing I didn't say. But do it if you want to. I think all of this is quite fun.

I get the whole young and let's just have patience then as well as anyone. I also get that we are losing some games that we have a good chance of winning right now because we are careless about too many possessions.

Fortson and Welsh had 15 turnovers combined against South Caroline. Fortson had 5 in the last 7 minutes of the game.

Hog bballfan – am I bashing Fortson or just telling it like it is? Give me better stats and I'll have a reason not to talk about him so much. A 10 turnover performance by the point guard with 5 down the stretch of a game that went into overtime deserves to be pointed out. You're not hearing it from the press or the coaches (although it is way on their mind – thus the recruiting of a JuCo point guard), and probably not everyone studies the stat sheets, so I'm just trying to round out the picture.

My issues right now concern the present. 1) I don't see us getting better at things that are costing us ball games. If anything we are regressing. 2) The fact that we are staying Fortson centric and not improving, trying other combinations, of doing something, concerns me about the coaching.

Also . . . Washington has no business even thinking NBA. He is not strong enough to play NBA ball. Nor does he have the defensive or offensive skills that would be needed. He needs to hang around and work on his languages.

My reasoning for this is not only because I think Clarke would help keep Fortson in check with a more responsible court awareness, but also would allow us to keep a taller, more physical line up on the floor, more often.

It's been very well known from the beggining of the season that Clarke was supposed to be a great 3 pt. shooter, and he is. The only problem with this is that he's only 6'0" tall.

The reason he starts is because of that uncanny ability, and because he probably has the best court demeanor and basketball IQ on the floor.

In the SEC, if your a 6'0" SG, you already have a major disadvantage, not to even mention he's a Freshman just trying to get his feet wet, and it doesn't help when your surrounded by other players that are in the same boat, exsperience-wise.

Here's the lineup I would try to experiment with:

Starting lineup

PG – Fortson

SG – Welsh

SF/SG – Henry

PF – Moore

C – Washinton

Backups

PG – Clarke

SG – Britt

PF – Sanchez

C – Clark

There's really not many options you can go with, as long we have no depth, experience, or size, at some of the key positions.