Does Jimmermania affect the rest of the team?

Jimmer's rock-star status and frequent national media cameos have me a little concerned. From junior high to high school to junior college I have been on teams ranging from poor to fair. Probably says something about my talent. Anyway, sometimes we had a "ball hog" and sometimes we didn't, and although the results weren't all that different, the years without a player dominating the ball were a lot more fun. So, my question to anyone who has ever been on a very successful team with a ball-dominating player (which is what we are this year): how well do the other players deal with it over the course of a season? Several times on Wednesday night Davies had great position and called for the ball, or Jax was wide open because his man had doubled Jimmer, yet the possession ended with a JImmer shot. Most of them went in, and some would say that is all that matters. Jimmer ALWAYS credits his teammates when he is interviewed and the rest of the team says the right things as well, but I still worry. Any chance that if the spotlight continues to shine so brightly and exclusively on Jimmer that the rest of the crew gets a little irritated/bored/indifferent/lazy (think Teen Wolf if you are of my generation)? Hopefully Jimmer realizes that 20 points from him is enough to beat WYO, TCU, AFA etc and lets the others be the stars on those nights.

On any other team I would be worried sick about this. This team however is different, they have shown in the past that they actually enjoy it. I cringe at the thought of what would happen if Marsha Henderson, or Trevon Willis were on this team or if Jimmer had a drop of ego in him, the locker room would be poisoned and the whole thing would have fallen apart before it got going. Most of the credit goes to the individual players themselves, especially Jackson, but also to the coaching staff who have managed to hold the wolf by the ears so far, here' hoping they can keep it up.

Call me silly, naive, or just a dumb country bumpkin, but look at the grin Jimmer has on his face here and tell me if that is the deviating smile of a prima donna or the grin of a little boy just enjoying life and can't wait to get home and tell his mum all about what happened?



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If I had to choose between the two choice, I would definitely go with the latter. I don't think Jimmer is a ball hog, people throw it to him all the time and he passes it to somebody else quite often. I think he does what it takes to win, as do the other players on the team.



Jimmer, to me, is just a little boy having all sorts of fun and he wants all his friends to have fun also.

If I were being mobbed like that and appearing on every sports show on the tube I would be grinning and having tons of fun too. I still wonder if the rest of the team, deep inside, wishes that they could have some of that fun too. Like BerliNY, I don't think this coaching staff or this team would ever let it "poison" the lockerroom in a way that would manifest as backbiting or selfish play. But at some point human nature says that if I do the same hard work (screens, posting up, rebounding against Kahwai Leonard, etc.) as well and as hard as I can and very rarely get the reward, eventually I will do that work just well enough to get by. Jimmer can score 30-40 points pretty much any game he wants; he knows it, we know it, and even his opponents know it. I would love to see him conciously try to get 8+ assists against the likes of TCU, AFA and WYO and ignore how many points he has.

Good question. This is similar to my concern about Jimmer personally handling all the hype. What would happen to his ego, mental prep, etc.

I think all of us have been pleasantly surprised with how Jimmer has handled it and keeps stepping up. That's flat out special!

But second, to have players who have kept in a good space is also amazing.

Difference is, imo, its most often coaches calling for Jimmer to get the ball.

Difference is, Jimmer converts at a great percentage. Ballhogs that don't convert or are taking all the attention are the hate-able ones. Jimmer's modesty is part of jimmer-mania--it does make him so much more lovable.

Besides look how sdsu started. The ball was going inside to Davies.

Jimmer is becoming Jordan-esque to this team. His "high tides" are raising all the ships--or the collective team ship.



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There is no visible jealousy on the team. I remember watching the CSU game and as the team walked to the bench during a time when CSU was threatening to get in the game, Jackson was really laying into Jimmer for not closing out on a shooter. Even though he's a star, he's still a teammate. Jimmer's the leader, but the team goes as Jackson goes. If Jackson stops getting after Jimmer then I think we have problems.

kitic77 wrote:
There is no visible jealousy on the team. I remember watching the CSU game and as the team walked to the bench during a time when CSU was threatening to get in the game, Jackson was really laying into Jimmer for not closing out on a shooter. Even though he's a star, he's still a teammate. Jimmer's the leader, but the team goes as Jackson goes. If Jackson stops getting after Jimmer then I think we have problems.

Good eye, I'm glad I wasn't the only one that noticed that.



I think there is enough chemistry on BYU's team that they're going to be fine. Hartsock also seems like he's emerging as a vocal leader. It's a team game and they are all doing their parts. I get the feeling that this year's team has realized that scoring isn't everything and that rebounding, playing D and finding other ways to contribute is also fun. That's part of why this team is so great.



Now, if jimmer is scoring 40+ and BYU is losing, we have serious, serious issues. But winning is fun for everyone from the star to the last guy on the bench.

The team isn't afraid of Jimmer. Jimmer is a very good and likeable kid. I think it was PK a week or two ago asking if Jackson was bothered by all the shots Jimmer took. Jackson said, if he's making 15 of his 25 shots then he can shoot all he wants. Jimmer's not a ball hog because he makes a large percentage of his shots and takes most of them in the offense.

Winning cures many ills.



Jimmer also does make an effort to get the rest of the team involved. But he knows when those moments are that he needs to be an ice blooded killer, and he takes those.

cougdoc wrote:
I would love to see him conciously try to get 8+ assists against the likes of TCU, AFA and WYO and ignore how many points he has.

I see him passing off quite often to other team members, but I also see other team members who are wide open for a shot pass the ball back to him in pressure games. They know he's a better shot than they are. In the SDSU game, this happened quite often.



Off the top of my head, I think he leads the team in assists.

I think having Coach Rose on this specific team with all the hype and praise Jimmer is getting is a good thing. Rose probably knows what it's like to be a teammate of a superstar. He knows what teammates need to do to be successful when one player is getting a ton of attention. Being on Phi Slamma Jamma,

make his uniquely qualified to keep Jimmer balanced and the team together.



Throw in Dave Rice who played on the great UNLV teams in the early 90s with Larry Johnson, Stacy Augmon and Greg Anthony and we've got two coaches who both know how to win and win with superstars.