It’s kind of an ignorant argument anyway.
I’m not sure how many NOVA kids we’ve gotten, it’s not many, but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head:
Jon Larranaga (Oakton)
Rob Anderson (Arlington)
Chris Flemming (Manassas)
Cam Long (Woodbridge)
Patrick Holloway (Fairfax)
Jordan Miller (Loudoun)
Josh Oduro (Fairfax)
Peter Oduro (Fairfax)
Not sure how many of these players you would deem “soft”
Not sure how many players from NOVA we offered who went somewhere else, but as an example I can think of Scottie Reynolds who we offered coming off the Final Four and we all thought we had a legit shot at. He went to Villanova. Not sure if you’d call him soft.
Reynolds was 100% labeled soft, was he? Maybe a little, beating up on public school kids in high school. Herndon wasn’t exactly great falls, ashburn etc either though. There’s a major difference of what a kid ‘can do’ and where he’s at coming out of high school. Scottie played a large part in the resurrection of putting Villanova back on the map.
It’s more no one did any research into his background and how hard he worked. He was grouped in with Nova kids.
I think there’s a mistake here in what people view as ‘soft’ you can be a heck of a player and not be tough coming out of high school. No one is denying Miller was talented but he never saw the type of competition he was going to at the D1 level in high school. He beat up on some pretty amateur competition. He also never remotely came close to being player he could until he got to Miami.
Also on the flip side just because you are tough doesn’t mean you are talented. It takes kids longer to adjust to college game coming out of public school in nova. It took miller 3/4 years to become the player he is today. Josh was 100% a work in progress, are we going to say he was great under Paulsen? I’m not really calling him soft but none of these guys from nova are coming in day 1 built the same as other parts of the country.
As far as someone like Patrick Holloway that’s a horrible argument for tough! dude was a mental bum, horrible attitude and 100% the definition of a kid who threw his career away by not being tough enough. He folded quickly.
Not one guy on that list screams tough out of high school. Some talent sure but wouldn’t use the word tough. Either way if people want to get their feelings hurt over it fine, but we all know college coaches at any level arent calling nova kids tough! They are calling them great Students with great grades that won’t be trouble makers.
College is a time for growth and good coaches find those players and make them better. If someone is a finished project in high school than well not much to do coaching wise anyway, They will be 1 and dones and that’s that. As far as Kelly it’s a teaching moment for Tony to harness whatever that is into something positive. Redirect his emotions and use that as fuel to get better and not act out in a violent way.
