Hello Houston friends....................just wanted to congratulate y'all on the great pickup of Pete Mickeal. I am from Cincy and have watched every Bearcat game the last 10+ years. Trust me when I say this kid is a legitimate 20 points per game player. When Kenyon went down in the NCAA Tournament, Pete picked his game up significantly and carried us on his back. He is a winner and has an unbelievable record of never being on a losing team. Demarr Johnson (out this year due to a major car accident) disappeared in the tournament and never really lived up to his great promise. UC was ranked #1 in the nation for almost the full year and the best way to describe Pete is that he is scary consistant. You don't even notice he is playing for most of the game because his opponent never scores much on him and he is so smooth around the basket. The Reuben Patterson comparison is good however to a person we felt that Pete was a better overall player and a more intelligent human being. I am pumped that the Rox finally have a Bearcat on their roster.............just don't let him slip away!!! Oscar Torres and Tierre Brown are not in the same league as this guy and something is very wrong if Jason Collier (who is an embarrassment to the team) beats out Pete for the final spot on the roster. Take care all and Go Rockets!!!
Hey Walt...(I don't like your screen name, by the way), Cincy puts out some tenacious players. I don't know if there's something in the water over there, but the University of Cincinnati program reminds me of the University of North Carolina program. Sure, with the likes of Jordan, Worthy, Cater and Jaminson UNC has the top class. But U. of Cincy puts out some tough, hard-nosed players.
mario elie hit a legendary shot against pheonix in game 7 of a playoff series... something tells me pete wont pull that off..
walt, your enthusiasm is infectious. Good post. Jason Collier has a better chance of making the team over Pete simply because he has a guaranteed contract. If Pete's anything close to what you described, I'll be thrilled to have him make the roster. It sounds like it's a long shot though, regardless. But the same was true of Tierre last year.
Based solely on what I have read rather than the play I have not seen (although I have seen TBrown play), IMO Mickeal and Tito Maddox will earn roster spots. TBrown will be the odd man out, although he could earn an IR spot.
Here are the answers to the questions in this post: Q - How does he compare to Walt? A - He doesn't suck Hey I do appreciate the comparison of UC to NC, however we are currently a much better team now than they are (but then again we never had Jordan, Worthy, Carter or several national championships). Our players play the Huggins style of defense and have high intensity. There are no slackers on any of Huggins teams. He is the equivalent of a drill seargent and makes Bobby Knight look timid. Huggins loved Pete Mickael because he took all of his crap and quietly performed above expectations each and every game. Mickael is best described as a notch below Kmartin and Van Exel but way above Cory Blount and Demarr Johnson. A winner throughout his whole career is best way to describe him. Take care and since Cincinnati doesn't have an NFL team I may start becoming a Texans fan as well!!!
Does he have the potential to turn out to be another Derek Fisher? The team needs some hard nosed warriors that doesn't crack under pressure.
Yeah, Derek Fisher without the 3-point shooting ability. But Mickeal is better defenively and is stronger, so what he lacks in offense, he more than makes it up with his defense.
The thing is, if a player doesn't fit in offensively, I don't think it really matters how good they are defensively to the Rocks staff. Otherwise, TMo wouldn't be on the bubble, we would've kept Shandon, and we wouldn't have selected a lot of draft picks we have over the past few years. I don't know anything about Mickeal and I'm not saying he doesn't have offensive skills. I'm just wondering whether he has any shot at making the team if he can't convince the staff that he can contribute offensively. Even Mario Elie the defensive specialist was still a key perimeter shooter for us. I want to hear more about what Mickeal can do for us on the offensive end, because otherwise I think he has no chance (as opposed to very little) of staying on the roster.
My only question about Mickael is whether or not he has the speed to guard a 2 guard? I wanted him to make the team last year as a backup to Rice/Morris but it didn't happen. I think he has a shot this year for 2 reasons: a) we dont have a guy to put on bigger 2s or 3s defensively (Kobe, VC, TMac, etc) and b)with the motion offense he wouldn't have to have an outside shot, he could just cut to the goal and finish strong. I hope he makes it, he and Tito could both backup multiple positions if need be (Tito at the 1 and 2 and Mickael at the 2 and 3)
As UT Baller said, on the bigger 2s like TMac, Vince, and Kobe, they're not as effective because they are smaller 2s. That was Mobley's biggest knock coming out of college-was he too small to be a good SG in the NBA. Some guys, like Shawn Respert, fail as 2s because of their height. Mobley has succeeded, but against the bigger/stronger 2s, he can still have problems. Tito Maddox is a big PG, but small for a SG. Torres has the physique, but I'd say that Mickeal is a better defender. If Mickeal has developed some offensive skills, he could have a decent shot at making the team. We'll see how that goes, though.
Torres is 6'6". The rest are 6'4" - 6'5". Boki can even play some 2. I think we have decent height at the position. Nobody is going to hang with Kobe, VC and TMac. All you do is try to slow them down and limit their drive to the basket. If they try to post we'll hire a 7'6" Chinaman and 6' 10" guy from Syracuse to slow them down...
The problem is that these guys are big enough to post up Cat or just look over him at the floor at the top of the key. I know that nobody can stop the Kobes and TMacs, but it would be nice to have somebody that can make them work a little bit harder than Cat can (in fact Cat's best D is unfortunately his O against these guys). Torres is big enough to work, especially since whoever this player turns out to be will only play limited minutes, but I like Mickael better for some reason. Pete seems like he would be the better defender of the two (Pete v. Torres).
Is pete mickeal the guy who played import here in the philippines ? if that is him im happy for that guy if he played in the rockets uniform. The guy is a warrior even though they lost the finals last conference jerald honneycutt and pete did great things for the team that they played here
Cincinnati stats SEASON G FGM FGA PCT FTM FTA PCT REB AST PTS AVG 1998-99 33 182 312 .583 124 177 .701 236 57 493 14.9 1999-00 32 143 284 .504 125 173 .723 203 58 432 13.5 TOTALS 65 325 596 .545 249 350 .711 439 115 925 14.2 Three-point field goals: 1998-99, 5-for-16 (.313); 1999-00, 21-for-60 (.350). Totals, 26-for-76 (.342) How does this translate into 20pts a night in the NBA?
