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Travis McKie

I think it's really unfair to attack Travis McKie..He is the ONLY college player to ever play 4 years for Jeff [Redacted]..Think about that for a second. Poor guy.
 
DeaconMao said:
I think it's really unfair to attack Travis McKie..He is the ONLY college player to ever play 4 years for Jeff [Redacted]..Think about that for a second. Poor guy.
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If the guy actually gave some effort I would have a lot more sympathy for him.
 
I mean I may be off base but what a slap in the face to start your senior and your coach tells the team your only Senior will not be our Captain. Nice job buzz and its sad that Travis just said what the F..K, who cares. Well he plays every play like that.
 
olddeac said:
I mean I may be off base but what a slap in the face to start your senior and your coach tells the team your only Senior will not be our Captain. Nice job buzz and its sad that Travis just said what the F..K, who cares. Well he plays every play like that.
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Being a captain is something you earn.
 
Dino Gaudino said:
If the guy actually gave some effort I would have a lot more sympathy for him.
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That's exactly where I stand too. Bz deserves blame for not connecting with Travis and wearing him down over 4 years and not getting anything out of him. But Travis also deserves some blame for not being prideful and giving max effort even when faced with a bad situation.
 
olddeac said:
I mean I may be off base but what a slap in the face to start your senior and your coach tells the team your only Senior will not be our Captain. Nice job buzz and its sad that Travis just said what the F..K, who cares. Well he plays every play like that.
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The insiders on here have suggested that this was neither a surprise nor a slap in the face from Travis's perspective.
 
We don't know what's going on. Maybe he was lied to or something else is going on.
 
Strickland33 said:
The insiders on here have suggested that this was neither a surprise nor a slap in the face from Travis's perspective.
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Lord Wellman told some donors at a preseason banquet that McKie exhibited no leadership qualities so that's why he wasn't named a captain.
 
I also saw on the 247 board that Deman made a post about stopping the road losing streak. He said that if it were up to him he'd start and play Rountree (not Travis) because for road games you need 5 players that will go to war with you.

Given what Deman is these days, you can probably connect the dots and assume that the people inside the program are over Travis' lack of effort too. What an unfortunate situation for Travis and the program.
 
VaDeac said:
What is Deman up to nowadays?
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Seems just like a strategic mouthpiece/shill for the program who has his own board to me

At least enough of one that he wouldn't suggest that Travis needed to benched if everyone inside the program was still positive on Travis
 
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Dino Gaudino said:
Lord Wellman told some donors at a preseason banquet that McKie exhibited no leadership qualities so that's why he wasn't named a captain.
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If this is true way to shit on the guy who could've (should've) split for greener pastures but was begged to stick it out and continue to play for his miserable hire.
 
FckVwls said:
Given what Deman is these days, you can probably connect the dots and assume that the people inside the program are over Travis' lack of effort too. What an unfortunate situation for Travis and the program.
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You don't have a key player, someone who has consistently put up decent numbers, just up and quit on the program for no reason.
 
BobStackFan4Life said:
If this is true way to shit on the guy who could've (should've) split for greener pastures but was begged to stick it out and continue to play for his miserable hire.
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You have that a lot amongst a certain crowd. Travis has sacrificed an awful lot to make sure that Buzz's cupboard was never bare. But, hey - fuck him.
 
Travis was put in a difficult situation when Gaudio was fired and [Redacted] was hired. A real contrast in styles and pedigrees, and not what Travis was expecting when he accepted the scholarship to Wake.

Travis, I believe really tried to make it work, and then decided to transfer after two years, but was convinced to be a good soldier, and for the good of the program, come back for his junior year. Again, I believe Travis tried hard again in his third year, but it was a very difficult year for him. Then entering his fourth year as our only senior, [Redacted] decided to have no captains on the team this year. This unprecedented move was a psychological and humiliaing blow to Travis and the straw that probably broke his remaining enthusiasm.
It is easy to criticize McKie, but if any of us had walked in his shoes, I wonder how much better we would have handled things.
 
Strickland33 said:
You have that a lot amongst a certain crowd. Travis has sacrificed an awful lot to make sure that Buzz's cupboard was never bare. But, hey - fuck him.
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He would've been forced to sit out a year so I doubt he wanted that despite the perpetual losing. He was really solid his first three years, but I can't figure out what his deal is this season.
 
Dino Gaudino said:
He would've been forced to sit out a year so I doubt he wanted that despite the perpetual losing. He was really solid his first three years, but I can't figure out what his deal is this season.
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Unless you're in Travis's head (or are Travis himself), then I wouldn't recommend speculating on what he wanted or didn't want. He was persuaded to return and he did. That's what is known.

Also - if you think that he isn't very good this year, then he wasn't very good last year, either. The writing was on the wall for this kind of burnout, if that's what we are going to call it at this point.
 
Just to add some numbers to the speculation, Travis is seeing a paltry 12.3% of Wake's possessions right now (50% less than in his sophomore season), but is posting one of his more efficient seasons (1.12 points/poss). He's being used exclusively as an outside shooter, however, and for the last two seasons has been taking over 1/5 of his attempts from beyond the arc.

If you think a player does that on his own (at the, frankly, pitiful level in which he's currently performing), then you don't understand how game-planning and coaching works. Travis is likely doing what he is told to do, albeit with less enthusiasm than before and playing a position that he, frankly, lacks the skill set to play at a dominant or higher-performing level.

He should be benched, but it would take a coach with some integrity to do so. It's kind of hard to bench the guy who bailed you out three years running by coming back and by playing through so much awful, hopeless basketball. I don't envy [Redacted] and I especially don't envy Travis in this situation.

At the end of the day, Buzz is making a cool $1+ million dollars a year; Travis will be lucky if he can land a low-paying gig in Legadue at this point.
 
Dino Gaudino said:
He would've been forced to sit out a year so I doubt he wanted that despite the perpetual losing. He was really solid his first three years, but I can't figure out what his deal is this season.
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Strickland33 said:
Unless you're in Travis's head (or are Travis himself), then I wouldn't recommend speculating on what he wanted or didn't want. He was persuaded to return and he did. That's what is known.

Also - if you think that he isn't very good this year, then he wasn't very good last year, either. The writing was on the wall for this kind of burnout, if that's what we are going to call it at this point.
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He's shooting a career-low from the field and beyond the arc. He's been serviceable defensively this year so I'll give him that. But when one guy plays half as hard as the other four guys on the court, it doesn't help the team too much. This actually is speculation, but some guys simply don't love the game. Maybe Travis is one of those players.
 
Dino Gaudino said:
He's shooting a career-low from the field and beyond the arc. He's been serviceable defensively this year so I'll give him that. But when one guy plays half as hard as the other four guys on the court, it doesn't help the team too much.
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He's the best defensive SF that we have on this team. That's a fact.

He may be shooting a career low from beyond the arc (29.6%), but he's still shooting 50+% from inside of the arc, right around his career average. The difference is that he's only attempting 5.7 2FGA per 40 minutes pace adjusted. That's a huge difference, even though he's getting to the line at the same as he did during his freshman year and is having easily the least turnover prone and best passing season of his career by a large margin.

The difference between the two of us, it seems, is that the shift in Travis's play is what doesn't pass the smell test for me. He's not having a very good season, but it's also a completely different kind of season from a player who was relatively consistent for two straight years. There has to be more behind this story than "fuck Travis." I'm sorry - I believe in these guys more than that.
 
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