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11:00am ET Update: Wayns has clarified that his initial remarks were about North Carolina and Nassir Little, not Villanova Jahvon Quinerly.
And just to clear it up i wasn’t talking about Nova if you wanna be tech i was watching N Carolina and seen they had the Nasir little kid coming off the bench who’s possibly a top 3 pick i didn’t even watch nova play but again it’s Nova so all you fans know it all lol and assume
— Maalik Wayns (@MaalikWayns2) November 8, 2018
Original Post:
Former Villanova Wildcats guard Maalik Wayns has some thoughts McDonald’s All-American freshmen - we assume he’s referencing Javhon Quinerly - sending a pair of tweets into the Wild Wild West that is the internet.
Idk or really even cares who agrees with me or not but i think if your a McDonald’s all American in high school you should start in college from Day 1 atleast from the beg if your not playing up to par then maybe something diff but just my thoughts!!
— Maalik Wayns (@MaalikWayns2) November 7, 2018
Basketball is A Confidence sport if a kid is a Mickey D and you bring them in and put them on the bench or play them in spots your taking their confidence and could kill it 4ever this isn’t Pro sports where u sacrifice for a role on a team but making a lot of money to do so!!
— Maalik Wayns (@MaalikWayns2) November 7, 2018
10:00am ET update: Wayns has deleted the tweets.
First of all Maalik is entitled to his opinion to to express it like the rest of us. And as a former 5-star point guard who was named McDonald’s All-American he is obviously qualified from experience on this topic.
I happen to both agree and disagree with him. Yes, not starting a player with a good pedigree can be a confidence shaker. And I think we can all agree that Quinerly didn’t ooze confidence in his first competitive action for ‘Nova. Giving him more minutes is going to be the way to get that confidence and swagger back as well. Sitting him on the bench for extended stretches after early mistakes can be detrimental. No argument there.
(extremely Steven A. Smith voice)
HOWEVA, the argument that being named a McDonald’s All-American should guarantee you a starting job in college is obviously extremely flawed. It ignores the obvious question: who else is on the roster? It also ignores the fact that high school basketball and college basketball are different levels of competition. Accolades and roles in one don’t translate to the other - something Wayns even acknowledges when saying college isn’t like the professional leagues.
It isn’t like Jahvon Quinerly showed up for yesterday’s game with no Summer or Fall practices to show that he deserved to start. Wright has been pretty clear that starters don’t matter to him, and minutes played do. So for argument’s sake, Quinerly also played more minutes than Jermaine Samuels and Dylan Painter, two players who started over him.
None of us know what happened in practice or what will happen going forward. And that’s kind of the point. We’re one game into the season. Everyone expects Quinerly to only get better and play a big role on the team. And yes, possibly (eventually?) be a starter. So maybe I’m fueling the overreaction by even writing about this.
Maybe more interesting is where Wayns went in an exchange with Sterling Gibbs on the topic:
I tried to tell JQ. It didn’t seem to add up like they claimed to tell him
— Sterling Gibbs (@SterlingGibbs4) November 8, 2018
Sterling Gibbs, active negative recruiter. Can’t say I’m surprised!
So yeah, Wayns has an axe to grind with Jay Wright and Villanova. Wayns’ Villanova teams pale in comparison to the recent success of the program, and his career likely hasn’t gone the way he thought it was going to for a guy with a big pedigree out of high school. So that’s probably where all this is coming from.