Len Elmore on Milt

Nine times out of 10, fans of a particular team are going to get bent out of shape if a national commentator tears into a player from that team.

Milton Jennings might represent the one time of that 10 in which fans not only don't get ticked about someone criticizing, but they agree with the criticism wholeheartedly.

Last night ESPN analyst Len Elmore took some time to give his take on Jennings during the broadcast of Duke's romp over the Tigers. Elmore's opinion is respected, or it should be, because he played the game and he clearly does extensive homework on the games he's covering. He's a really good analyst because he's really good at diagnosing why stuff happens very quickly, and he usually tells you something you didn't know about the game.

All of this is to say Elmore isn't prone to taking pot shots and offering shoot-from-the-hip criticism just because it sounds good. His stuff is well thought out and reasonable.

Elmore didn't pull any punches late in last night's game when he took time to reflect on Jennings' career. First he said Jennings and K.J. McDaniels were "killing Clemson" in that particular game because they weren't giving any help to Devin Booker.

Then, referring to Jennings specifically, he said "expectations were far too great."

In one respect, you have to disagree with this. Because he hasn't even met the most basic expectations of being a pretty good player who hustles and doesn't blow up at his coaches and who keeps his nose clean off the court. If he does all that, you look at his career and say it's not a total disappointment.

In another respect, Elmore is correct because the great expectations clearly played a role in the mindset Jennings possessed when he got to campus, and the mindset he kept through the years. He was high-maintenance from the start, and someone on Oliver Purnell's staff said the McDonald's All-America status was the worst thing to happen to the kid because it got in his head and distorted reality.

I'd think the current staff has pretty much the same take. You just never really know what you're going to get out of him.

Elmore: "We just have to accept the fact, and Clemson fans have done this, that he is who he is."

Anytime someone whips out the "he is who he is" or "we are who we are" or "we got who we got" -- paging Reggie Herring -- there's a 100-perent chance it's not a rave review.

After Jennings scored his first basket of the game at the 5:24 mark with the game long since out of Clemson's hands, Elmore offered this parting shot as he closed his critique of Jennings:

"The expectations are gone. And at the end of this year, so will Milton Jennings."

Ouch.

LW