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#9005
Bison137
Bison137
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Quote:  “Interestingly, Murphy Burnatowski, who is leading Colgate in scoring and second in rebounding, is a transfer from Maine who probably transferred because he saw Ali eating into his playing time and could see what Ali was going to be in the future. Burnatowski didn’t put up big numbers at Maine, but sitting out a year and working on his game has helped, cause he is way outproducing what he was  producing as a Black Bear.”

 

I think the Burnatowski situation is a little more complicated than that.    He was one of the top freshmen in America East in 2009-10 and was a Maine starter.    However numerous reports said his attitude was not good – didn’t want to play defense, wanted more shots, and butted heads with Ted Woodward (Maine’s coach, who is a Bucknell grad).   During his sophomore year, his attitude deteriorated further and Woodward finally cut into his minutes, despite him being one of the team’s most talented players.    Near the end of the year, when Burnatowski decided to leave the team,  Fraser was not playing major minutes.   Even with Burnatowski gone, he still was not a starter and was only playing maybe 15 mpg down the stretch.

Granted, Fraser has developed into a good player – albeit for a bad team.  (Maine lost at home to Binghamton last night.)   But I think a player with the skills of Burnatowski – if he hadn’t had the attitude problems and the constant clashes with Woodward – would have continued to see major minutes at Maine.    There’s no reason that both he and Fraser couldn’t have each played 26-30 mpg last year.     I haven’t seen/heard enough about how his year is going at Colgate to judge his attitude this year, but I imagine he’s happy being the main option in their offense.   He also is a legitimate candidate for the Canadian National Team.