I have no inside information. Have never been to a practice. Have seen 3 games in person and the rest on TV. I have seen all or at least most of Musses PCs. Now you know this is just my ideas and may be wrong. I often am so that is nothing new.
Pinion was a very nice, even great player coming in, but was not as highly regarded as some of his new teammates (almost no one was). I imagine he has never been regarded as anything but the best on his teams. It seems he got to the UofA and did not expect to be given anything. He just put his head down and went to work on his game following as good coaching as there is. He could shoot, but his defense was not what it needed to be to get a lot of playing time in SEC. He worked on it. His defense started to improve and Muss noticed (Muss misses nothing). Last night, his team needed his skill set. He came in and did his thing on offense. On defense he did his job (according to no less than Muss). His team would have lost without him. He played I think 29 minutes.
This just shows what happens in this program when players come in and just go to work doing what the staff says. He is a freshman. This is a big deal and I am so proud of him. Not saying he was not a valued recruit, but who thought that half way through this first season with these players, he would become a valued contributor?
I am sure some nights, his skill set will not fit what is needed. It will on others as we saw. That is how it should work on a complete team. Thank you Mr. Pinion.
Oh yes, CEM knew just what piece of the puzzle to play. That is one of the reasons he wins so much (see Johnson against SDS). He is so good!