due to his antics and association with Dragon Promotions and shenanigans with the APB and whatnot.
But as a member of a team in a event like the Mosconi Cup? He is worth his weight in gold. It is not only the game he comes out and plays in each match, but how he deals with his team mates and manages to get them out of ruts. Shawn was freaking TERRIFIED in the doubles match he had with Archer, he had blown alot of shots, shown that he was going to as Earl would say "&%$# all over himself" all tournament long, and instead of allowing that to just happen Archer goes into "coach" mode and basically carried Shawn through the match and did everything in his power to get Shawn out of his rut. He knew exactly what to say, exactly how to say it, and got the best performance he possibly could have from a guy who probably had a heart rate in the 150 range, was sweating bullets, and whose face was the color of a cherry.
While I am not a fan of Archer I will say that as a team mate you can find few better then him and there is for sure noone on team America even close to as important in the Mosconi Cup. Sure SVB is a great player, but he is a singles player and will generally worry only about "his" game and if his team mate is showing weakness he will generally stop at "nice try" and the team will go down swinging. Archer sees the weakness and jumps all over it and does what he needs to do to get that player some confidence at all costs, he took everything in that match on his shoulders and at the same time gave Shawn pretty much all of the credit for the success of every good turn in that match and it worked to get Shawn finally making some shots and won them a match. If Shawn has ANY other team mate in that match they lose for sure.
I was hugely impressed. Still not sure I like the guy due to alot of the crap, but I respect the hell out of the way he handled himself today at the Mosconi Cup and if the American's have any chance at all at winning this I expect it is going to come down alot to Archer getting everyone under control and getting them shooting like they all can.
But as a member of a team in a event like the Mosconi Cup? He is worth his weight in gold. It is not only the game he comes out and plays in each match, but how he deals with his team mates and manages to get them out of ruts. Shawn was freaking TERRIFIED in the doubles match he had with Archer, he had blown alot of shots, shown that he was going to as Earl would say "&%$# all over himself" all tournament long, and instead of allowing that to just happen Archer goes into "coach" mode and basically carried Shawn through the match and did everything in his power to get Shawn out of his rut. He knew exactly what to say, exactly how to say it, and got the best performance he possibly could have from a guy who probably had a heart rate in the 150 range, was sweating bullets, and whose face was the color of a cherry.
While I am not a fan of Archer I will say that as a team mate you can find few better then him and there is for sure noone on team America even close to as important in the Mosconi Cup. Sure SVB is a great player, but he is a singles player and will generally worry only about "his" game and if his team mate is showing weakness he will generally stop at "nice try" and the team will go down swinging. Archer sees the weakness and jumps all over it and does what he needs to do to get that player some confidence at all costs, he took everything in that match on his shoulders and at the same time gave Shawn pretty much all of the credit for the success of every good turn in that match and it worked to get Shawn finally making some shots and won them a match. If Shawn has ANY other team mate in that match they lose for sure.
I was hugely impressed. Still not sure I like the guy due to alot of the crap, but I respect the hell out of the way he handled himself today at the Mosconi Cup and if the American's have any chance at all at winning this I expect it is going to come down alot to Archer getting everyone under control and getting them shooting like they all can.