PUEBLO, Colo. (July 1, 2010) - A year after pushing eventual World Champion Kody Lostroh to the last day at the World Finals, J.B. Mauney is clearly struggling in 2010.
He’s tied with McKennon Wimberly for the fewest number of qualified rides (28) among the Top 10 riders in the world standings, and he has the second-lowest riding percentage (50-percent) among the group.
Whether or not injuries have been a factor – he says they have not – Mauney, who is ranked seventh, hasn’t won a Built Ford Tough Series event since January, and he has 12 fewer qualified rides than the current world leader, Renato Nunes.
The 23-year-old from North Carolina is in his fifth season, which is the same point in the careers of both Lostroh (2009) and Guilherme Marchi (2008) when they won their first gold buckles. After back-to-back second-place finishes, there were those who predicted 2010 would be the year that Mauney would win his first championship.
But as one expert pointed out, “J.B. has to find out how to win.”
Riding percentage: 50 (2010), 57.5 (career); Influential ride from 2010: New York, Round 4, Code Blue, 76.25 points; Most telling statistic of 2010: In seven-out-of-19 events, he’s gone 0-for-the-weekend.
In the fourth of a 10-part series, a panel of experts – Cody Lambert, Ty Murray, Justin McBride and Justin McKee – weigh in on the current Top 10 riders in the world, and what it will take for any one of them to win the 2010 PBR World Championship.
What the experts are saying:
Ty Murray: “(This year is) surprising on two fronts. At the end of last year, I would have never bet that J.B. Mauney would be in seventh place. But when you look at how he’s ridden this year, I would have bet there’s no way he’d be all the way up to seventh place… Every athlete isn’t always going to be able to hit it out of the park every time he steps up to the plate. We’re not celebrating that he’s in the Top 10. We’re wondering why he’s seventh.”
Cody Lambert: “He’s been hurt and he’s limped out of the arena damn near everywhere we’ve been. He’s such a tough kid that he’s ridden through it, but at some point, that catches up with you, so the lung injury – in that capacity – could be the thing that saves his season. It forces him to stay home and take better care of himself. If he really wants to win a championship, and he’s thinking about it, it gives him an opportunity to come back with a focus and a mission, and a separate focus then what he’s had in the past.”
Justin McKee: “I picked him to win it this year, but I’m losing faith pretty fast. But it’s understandable with everything he’s gone through. To come back after two injuries, one being serious – and this theory is based on what I’ve seen over the years – but it could take a year to recover even after he comes back. It takes them six months, a year, and a lot of them never fully come back. I rarely have seen a guy come back from those types of injuries (partially collapsed lung), lay out that long and regain form with the time that we have left to catch everybody. It just doesn’t happen.”
Justin McBride: “J.B. might have a little bit of an edge on some of the other guys who are in contention this year because he’s been there before, but obviously he’s got to get healthy… He gets in these streaks where he can’t ride anything, and it’s happening every year where he goes on a run and he’s horrible. Then he bounces back and rides really good. I don’t know why or what’s causing it, but he’s definitely going to have to eliminate doing that… He shows signs, but at the end of the day, is he great? Not by any stretch – not yet. He has a chance to be. He’s done some really great things and you see glimpses… but then you see him buck off 10 bulls in a row. You can’t do that.”
Chance of winning title in 2010:
McKee: “Based on history, no. I have to go with what I’ve seen from guys in the past and, no, I can’t give him the benefit of the doubt. I mean, it’s possible that this guy is the exception and not the rule.”
Lambert: “Things are going to have to go his way, but he is so explosive that it’s not out of the question that J.B., being healthy, couldn’t win four out of the last 10 events.”
McBride: “J.B. has to find out how to win, and it’s not just the riding part. There’s something there that you have to figure out for yourself—how to win each and every time. Once you have that, it’s like playing with a bunch of kids then.”
Murray: “He’s a hard guy to give up on… I don’t count him out. He’s shown too much. He’s the last one you want to count out… If he’s healthy and gets back to form, then everybody better look out.” NEWS and NOTES
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