For those of you consumed entirely with all-things-Big-10, Cubs’ Spring Training and 24, you may have missed out on two irritating college hoop debates that have received an undeserved amount of national attention. Both none too surprisingly involve Duke. And if that doesn’t interest you I’ve also got a half-assed Survivor recap (with pics).
It’s becoming increasingly clear that no team besides Illinois wants a #1 seed in this year’s tournament. Which means there are at least three #2 seeds that will slide in to Cougar’s spot. “Cougar was #1, you guys were #2. Cougar lost it, turned in his wings.” Rather than focus his team’s attention on securing one of those three remaining #1’s—-by like, I don’t know, getting his team up to take care of a crappy Washington State squad in regulation, Lute Olson has decided his time is better spent blaspheming J.J. Redick.
Lute’s Depends apparently got bunched when he ran out of prune juice and heard Dickie V. proclaim J.J. as “the greatest shooter in college basketball” one too many times. Rather than consider the fact that Vitale’s hyperbolic schtick relies less on statistics and more on what’s directly in front of his one good eye, or that it be logically possible that both Salim and J.J. are “great” shooters enjoying “great” seasons — Lute had his Sports Information Director send out a press release. In it he compared Salim’s shooting per centages to both Redick, and Syracuse’s Gerry McNamara. For the benefit of this discussion, I’ve updated the numbers and added some names to the mix.
Stoudamire (AZ): 52% Field Goal, 54% 3-Pt (89/162), 92% Free Throw — 30 minutes per game
Redick (Duke): 41% Field Goal, 42% 3-Pt (92/219), 93% Free Throw — 35 minutes per game
McNamara (Syr): 37% Field Goal, 33% 3-Pt (90-266), 85% Free Throw — 35 minutes per game
Lucas (OSU): 45% Field Goal, 42% 3-Pt (73/172), 92% Free Throw — 35 minutes per game
Diener (Marq): 42% Field Goal, 40% 3-Pt (68-168), 83% Free Throw — 34 minutes per game
Novak (Marq): 46% Field Goal, 46% 3-Pt (79-171), 88% Free Throw — 29 minutes per game
Stoudamire has taken less 3’s, significantly less than Gerry and J.J. — and also plays less minutes per game. He also plays in a conference not exactly defined by in-your-jock-perimeter-defense. It would stand to reason that Salim would enjoy more open shots, and let’s face it — against less quality players and opponents. It won’t always be that way, but the Pac-10 is clearly inferior top to bottom currently than any of these other conferences.
Taking off my blue-tinted glasses for a moment, I could care less if there is a definitive “greatest” or if J.J. is excluded from such a conversation entirely. But, I would recruit and sign the other 5 players of the above list — and a number of others, before I’d take Stoudamire. None of those other players wear a headband, or have had to be suspended for conduct detrimental to the team not once but twice, and not too coincidentally they all have Final Four appearances on their resume. Lute oughta just let Salim keep shooting, and count the Fox Sports television contract money largely responsible for the alleged “E(SPN)ast Coast Bias” he’s been fighting all these years.
And Oregon’s Ernie Kent, who thought he’d be fielding Malik Hairston one-and-done questions about this time, who had the audacity last week to say, “Salim is the best shooter in the country. That kid at Duke is not,” might want to wait until he, I don’t know actually faces Duke before weighing in with an informed decision. Of course that would require securing an at-large bid and winning a first-round game. Details. Nice name by the way, where’s Bert???
The second, even more non-sensical (if possible) debate, stemmed from Coach K’s decision to pit 6 foot-nothing, 190-nothing Patrick Davidson against Wake Forest’s All-American Chris Paul. Davidson, a legitimate walk-on as opposed to Lee Melchioni, allegedly earned the start from the previous two days’ practice immediately following the Virginia Tech upset. Wake coach Skip Prosser essentially called the decision both “irritating” and “curious” which set a whiny tone with his players as well, who all assumed Davidson’s sole reason for being on the floor was to demonstrate his best Laimbeer/Oakley/Mahorn/Rodman/Stockton (yeah, I said Stockton) impression for 3 minutes. I mean it couldn’t have anything to do with lighting a fire under Daniel Ewing, a guy who can play a little defense himself and a bit more physically imposing than Davidson. Nope, Duke-haters have likened this maneuver as a malicious attempt to due bodily harm equal to John Chaney admittedly sending in a 6’8, 250 pounder to “send a message” resulting in his “goon” (again, admittedly) fouling out, and a broken arm for the opposition.
Any of the nation’s other premiere lead guards, not limited to Nate Robinson, Raymond Felton, and Dee Brown, would have relished an opportunity to abuse the-Goon-formerly-known-as-Patrick for 3+ minutes. Any man-handling to be done would have been carried about by the All-American candidate, not the clean-cut, one-time Lehigh recruit. And the players, nor their coaches, would not still be publicly whining about the unfair ‘ploy’ days later. Defensively, Wake had the luxury of guarding 5-on-4 which they still struggled to do and should tell you everything you need to know about their likelihood of finding themselves in St. Louis in April. (For a team that might with a capital M, you’ll want to catch the most important game of the weekend when Oklahoma State travels to Kansas, both teams coming off a loss — KU coming off 3. Snicker, snicker).
I am capable of listening, and even occasionally agreeing with, criticism of Coach K and Duke. He does ride the officials more than most, Mike Jarvis, Jr. is on the payroll, but give me a break. Besides, now that Sean Dockery is out with a sprained MDL, we might just be seeing more of Patrick Davidson. When asked what his predictions were for a possible rematch with Wake in the ACC Tournament, he ominously declared, “Pain.” He then invited Paul’s girlfriend over to his apartment for a night with a real man.
Boss isn’t looking over your shoulder or anything right?
Has it been confirmed I have a voice? Yeah, my pecs are bigger than some girls’ jugs, but I couldn’t bring myself to wear my man-siere (or “bro”) to the island.
All I know is: What’s up with the hairy pits on the tatoo broad. Them’s nas-TAY!
The ACC isn’t exactly known for its defense either there Jake. That ugly Duke/Georgia Tech game the other night notwithstanding of course. The Pac-10, however, the past couple years is worse defensively than any other major conference. I don’t know what is going on out there. Howland at UCLA may change that a little bit once he gets more of his players in there.
For comparision, look at Indiana. They are horrible offensively (Essentially it’s “Give the ball to Bracey and see what he can do” most of the time), but they play hard defense and mix it up and can frustrate teams on the defensive end. Therefore, while they still aren’t that good, they have played well in the Big 10, and have an outside (with a capital O) chance at an NCAA bid.
As for Lute, I just think he was tired of all the Redick talk and figured he would speak up for his player. Nothing wrong with it, other than the fact it makes him look like he’s whining. Probably got that attribute from the time he spent coaching at Iowa.
On Wake Forest, it looked like both of us were wrong for picking them as National Champs. I thought Wake could improve their defense just enough so they could stop somebody when their shots weren’t falling. It doesn’t look like that has happened. They may make the Sweet 16 on pure talent alone but after that it looks dicey as of now.
Stephenie is for me.
And that picture of Paris actually makes it look like she had jugs.
Andy — the hacked pics from her cell phone are indisputible evidence that she HAS jugs —- and they’re quite spectacular.
I’m an ex-Marine, maggot. Think I don’t know how to swim? I was swimming laps around the Japs before you were born. Which is probably why I swim slowly…I’m old.
Nah, Paris ain’t got Juggs, but that pic of her is probably the best ever I’ve seen…way better than the s**t they had in Playboy.
Lets keep in mind the first rule of juggs: proportion, proportion, proportion. If the Ds are along for the ride on a deuce, deuce and a half, they are trumped by the Bs on a waif. This is not to discount other important factors but it’s good solid common ground.
and here i show up at ddesipio hoping for a virtual waiting room of hell rant. i love the hoops, but this is ticket day. where’s my rant?
They sated me with tickets. What can I say?
andy, i normally work from home sats. i went into the office specifically to get several machines going. i was shut out. my wife at home scored 4 in the bleachers to the 8/12 game v. cards (i did not know that we could get 6). since being home i have 6 in the stands against mil (last thurs left in jun) and another 6 v houston in sep.
the moral of the story is stay home…… (my thought is that they are treating the proxy of large companies as one).
on an aside, i like bleachers ticks only better than directly behind home plate. if you sit center left and little up, you can see the pitching well. once, i fell into some company ticks 3 rows directly behind the plate. the scouts were one row behind me and the radar gun was next to me. that’s nice watching. it was cool listening to the scouts, and it was priceless heckling A-Rod (Texas days).
did you get boston?
Regarding Salim Stoudamire vs. J.J. Redick: It’s okay. I know that no good basketball is played West of about Illinois. I know that Duke is the supreme gods of basketball. ESPN and Dicky Nausea, er, Dick Vitale, say so, therefore, it must be true. In fact, Duke’s undefeated, right? They certainly haven’t lost to Virginia Tech or someone like that, right? Hey, check Stoudamire’s and Redick’s field goal percentages again. They’re not even close! Two final thoughts: (1) J.J. Redick is such a great guy that everyone who’s not a Duke fan hates him, and (2) regarding Washington State: Yes, I watched the game and it was the ugliest of ugly wins, but that’s not basketball, that’s Dick Bennett’s pathetic Snoozeball, which ought to be banned from the planet.
AZ, I always welcome your insightful comments.
I did make mention of the Virginia Tech loss and if you’ve been listening to Vitale this year, you know he’s much more enamored with Carolina than this little Duke team that could.
The posted shooting per centages speak for themselves to a degree. But I also think factoring in the extended minutes for every other player listed — and the unquantifiable number of garbage minutes Salim enjoys in the Pac-10.
The point I was trying to make is that it’s a trivial debate at best considering both players are Wooden Award nominees leading their teams towards conference title contentions. I don’t expect a coach of Olson’s stature to resort to singling out players from other conferences to justify his side of a purely subjective conversation. Same goes for Ernie Kent. Most coaches don’t have the time to scout other teams from other conferences, or worry about any Dickie V. slights. Obviously Oregon and Arizona’s priorities are somewhat different.
Vitale would have plenty to say about players like Salim, Hassan Adams, Nate Robinson, etc. if he had more opportunities to do their games. But the Pac-10 lies in the Fox Sports bed, and because Fox Sports does an inferior job promoting their product and landing parallel, recognizable on-air talent —- Lute and the Pac-10 are fighting a losing battle with regards to appreciation, promotion and recognition of conferences such as the Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Conference USA, SEC, and of course the almighty ACC.
Why anyone besides an inbred Maryland fan would choose to hate the Messiah, errr J.J. Redick is really deserving of its own post. Unlike Salim, I doubt you’ll see him accused or suspended of conduct detrimental to his team — or visibly pouting and scowling on the court when shots aren’t falling or calls aren’t going his way. Same with Diener, McNamara, Lucas — which is why I’d rather have them and their sub-500 per centages on my team. I’d suggest Salim concentrate on leading his team, then maybe leading his team to a Final Four, then writing some original poetry and I may reconsider my opinion.
AZ, for real you are the man. Even though we disagree…
Now how about that Muhsin coup??? That’ll put a little umph in Rex’s rehab…
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