The lead item goes out to the devotees in the Roderick Wilmont Fan Club in Bloomington, Indiana. Hot Rod (surely, some out there call him "The 'Mont") did a bang-up job for IU's H-Men last night when No. 2-ranked Wuss-consin invaded B-Town.
"Wil" -- our Crispix MVP from last Saturday (1/27) -- rocked the world of the Badgered by going 3 of 9 from the floor (2 of 6 on 3-balls), 0 of 2 from the foul line and grabbing a team-leading six rebounds while committing four turnovers.
Most important, though, Rod-Mont had ZERO assists in 33 minutes of game action.
THAT is our favorite stat when we break down the magic that is Rod-Mont. In eight Big Ten games, his assist total stands at four while he has 19 helpers in 21 games overall. Entering this season, Rod-Mont had 35 assists in 89 games.
All tallied up, that's an astonishing 54 assists in 110 Hoosier games -- an average of .490909 assts./gm.
People don't realize how difficult a feat that is.
Merely "by accident," Rod-Mont could be averaging 1.74436 assts./gm. -- y'know, a long pass to somebody on a 3-on-0 breakaway ... a bounce pass to a teammate in the low post wherein the defender falls down and the receiver of said pass is two feet from the basket ... a 3-point attempt which is an airball and the official scorer rules as a pass when said airball is grabbed and jammed into the basket ...
Rod-Mont won't have any of that.
No cheapies.
He'll earn his .490909 the old-fashioned way.
Our other favourite blue-collar hero wears Carolina Blue -- that being guard Wes Miller. In the three minutes we watched of the UNC-Miami instant classic (a 105-64 final), we learned that Wes Miller gave away his scholarship because college tuition, apparently, is affordable -- thereby allowing Roy Williams to spend Wes' full-ride on someone else.
How noble.
Then, Wes shot an airball.
Practically on cue.
As we pointed out in the Crispix MVP Report from a few days ago, Wil n' Wes are a delight to watch.
And, if the 3-point stripe was removed from the floor, those two players, as McMurphy said 30 years ago, "wouldn't know whether to shit or wind their wristwatch."
Unless they're wearing one of those fancy-schmancy kinetic watches which never needs a battery.
Anyway, it appears as though the Pall Mall Lights MVP is destined for the player whose got the goods -- that being Stanford's Anthony Goods, of course.
This is not a "won-by-default" honor just because "the first OT" and "the second OT" of the Zags @ Card game was on TV as some of us were trying to nod off to sleep sometime between 1:00 and 1:30.
Then again, how could anyone sleep when the electric Anthony Goods was putting on a light show inside Maples Pavilion?
Sidebar: For those of us who once resided three miles from Maples and who used to play intramural b-ball illegally inside Maples, seeing a TV game on FOX is like a homecoming -- particularly when the on-court microphone picks up the sound of what happens when ball-meets-rim. No one has provided anything conclusive, evidence-wise, as to what the exact sound is.
It's either: A) Somebody dropping his/her car keys or B) Somebody shaking a tamborine.
Good ol' Maples.
And, good ol' Goods. That's to mean that when Anthony Goods gets hot, the rock never touches the rim.
Goods sent the game to a second OT when he nailed a straightaway 25-footer in the waning seconds of the first OT.
Then, in the second OT, Goods tossed up five 3-balls -- all five from out of his ass -- and three of 'em went in.
If someone from Gonzaga had told Anthony Goods that the midcourt line was a 4-point stripe, Anthony Goods -- a Stanford "student" -- woulda been firing away from halfcourt.
That day is coming ... the advent of the 4-point stripe.
Stanford is a tough team to figure -- mainly because of the enigma that is Goods and the youth of the freshman, 7-foot twin towers from Fresno, Brook and Robin Lopez. Brook is the twin with the short hair -- and he had 12 blocked shots (zounds!) last week vs. USC.
It stands to reason that the Lopez twins will surpass the career accomplishments of Jason and Jarron Collins from roughly 10 years ago on The Farm.
However, that won't stop Goods from being any less enigmatically erratic.
30 pts. in the season opener vs. Siena (7 of 11 on 3-balls) ... 1 of 5 on 3-balls w/ 7 pts. in a 34-point loss to Air Force in mid-Nov. ... 3 of 17 on 3-balls during the Thurs./Sat. weekend at ASU and 'Zona in late Dec. ... 30 pts. vs. Wazzu (5 of 8 on 3-balls) on Jan. 13, but, five days later, he finished 1 of 8 on 3-balls and had 7 pts. vs. Oregon.
Stanford's L to the 'Zags was sloppy, particularly in light of last Sunday's win over No. 2 UCLA. So, the Cardinal is jussssst mediocre enough to slug it out with another team of equal mediocrity for the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds in the tourney.
That looks as though it's right up the alley of the O'Reilly Auto Parts team in Lubbock, Texas. Those Red Raiders last night, jeez .. completely ineffective against UT' frosh Kevin Durrant, who finished with 37 points and 23 boards.
The time is now for Lubbock's "head coach designate" (Pat Knight) to get his (stuff) together, in terms of perfecting the box out. Sure, sometimes 37 points is going to be a quasi-beatdown, but 23 boards?
Football season ... please never end ...
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