I don't think much of the Big East, as that conference was always the natural basketball supremacy conversation rival of the ACC, and being I was geographically tied by my broke ass dad's naive ways to root for UVA, I was also trained to believe ACC basketball was a penultimate form to not be talked down upon. Plus, Big East featured mongoloids like Patrick Ewing, whereas the ACC player was a more refined, upstanding individual, one who would assimilate and succeed within regular society after basketball was done with him. And I was doing all these stupid lists, I tried to keep it related to the state of Virginia, since I'm from Virginia, where ain't shit to do but lounge, but I read the Washington Post in for-real format usually at lunch every day, so they've crossed my wires into paying attention to Georgetown enough to consider them worthy of my time. But I was about halfway through doing this when I was like, "Man, I hate Georgetown," although I do like John Thompson III, since he's from Princeton, and even his dad is not so fucking annoying now that he's not a coach anymore. He seems like a far more decent dude to me, but perhaps when I was young my dad's racist vitriol polluted my outlook. Who the fuck knows? Nonetheless, here are the 14 Big East players with the most points in Big East tournaments going into today's first round tip-off (and oddly enough, only 12 of the Big East's 16 team actually qualify for their conference tournament, so these are only taken from the 12 participating teams, although I doubt anyone on the South Florida Bulls was in contention)...
#1: Eric Devendorf (Syracuse guard, 84 previous Big East tournament points) - Devendorf actually tore his ACL and has been gone most of the season, which has hurt Syracuse immensely. Good, because I can think of no NCAA basketball coach I'd like to see always be on the bubble and never get accepted than Jim Boeheim. He looks like he's part eagle and molests the children of his illegal housekeeper while she's busy cleaning his nappy ass house.
#2: Sam Young (Pittsburgh forward, 62 previous points) - Young is only a junior, but he's also first-team all-Big East, so he'll probably go pro. Pittsburgh seems to be, whenever they are good, one of those teams that seems about to become a major program, but then they're not really yet, so their coaches can get snapped up by more prestigious programs, like UCLA did with Ben Howland a few years back. Young will get off though.
#3: Roy Hibbert (Georgetown center, 59 previous points) - Hibbert came back for his senior year, even though a legit basketball-playing 7'2" dude would've been hot commodity in the NBA draft, although Hibbert does come off a little meek at time. Georgetown won the regular season title, and is a contender for a #1 seed in the NCAAs, probably depending on how they do this weekend. Hibbert always has a Ralph Sampson quality to me - sort of frail, although having three-quarters athleticism at his size makes him seem like a indominitable superstar in the making. I imagine he will be mildly successful in the NBA like Sampson too, because it's hard to imagine such a dove-like personality ripping at rebounds too hard against some of the more menacing monsters in the professional paint. Oh well, at least he's not Shawn Bradley.
#4: Jonathan Wallace (Georgetown guard, 54 previous points) - Wallace and Hibbert make for one helluva a one-two punch, except they had the same one-two last year with a knockout swingman in Jeff Green, so they aren't going to be much better. Still, with two senior all-stars like Wallace and Hibbert, the Hoyas should be able to sell plenty of merchandise to rap fans again real soon. My favorite was the suede baseball hats that had alternating grey and blue quarters.
#5: Terrence Williams (Louisville forward, 50 previous points) - Relentless junior forward for Louisville, but the whole Rick Pitino "I have 12 pretty awesome players let me run them at you crazy style" always seems to end up blowing up at some point before the end of the season. This Louisville team has been heavily hyped all season, but has just skirted around the top ten for the most part, and is getting hyped again as a POSTSEASON THREAT TO JUGGERNAUT MOTHERFUCKERS! I don't believe it because fuck a Rick Pitino.
#6: Levance Fields (Pittsburgh guard, 50 previous points) - Junior point guard who stirs the pot that is any chance the Panthers might have to make noise. A good point guard goes a long ways in tournaments, and the fact he has a solid cast of characters around him bodes well. But like I said above, it's fucking Pittsburgh still.
#7: Wesley Matthews (Marquette guard, 48 previous points) - It is impossible for me to write about Marquette without thinking of that kid from Hoop Dreams who grew up in Cabrini Greens, which is demolished now. But then I saw that one of Matthews' prominent teammates is named Lazar Hayward, which I have to assume was given to him as a mispronounced variation of "laser" as some economically-challenged segments of society are prone to do, and which would give him the best fucking name I've heard of all day.
#8: Ronald Ramon (Pittsburgh guard, 44 previous points) - I know I'm guilty of it as anyone, but all too often when it comes to young black tattooed hip hop in the background athletes, we highlight the negative. Which is why I want to point out Ramon is co-winner of the Sportsmanship Award this year from the Big East. That tiny insignificant piece of information I quickly found google news searching his name means he must be a pretty good kid. I bet his mom sits at every game, wearing his jersey. She raised him right, and with reverence for God, I bet.
#9: Dan Fitzgerald (Marquette forward, 43 previous points) - On a team with guys named Lazar Hayward and Ousmane Barro, a program listing of "Dan Fitzgerald" is pretty unremarkable. However, I think it is a Big East by-law that every team have one Irish kid, in keeping with their northeast demographics.
#10: Scottie Reynolds (Villanova guard, 40 previous points) - Reynolds is only sophomore, meaning he lit up the fucking Big East tournament last year. I know nothing about Villanova except it is in Philly and has a wacky name, which has always made me assume it's a small private school with these awesome basketball recruits from the same blocks all the young Beanie Siegels shoot up, and that it's a thugged out basketball team smack in the middle of an ultra-white college campus. Oh wait, that's a lot of division I colleges.
#11: DaJuan Summers (Georgetown forward, 37 previous points) - Summers is the 3-point threat to go along with Wallace and Hibbert's inside presence. Just like when they beat Louisville last week, if Summers hits his 3s, they will do well. If he comes up cold, there will probably be some of those towel-over-the-head, crying senior camera shots.
#12: Dominic James (Marquette guard, 33 previous points) - Marquette's most energizing presence as a pesky little ball-stealing 3-point-lofting potential dagger. Still, the name is Marquette. That might've won a national title in the '70s, but I don't think kids who grew up on the raw sounds of hip hop are gonna get fired up wearing a "MARQUETTE" on their uniforms.
#13: Mike Cook (Pittsburgh guard/forward, 33 previous points) - Senior who had a season-ending injury early in the year.
#14: Luke Harangody (Notre Dame forward, 31 previous points) - Only a sophomore, and already named Big East player of the year. Also, see last line of write-up for #9, which I think is tripled for Notre Dame since they refuse to join the Big East in football.
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