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As I watched the Texas - Oklahona State game last night I found the commentary by Doug Gottleib regarding Texas' senior point guard, Dogus Balby very interesting.
Balby averages about 17 minutes and 4.4 points a game this year. This is an improvement on his numbers of last year of 21 and 3.8 ppg. He is averaging a whopping 2.5 assists a game and shoot 56% from the FT line.
What Balby brings to the Longhorn's, the number 8 team in D1 ball is actaully less than what Meech brings to the table for the number, what 40 team in D1 ball, but listening to Gottleib, you would swear he is thier MVP.
The talk is he has improved to such a point that when the game is tight or close or needs settling down this year, Balby is the guard that hits the floor. Little things like deflecting a pass to disrupt an offence, hustling a ball up the floor on a fast break or grabbing a loose ball.
Not things that will show up on a stat sheet but things that help a team win. And things that earn him player of the game against OSU with the pedestrian stats of 10 points, 4 boards and 4 assists.
Not sure where I am going with this but it was just nice to hear validation that not every point guard has to put up double figures every night to be considered valuable to thier team.
I wish that us fans of could see some of the worth of what we have. It may be a case of we wont know it until it is no longer there.
Like you're saying, the current numbers are not actually that out of whack with other schools but its a rich history of successful point guards here - big shoes to fill, high standards and all that.
I guess the point, as vague as I was trying make it, is being missed. If Goodson played for Texas, Kansas or Michigan State, or any BCS team for that matter, at the same time that fan forums and boards were tearing him apart for being an offensive liability, "experts" and coaches would be lauding him nation wide as one of the best guards in the country.
And as soon as I hear Stocton's name mentioned in the same sentance as "great defense", hell, I'll settle for "good defense", I will agree with you.
...perhaps, Rohn PM, he's a combination of what Stockton and Meech as a package can offer. Stockton is as of yet too green, and Meech does not have the ability to calm an offense and create. These boards have merely pointed out certain deficiencies...I think the current discussion is like comparing apples to oranges.
Could well be that David becomes the most revered Stockton to ever play at Gonzaga. Wouldn't that be cool!
However I think all I was trying to get across it that for every John Wall or Ty Lawson or Steph Currey there is a Dogus Balby, who I guarantee 50% of the peeps here had to Google to find out who he is, that are helping their teams become National contenders.
They are recognized by insiders and coaches but the fan find them liabilities because they dont put up numbers consistent with lottery pick guards that most seem to think are necessary to win.
And if Meech was playing at Texas, I cannot see a reason why they would not be saying the same things about him as his game is very similar and of like caliber.
Probably in retrospect, as the "bench Meech at all costs" crowd has been pretty quiet since the USF game, I should have let a sleeping dog lie.
Hopefully he will be effective against the Gaels at one end of the floor or the other and we can have a few more days of peace.