Schmoldt says:
Well, when Dave initiated this argument, he never stipulated which tournament we were talking about. No, I'm not going to go to the N.I.T., though Gary Williams would be a decent candidate after bowing out to Manhattan in the first round of the three-letter tournament.
Who am I going with, however, is Tiffany Jones, who led 16th-seed Southern in their battle against top-seeded Duke. She led the Jaguars in basically every statistical category. She had more than 25 percent of the team's points, pulled down six rebounds, dished out three assists and snagged two steals. Not to mention, she did this in 34 minutes of action, by far the most on the team despite coming off the bench.
In fact, she had just as many bench points as the Blue Devils' top performer not in the starting lineup.
She was also probably the only positive to come out of the game, one which Duke won 96-27. I think it's pretty commendable that she continued to put forth a great effort and lead her team, despite being pummeled worse than Dave McGrath in most point/counterpoint arguments.
I mean, lets be honest here, Monique Curry and Lindsey Harding combined for more points. Could they have won two-on-five? I'm not sure it's out of the realm of possibility. And I don't care about the difference in leagues, but there were at least three instances where I scored more than 27 points by myself during my senior year of CYO ball in high school.
I'm getting off topic here, because the real hero here is Jones. She shot 33 percent from the floor, shooting nearly two times better than the overall team average. Nevermind the fact that she had a 1-to-2 assist to turnover ratio, Jones was the Most Awesome Player of the opening weekend.
McGrath says:
Awesome is very much a subjective term. I mean, one man's awesome is another man's bologna.
Terrell Owens thinks money is awesome, but M.C. Hammer apparently hates the stuff (seeing as he rid himself of bundles of it faster than Rick Majerus can make a hoagie disappear).
But no matter who you are, if you were in Philadelphia for the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament this past week, you could only draw one conclusion as to who was the Most Awesome Player of the first two rounds: John Bunch of Monmouth.
In case you missed him, which is like missing the Sears Tower while in downtown Chicago, Bunch is a 7-2, 325 pound movie theatre attendant turned center for the Northeast Conference champions, with reflexes and a 40-yard dash slower than the Statue of Liberty.
Bunch was literally found in a movie theatre by the wife of Monmouth's head coach and days later he was redefining the word awesome all throughout the Northeast.
Do you know how much effort it takes to NOT be dominant when you are 7-2 and 325 pounds? It would be like trying to complete a Rubiks cube with no hands. Despite the difficulty level, Bunch pulled it off, and not only wasn't dominant, he was an encumbrance for the Hawks, playing 21 minutes and scoring only two points despite playing against a team using FOUR guards.
Even better, when Bunch picked up his pair of points he did it with an emphatic dunk complete with a scream, proving he had all but forgotten about the two six footers he air balled earlier.
He made a boring game the most entertaining of the day. That is why he is my 2006 MAP award winner.
